According to Joel Osteen, “What follows the ‘I Am’ will eventually find you”. This is the guiding principle that Osteen explores in his book from Hachette Book Group entitled The Power of I Am (2015). Topping out at just over 250 pages, Osteen offers his take on how the power of the spoken word can improve the readers’ lives. For his millions of devoted followers, Osteen’s book will be sure to please. However, for many the book may feel to be repetitive and lacking depth.
In this book, Osteen instructs the reader to speak the right “I Am”s to harness the power of God to discover unique abilities and advantages, build self-assurance and invite blessings into their lives. The author begins with a three chapter overview of how the “The Power of I Am” works using many anecdotal stories, bible verses and personal experiences to illustrate the concepts. Over the remaining sixteen chapters, Osteen discusses how to apply the “The Power of I Am” method to cultivate self-worth and prosperity. By taking one desired quality per chapter, the author allots a generous amount of the book relating to the readers struggles, demonstrating success through examples and offering recommendation. This approach is effective in driving home the concepts of “The Power of I Am” but may feel repetitive for some readers.
As someone who is a self-help veteran, I don’t feel like I learned anything new from this book. The concept of how you talk to yourself being a driver of your well being is a well worn self-help concept. The novelty of Osteen’s perspective is that God’s power is activated when you speak the desired outcome aloud. He relies heavily on God and the major change agent for the readers. Although this was expected, I was still disappointed that he didn’t offer more actionable habits for his readers to adopt. In the long run I don’t see this contributing to the well being of even Osteen’s most strident supporters. However, I must acknowledge that I do enjoy speak my goals aloud. I can’t say for sure that God is acting at my command but I find the process of articulating what I want to be valuable.
Overall, I have mixed feelings on this book. For its intended audience, the millions of Joel Osteen fans, this book is a sure recommendation. It will be especially valuable for someone struggling with their self esteem and isn’t turned off by the lack of scientific explanation on how the method works. However, I don’t see this book as appealing to the average self help reader.