Local author Jim Donovan for several years has been helping dozens of individuals; companies and organizations achieve their goals. His presentation tonight is sponsored by the Bucks County SIDS Alliance, a group whose founder finds Donovan inspiring.

Jim Donovan would like you to take back your life. Whatever it is that has you depressed, frustrated, overwhelmed or hopeless, Donovan, an author, motivational coach and seminar leader, believed you can overcome your circumstances to live the life you really want.

But before you dismiss the Buckingham resident as just another self-help guru doling out common sense or recycled sentimentality, he would like you to reserve judgment.

After all, common sense, says Donovan, is really not that common.

Besides, the man who has made a career spurring others on to professional and personal growth believes in the power of what he writes and speaks about simply because he has lived it.

The former alcoholic and drug addict transformed a life of misery and desperation into a life that has surpassed any dreams he ever had.

"We all go through our own pain," he says. "That’s just part of the lessons of living. But people have to know that no matter where you are in life, you can take charge, you can change and you can reclaim your life."

Donovan will share some of the principles to "reclaiming your life" in a presentation at Doylestown Hospital tonight.

Sponsored by the Bucks County SIDS Alliance, the program will cover several areas, including how to shift your beliefs to create the life you want, how to overcome any challenge, how to use the law of attraction to create your dreams and how to use your inner guidance to inspire change.

Donovan, 55, for several years has been helping dozens of individuals, companies and organizations achieve their goals. He runs his own publishing company and is the author of several books, including "Handbook to a Happier Life," "Reclaim Your Life" and "This is Your Life, Not a Dress Rehearsal."

"He is just one of the most motivating and inspiring people I’ve ever met," says Tammy Daley. "He wrote all these books from his own personal experience. You can get professional experience, but when you’re with an individual who has suffered like you and picked themselves up, that’s so much more healing than counseling."

Daley runs the Bucks County SIDS Alliance, an organization that provides grief support and education to families who have lost a child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The illness is the No. 1 cause of death for infants 1 week of age and older, claiming the lives of about 3,000 apparently healthy babies in the United States annually. It is the cause of death when all known causes have been ruled out through autopsy, investigation and a review of medical history.

Daley lost her 5-month-old son to SIDS four years ago. Although wracked with grief, she decided to channel her pain into something positive, creating the Bucks County Alliance for families here and in Montgomery and Philadelphia counties when she learned there were no support groups in the area. The alliance provides grief counseling to more than 40 families and also runs a SIDS hotline.

"Because SIDS is unexplained," says Daley, "The hard part is there’s nobody to blame. I wanted to make sure than no family went through what we went through, meaning they woke up one day and had no one to talk to and no one to give them a reason to live."

But since founding the group, Daley’s vision has grown even greater.

She is in the proves of starting a grief center called Peaceful Solutions to provide support for people dealing with any kind of loss, whether it be the death of a pet, a family member of someone involved in the September 11^th tragedies.

Donovan, whom she shared her dream with when it was nothing more than a vague idea in her head, has been instrumental in encouraging the reality.

"He takes all the complications out of things," says Daley, "and he makes them simple and gives you a step-by-step way of getting to your goal. He takes away all the craziness and the fear, so you can say, ‘Hey, there’s nothing holding me back from doing this.’"

Donovan admits he’s never taken a writing class or courses in counseling.

"I don’t have any credentials. I don’t have any Ph.D.s," he says. "But what I do have is life experience."

After his own corporate video and broadcast television business went bankrupt in 1974, he tried his hand at several jobs before eventually entering a rehab program in 1986 after his life of drinking and drugs caught up with him.

"I hated what I had become," he says, "I had no self-respect, no job, no friends, no money, no home, no spirituality. But I didn’t believe my life was a mess because I drank. I used to think I drink because my life is a mess. I had to get out of that illusion. If you can take responsibility for your life and the conditions in it, then you have the power to change."

He left rehab determined to do just that.

He immersed himself in the self-help books and tapes of others, finding strength and perspective and eventually the impetus to publicly share his own thoughts and experiences.

Today, the man who left rehab with a net worth of a $1.80 and no place to go but his parents’ home has a beautiful house in Buckingham and a job that he loves.

His books have been distributed worldwide and translated into three languages.

And his fans include a diverse audience, from Jack Canfield, co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul," to Carol Roth, a Mary Kay cosmetics executive.

"For my message to have any validity," Donovan says, "I have to have walked the talk. You have to believe you can change and get rid of your limiting beliefs. So many of us put up these walls that say, ‘for this to happen, this has to happen first,’ and then we just get stuck.

"You have to come to this place where you believe you are creating your reality and take action. Get in touch with what’s important and live your life."

Sunday, February 17, 2002 By Naila Francis, Staff Writer - Staff photo by Lawrence Kelly