Learn To Power Think: A Practical Guide to Positive and Effective Decision Making by Caterina Rando (Chronicle Books, 2002), has transformed my life. In vivid, new ways she gives us tools to create change. Some ideas are repackaged versions of gems: use a visual to personify the goal you have, and look at it every day, like sticking a picture of a book on your refrigerator if you want to go back to school. Others are unique, such as reciting a Personal Objective Word (POW) to get you inspired to make changes.

Mine is “globe pearls.” This shortcut refers to an image of myself dressed in a little black dress, wearing round pearl earrings at a cocktail party. It reminds me that I have what it takes to be outgoing, and to hold my own at social events. Speaking these words out loud before I enter a new situation motivates me to be at ease.

Rando's book is like having a portable life coach at your fingertips. In reading this slim volume, I felt energized to try and explore her exercises. She asks us to practice “self-devotion”—a proactive version of self-discipline, in which we willingly choose to do something, even if we don't feel like it, in service to ourselves.

In these five slim chapters, you'll find a lifetime of self-renewal options. The author tells us we are like murals: ever-changing. When we learn to power think, we replace negative, old perceptions with positive habits of thought that enable us to embrace our future selves. Instead of limiting ourselves, we create expansive thinking that allows us to overcome our fears by taking risks to do new things we never thought we were capable of doing.

One exercise she gives involves shifting your perceptions to try out a new behavior. I can't cook. That is, cooking is not something I like to do, nor do I believe I'll ever be Julia Child. The thought of trying to cook instilled more terror in me than the actual activity. On the back cover of this book, the words “change your thinking, change your life” were an inspiration.

I decided to make pasta sauce. My friend, who is Sri Lankan and spent her 20s living in Rome , has told me, “You're Italian, you should learn to make sauce.” I have an impossible role-model: my mother, who could've opened up a restaurant, is an experienced cook. Her sauce involves chemistry, and hours simmering on the stove.

In a serendipitous way, a patron came into the library where I work, looking for a cookbook. We were talking, and he chided me, saying that to make a good sauce, it took a few minutes and three ingredients: “First, dice a clove of garlic. Then heat three tablespoons of olive oil; extra virgin is best. Sauté the garlic in the oil, then add to it plum tomatoes from a can, and cook for 10-15 minutes.”

The next day, I stopped at Picardi's to get the ingredients. It was simple and the sauce turned out delicious! A poet once told me, “The appetite comes with the eating.” Reading Learn to Power Think revved up my metabolism to try new things, and it got me out of my comfort zone.

Sometimes, it's hard to know what a self-limiting thought is and what you hear in your head because of the illness. I understood that a lot of the daily chatter which ran through my head could be ignored or at least not given power over me. Whatever the cause of self-doubt, I decided I had options as to how I responded to it.

I suggest you read Learn to Power Think . Do one thing each day to boost your confidence to make changes in your life. Bon appetite!