The Life Strategies Workbook: Exercises and Self-Tests to Help You Change Your Life by Phillip C. McGraw

Great Book
Eric Simmons, A reviewer, 03/13/2002

The book helped me evaluate my personal relationships and my life strategies. This is a MUST buy.

Potentially Overwhelming
Tony from New England, A reviewer, 12/20/2001

This book isn't for the person who is looking for quick and simple solutions to life's challenges. It does provide a complete and compelling paradigm for personal change, but it falls short on completing the story for the reader. For example, the book does an exceptional job at helping the reader to identify the root causes of emotional baggage and then provides tools for healing the wounds of the past. However, the final section is not enough of a springboard for future growth (at least it wasn't for me). Indeed, after reviewing all of your 'issues,' the book can become overwhelming if you have multifaceted areas for improvement. What the book needs is a chapter on how one activity can manage various issues. (Example: how enhancing spiritual development by joining a new religious organization will impact your personal relationships, physical well-being, etc.) The reader is left to develop these synergies on his or her own, and only this mitigates the overwhelming nature of the book. The 'format' of the book was not a benefit to the reader because it wasn't laid out as an actual workbook. I found myself going to the local copy center to photocopy pages or ended up typing out extra forms. I used this workbook from start to finish over a period of six moths and gave it significant effort. I would recommend it, but only if you can devote sufficient time to it.

Also recommended: Emotional Resilience; A Quaker Book of Wisdom

Opportunities for Self Improvement Beyond Life Strategies
Donald Mitchell (donmitch@irresistibleforces.com), a management consultant in Boston, 04/02/2001

I strongly urge you to get, use, and refer often to this workbook! The exercises in Life Strategies are the greatest strength of that book. The exercises in this workbook are much more numerous and more beneficial than the sum of the ones in Life Strategies. Life Strategies is one of the most valuable books on how to accomplish more in your life that has ever been written. This workbook will more than triple the benefit you will get from reading Life Strategies by focusing you on doing many more exercises to identify your limiting beliefs, and organizing action for self-improvement. As much as I like these two books, I find them deficient in the area of helping you identify your values and life's mission. Values and mission do precede strategy. For that reason, I suggest that you start with Hyman Smith's, What Matters Most, then read Life Strategies, and follow those two books with this workbook. The three build on each other nicely, as though they were written to be combined although I believe that only the latter two were coordinated in this way. Before telling you more about the workbook, let me note that none of these books is appropriate for helping those with severe psychological issues. You should get professional help. Some of this material might simply make you feel worse than you can handle, before building you toward a set of solutions. The big complaint that many people have about Life Strategies was that it had too much material in it about Oprah. Well, you'll be glad to know that the workbook is virtually an Oprah-free zone. Here is how the workbook is organized: Part I focuses on how you can find out and face the truth about yourself, and parallels the material in chapter one of Life Strategies. There are 10 exercises here including a quick self-check, writing the story of your life, looking at times when you wonder what in the world you could have been thinking, considering your family legacy, outlining emotions that trap you, considering the consequences of your behaviors, thinking about what you want to change, identifying what you want, noticing what's working, and listing the excuses you give yourself for not taking action. Part II is for learning the Ten Life Laws from Life Strategies. There is a section on each one, with each law having at least four exercises associated with it. Some have as many as six exercises. The laws are: (1) You either get it, or you don't (basic psychology of human motivation) (2) You create your own experience (by the choices you make) (3) People do what works (even bad habits serve some purpose) (4) You can't change what you don't acknowledge (Don't stick your head in the sand about your issues) (5) Life rewards action (6) There is no reality, only perception (Your interpretation of what is happening is malleable, and can be made more useful to you) (7) Life is managed, not cured (you have to deal with the hand you are dealt, even if you don't like it) (8) We teach people how to treat us (by the way we act around them) (9) There is power in forgiveness (Get over it!) (10) You have to name it to claim it (Goals focus us). Part III looks at getting ready to change and parallels the material in chapter 12 of Life Strategies, involving a diagnosis of your current situation. This was one of the most useful sections in Life Strategies to me. Part IV is on goal-setting and taking action. This parallels chapters 13 and 14 in Life Strategies. Because Life Strategies and the workbook have the same subject matters, many will perceive them as being identical. That perception is true in one way, and false in another way. In terms of the key concepts, there is no difference. In terms of the exercises, there are major differences. The workbook has about three times as many exercises and assignments as Life Strategies does. Only about 20 percent repeat Life Strategies. The exercises are designed to deepen and strengthen your improved understanding of yourself before you start changing. Many of the exercises here will peel away levels of complacent thinking that you would probably not remove in any other way. I put in the detail of the exercises above on the chapter one material to help you see the differences. Chapter one in Life Strategies has only two assignments while the workbook has ten! After you have finished reading and using these three valuable books, I encourage you to find someone who wants to improve their own life and to help them learn these materials, as well. This will deepen and broaden your understanding, while helping them. If that person is your spouse or significant other, I suggest that you also read Relationship Rescue and the workbook for that book, as well, before following my suggestion. Add yourself and others to the growing network of caring heroes who help others! Donald Mitchell, co-author of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The 2,000 Percent Solution

Also recommended: Life Strategies; Relationship Rescue; Relationship Rescue Handbook