Now That the Candy's Gone
Mastering the Art of Self-Confidence
Personalized but sensible, the self-help book Now That the Candy’s Gone shares tested strategies for defeating self-limiting beliefs in order to succeed.
Drawing on personal experiences, Caterina Perry’s actionable self-help guide Now That the Candy’s Gone concerns leveraging one’s personal strengths to hurdle obstacles.
After Perry’s family immigrated to Canada from Italy, she struggled to fit in at school. Negative comments from teachers about her performance conditioned her to believe that she could never be successful. But, Perry says, she learned how to overcome such barriers—and, by understanding human behavior, she argues, others can triumph over their own limitations too. Her book emphasizes ideas such as that people’s perceptions can be flawed, that fear can become a hindrance to personal growth, that setting an objective and taking the first step toward it is important, and that the confidence is needed to explore one’s personal talents and capacity.
Illustrative anecdotes and customizable exercises arise throughout. There’s an account in which Perry uses candy to win friends in school but suffers once the candy runs out; this story is used to show the importance of authenticity in establishing one’s friendships. Perry also discusses her training experiences with the Canadian Armed Forces to highlight the importance of determination, persistence, creating meaningful relationships, and embracing failure while working toward success. And the exercises include using repetition to reprogram one’s mind and rebuild one’s self-image; a step-by-step approach to getting one’s dream job; and methods for building emotional intelligence, including reflecting before reacting. They complement the book’s encouraging, assertive tone, which bolsters maxims such as that each person is unique and has special gifts and potential.
But some of the book is personal to excess, as with its black-and-white photographs of the locations, people, and moments mentioned: there’s a picture of Perry leaving for military training and another of her grandparents’ house in Sicily. Of more general use are the book’s diagrams of concepts, as with one that depicts different personality types and another that compares the subconscious and conscious minds. Further, some of the book’s sections are too broad, covering topics like human psychology and behavior, social interactions, career strategies, and business-building techniques in a short space and without sufficient depth.
Based on the precept that humans have unlimited potential, the self-help book Now That the Candy’s Gone shares tested strategies for defeating self-limiting beliefs in order to succeed.
Reviewed by
Edith Wairimu
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
