How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

[Ulysses]

I've read How to Influence.. and understand why a lot of people like it. Overall, I haven't been that impressed by people who are fans of that book and associated seminars. Obviously, there are exceptions to this, but I find a certain type of person to be most attracted to these types of books and this type of person isn't usually the most free-thinking type. Just my experience w/ limited sample size.

[Ulysses]

I see what you're saying, but see my other posts. I am just not a big fan of trying to get direction on "how to think about things" from books.

[jokerthief]

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I think I may pick up Psychocybernetics. If it's bad I'm blaming you.

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You can also blame 52 reviewers on Amazon who give it an average of 5 stars.

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Not saying that is the case here, but a lot of the Amazon rating stuff is rigged. Just FYI.

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Yeah, that's a good point. It's pretty obvious who is and who isn't a shill however if you read the reviews. This book was published in 1960 and is considered a classic in the self help genre. I learned about it when I went to a convention for Financial Planners and one of the speakers, who had eight figure commission earnings for the year. He said "Powerful people read powerful books." That's what sold it for me.

[Ulysses]

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He said "Powerful people read powerful books." That's what sold it for me.

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Hahahaha. Him saying that would have had the opposite effect on me.

[TStoneMBD]

would you mind telling me why youre posting on this account? you can pm me if you want im just entirely confused and curious. you can pm me if you dont want to share your name.

[jokerthief]

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He said "Powerful people read powerful books." That's what sold it for me.

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Hahahaha. Him saying that would have had the opposite effect on me.

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Can you not see any benefit of reading good books which have edified many of brightest and most successful people in the world? I do not doubt that you are unusually wise for your age but why not learn from others who are much more experienced and bright enough to be respected by many many briliant people?

[RacersEdge]

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I'm a big fan of thinking for yourself and not depending on guys like Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins, or L. Ron Hubbard to tell you how to think.

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diablo, some smart people came up with ways to deal with worrying and in this book their ways of thinking on it are presented. i wouldn't characterize that as being told how to think. it is more about learning from other people, there is nothing wrong with that.

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This type of thing just happens to be something where I think figuring out as much of this for yourself as possible is a really positive thing.

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I disagree with this type of philosophy, because these type of books just give you some idea to think about - not really what to think. Really, that's what all books try to do. You can let them affect you as much or as little as you want.

[Ulysses]

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He said "Powerful people read powerful books." That's what sold it for me.

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Hahahaha. Him saying that would have had the opposite effect on me.

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Can you not see any benefit of reading good books which have edified many of brightest and most successful people in the world? I do not doubt that you are unusually wise for your age but why not learn from others who are much more experienced and bright enough to be respected by many many briliant people?

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I read tons of books, many of which have to do with schools of thought or ways of thinking. There is just something about many "self-help" books/systems that turn me off. I have read a number of the books in this thread, and have also done a fair amount of study regarding Scientology, Personal Power, Landmark, and all sorts of other good stuff like that.

The main point of my last response, though, was that I generally find people who say things like "Powerful people read powerful books" to be pretty silly.

[Ulysses]

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I'm a big fan of thinking for yourself and not depending on guys like Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins, or L. Ron Hubbard to tell you how to think.

[/ QUOTE ]

diablo, some smart people came up with ways to deal with worrying and in this book their ways of thinking on it are presented. i wouldn't characterize that as being told how to think. it is more about learning from other people, there is nothing wrong with that.

[/ QUOTE ]

This type of thing just happens to be something where I think figuring out as much of this for yourself as possible is a really positive thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree with this type of philosophy, because these type of books just give you some idea to think about - not really what to think. Really, that's what all books try to do. You can let them affect you as much or as little as you want.

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I don't disagree w/ you at all RE, and for that reason have read many of these books. I was specifically reacting to OP's statement:

There are a lot of ideas on how to frame things or think about things differently where your reaction will be, WHAM, "of course that's how to think about it."

Reading to get other perspectives is very healthy. Reading books to go "WHAM, THAT'S HOW I SHOULD THINK ABOUT THAT STUFF," imo, isn't.

[DarkForceRising]

I suppose nuggets of wisdom are to be found in books like this. Personal experience, however, has always resulted in nothing more than temporary high- soon again remembering that life is [censored].