By Steve Miller

Arima pound;9.99. www.arimapublishing.co.uk. ASK House, Northgate Avenue, Bury St Edmunds. IP32 6BB

It is immensely frustrating to be with someone - a family member, a colleague, a friend - who simply can’t see his or her own qualities and potential, and would rather dwell on failure and inadequacy. “For crying out loud! Don’t put yourself down all the time!” you want to scream.

The other side of the coin, of course, is that at the same time as we’re perceiving the trait in others, we might be failing to spot it in ourselves. Steve Miller’s book sets out to help us put that right, with a programme designed to raise personal motivation and self-belief. Though not aimed particularly at teachers, there’ll be those who find it helpful; teachers are notoriously poor at blowing their own trumpets.

Some of his insights are right on the nail, too. This one made me nod, for example. “Have you ever wondered why successful people achieve and continue to achieve? It has been my opinion for many years that they ‘play the movie’ of their success and power in their mind to such a degree that it becomes an automatic conditioning.”

Me, I was always playing The Blair Witch Project, constantly terrified of what was outside the tent.