REVIEW: Jeanne Collins — Two Feet In: Lessons from an All-in Life (BOOK)

Jeanne Collins’ most admirable trait, amidst many to me, is her ability to admit her humanity. Her fallibility. Her sense of vulnerability. All these things making up critical components and stepping stones to her life and professional philosophies. She essentially admits this in a core section of her new book showcasing this, titled Two Feet In: Lessons from an All-in Life. “(My) philosophy was not formulated overnight,” Collins writes. “I’ve faced many changes in my life: divorce, romantic struggles, motherhood, and a professional career that has drastically shifted not just once, but twice.

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With each passing year, I became more and more myself, refining and reshaping based on the lessons that just wouldn’t stop coming my way. Building a life is not something one does with a wandering mind or insecure fears. While it can be nice to daydream, our lives can only be created with real commitment. Hence: feet, two of them in particular, should be planted firmly in the world in which we want to live. I don’t mean to make this sound easy. It took me decades to take command as the designer of my life.”

This sense of humanism is reflected in the deeply personal passages about Collins’ own life experience. Like any great writer, she’s able to use these passages both to convey a compelling, memoirist’s narrative about the odysseys of her own life, while simultaneously connecting the dots to the lessons she has learned and insights she has gained, making up the spine and crux of the book as a whole.

There’s never a sense of lecturing or soliloquizing the points Collins stands by, these come from hard-earned lessons and genuine life experiences. True to this form, Collins states: “Our tools are not just hammers, nails, paint, tiles — but chosen family, love, self-care, and wellness. From this, we can build lives we never imagined possible. I finally have my fabled ‘house on the hill,’ but it started out looking like a rather patchy piece of empty land. That’s how all things look in the beginning, though, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Just flip your mindset and emptiness becomes pure, glowing potential. Use your imagination. Take two big steps back into your life. Close your eyes and see the finished product. After that? It’s time to get to work.”

She also writes, “Building a life is not something one does with a wandering mind or insecure fears. While it can be nice to daydream, our lives can only be created with real commitment. Hence: feet, two of them in particular, should be planted firmly in the world in which we want to live. I don’t mean to make this sound easy. It took me decades to take command as the designer of my life… The world extends outward, from our minds to the space around us. Life is a four-dimensional object, with time included.

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/TWO-FEET-LESSONS-ALL-LIFE/dp/B0CCCXMW5P

We can map the territory and plot the land. Our lives are homes we build for ourselves and those we love. How we feel about ourselves affects how we feel about our surroundings. We must consciously cultivate our internal and external worlds to reflect not just who we want to become — but who we truly are. This is the work of a lifetime…”

Colin Jordan