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Life Strategies: Doing What Works Doing What
Matters
He goes on to recommend creating your own journal for the "homework". Wish I had known that. It really is a workbook and needs to be used as such. Assignments are scattered in italics throughout the book and are difficult to find when you want to refer back to them. Even a few of the assignments were familiar to me and would have been worth completing again if I was in the mood to use it as a workbook. Because I didn’t, I really can’t remember the "lessons learnt". There is a separate chapter on each Life Law and further discussions on the necessary strategies to live by them. Many I knew, either through other readings or instinctively. However, Life Strategies puts it all together in a systematic approach and makes sure some of the key steps aren't missed. The Life Laws are:
I think that this would make a great 12-week night course. Assignment 10 relating to Life Law 10 is about identifying and naming your "limiting beliefs". I have always found this to be a powerful exercise that is often found earlier in these types of "motivating books". You will see similar exercises in the works of Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins and Louise L. Hay. Here's a good example of the type of "homework" you can expect if you want to get the most out of Life Strategies. "Assignment #6: Let’s call time out and deal with the specifics of your life. I’m going to ask you to open your confidential journal and write a list of the five most frustrating and persistent negative behavioral patterns or situations in your life. Be thorough in your description of each. For each one, identify the specific behavior; describe the pattern; and try to put in words the degree of its intensity. Then write down two or three sentences explaining why you find this behavior or situations negative. Next comes the hard part: For each of the five, make your best effort to analyze, identify, and write down the payoff that is feeding and maintaining this negative behavioral pattern." It depends on "where you are at" in your journey as to whether Life Strategies is a book for you. I do think it serves a valuable purpose, but the timing wasn’t right for me. If you don’t plan on spending the time on most of the assignments, then maybe you should pass. I am glad I read it and suspect that I will refer back to it on various future occasions. N.B. If you are like me, you may be tempted sometimes to skip the preface or introduction of a book. Over the years I have come to fine these sections often hold some unexpected gem. This is one of those times. McGraw’s first hand perceptive on the Oprah Winfrey’s encounter with the beef barons of Texas gives an insight that we were not privy to at the time.
Remember how I thought this would make a great 12 week course - kind of like a 12 step program? McGraw has written The Life Strategies Workbook to go along with the text. I don't think that you have to have first book, but he does asked you to read certain chapters before doing the various sections in the workbook. For those of you who are serious about making some significant life changes and work to becoming your true self, this is a great beginning.
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©
Ward-Green
& Hill Associates Ltd. ~ 877 . 323 . 9137
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This
is not a straight forward textbook on living. It isn’t until page
19, just before the first of 18 lengthy assignments, that the author
of the book McGraw states: "Reading this book is not intended
to be a passive experience. As you progress through it, you will see
that it is interactive: the key principles in later chapters rely on
themes developed in the earlier ones, and all of it call on you to
play an active role."
