Life
Strategies: Doing What Works, Doing What Matters
by Phillip C. McGraw, Ph.D.
 Do You Know the Ten Laws of Life?
Life Law #1: You either get it, or you don't.
Strategy: Become one of those who gets it.
Life Law #2: You create your own experience.
Strategy: Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life.
Life Law #3: People do what works.
Strategy: Identify the payoffs that drive your behavior and that of others.
Life Law #4: You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.
Strategy: Get real with yourself about your life and everybody in it.
Life Law #5: Life rewards action.
Strategy: Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger.
Life Law #6: There is no reality; only perception.
Strategy: Identify the filters through which you view the world.
Life Law #7: Life is managed; it is not cured.
Strategy: Learn to take charge of your life.
Life Law #8: We teach people how to treat us.
Strategy: Own, rather than complain, about how people treat you.
Life Law #9: There is power in forgiveness.
Strategy: Open your eyes to what anger and resentment are doing to you.
Life Law #10: You have to name it before you can claim it.
Strategy: Get clear about what you want and take your turn.
Comments
This is one of my top ten all-time favorite books and a gem on par (maybe even better)
than Stephen Covey's Seven Habits. Dr. McGraw offers straight-shooting advice in
this book that will work if applied in one's life.
There isn't any deep psycho-babble. As Dr. McGraw says, "Get real."
Among personal development and self-help books, this is as real - and as good - as I've
found.
Purchase now: click here.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Some people spend their lives reacting to what life hands them, while others craft life to
fit their goals. Author Phillip C. McGraw, who is a psychologist but describes himself as
a strategist, is determined to make sure that his readers are the creators of their
lives, not created by their lives. By accepting that you are personally accountable
for every element of your life, McGraw says, you can erase the negative "epidemic
behaviors" (found in all of American society: denial, false assumptions, inertia,
deceptive masking) in your life and reach your goals.
Written in a tough-love, sometimes cantankerous tone, this
self-help book is not for those looking to explore their inner child or visualize away
negative energy. No, this is pull-yourself-up-by-the- bootstraps advice from someone who's
done just that. McGraw opens with a scene describing how he helped Oprah Winfrey
survive--and win--the 1998 "Mad Cow" lawsuit in Texas, when she was having
difficulty coping with the reality of what was happening to her. He helped her face the
facts about the lawsuit, after which she was better able to participate in crafting a
strategy to win it.
McGraw first forces you to take a good hard look at who you
are by dissecting your personality. It may be painful to realize that you fall into the
"Porcupine" or "Perfecto" or any of the other personality types McGraw
delineates, but here it's true that there's no gain without pain, because (Life Law No. 4)
"You Can't Change What You Don't Acknowledge." He then describes in depth all 10
"Life Laws"--the rules by which the world plays--that he learned the hard way.
Laws such as "You Either Get It, or You Don't," "Life Is Managed; It Is Not
Cured," and "You Have to Name It to Claim It" make up the bulk of the book
and McGraw's realist philosophy.
If you learn and abide by the Life Laws and go on to create
a Life Strategy, McGraw claims you will not only know yourself better and eliminate
negative behaviors, you will also know how to reach any goal you set for yourself. --Stefanie
Durbin --This text refers to the Hardcover
edition. |
[leftmenu.htm]
