“Must: Becoming the Person You Are Meant to Be” by Stephen Rue

Must: Becoming the Person You Are Meant to Be

Stephen Rue   
Houndstooth Press (2025)
ISBN: 978-1544548265
Reviewed by Ada Jenkins for Reader Views (01/2026)

Have you ever felt as if you’re not living up to your full potential? I know I have! What intrigued me about Must: Becoming the Person You Are Meant to Be by Stephen Rue is that this all-encompassing self-help guide aims to provide a framework that unlocks your true potential through a process of self-growth and inner transformation.

 I liked the way the author included his own struggles with past trauma and personal tragedy from a first-person point of view. This, for me, made the book more real in a way, allowing me to relate to his life experiences. An example of this is when he recalls having an emotional reaction to seeing his parents’ divorce records: the digital image of the yellowed, faded, typed pages unexpectedly stung.

I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that many of the descriptions throughout the text draw on the five senses, making for evocative reading. One of my favorite examples is this metaphor in chapter two, which explains in a literary manner how early life experiences shape our beliefs:

Our young brains are developing, and the fertilizer in our mental greenhouse determines whether we have a positive mindset, like a cascading cluster of purple wisteria blooms, or a fixed mindset, like limiting invasive, smothering kudzu vines.

I think that making the language rich in imagery helped me to feel even more engaged with the book’s core ideas and concepts.

The practical strategies are easy to implement, which was a bonus! I found chapter twelve particularly helpful, as it deals with time management and productivity. Now, I’ll freely admit that I can sometimes struggle to manage my time. I tend to spend too much time on something, only to neglect another task down the line because I’ve lost track of the time. Time blocking, I discovered, is a technique where you separate your day into segments of time, each dedicated to one specific task. I tried using this time management technique to help my son with his homework more regularly by scheduling twenty minutes at the same time every evening for it. This worked a treat! Now, I feel as if I’m able to support him with his schoolwork on a more regular basis. Result!

Another aspect of this guide that I liked was the inclusion of the author’s clients’ experiences. For instance, in chapter three, he demonstrates the benefits of journaling through John’s experience. By keeping a work journal, John gradually began to notice that feelings of self-doubt cropped up after work meetings. This led to the realization that he had a core belief that his colleagues did not respect him, which stemmed from past experiences. This story got me thinking, as clearly, insights can only be reached by looking back at your journal entries, which is something I hadn’t considered until now.

For me, what made Must: Becoming the Person You Are Meant to Be a valuable self-help guide was the fact that it made me re-evaluate my values, while also offering helpful practical strategies to improve my approach to life’s many challenges. Highly recommended!