How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

[jokerthief]

I guess you're right. Looking at it now it really was an arrogant [censored] remark. At the time I was a fresh under the collar financial planner in awe of the commission leader within our marketing association. Then I got the book and it was great and the remark stuck in my mind as a good quip.

Along these lines you might apreciate this. This was a seminar of FP's who are associated with the same marketing company. We all pay this company thousands and some tens of thousands of dollars every month to set us up with people for our seminars. The CEO of the marketing company was also a FP and many of the people at the seminar treated him like a god. It was very sad. One of the guys bought him a 30,000 rolex watch another bought him a classic corvette. We are making this guy tens of millions of dollars a year through marketing costs and commisions he gets off our sales and some donks buy him these extravagent gifts on top of it.

[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.

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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.

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I see. I'm not a fan of brainwashing either. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[clambunny]

okay diablo here is another thought, what do you think of this one... i took a test in high school that said i was concrete sequential, my friend took the same test and he is a abstract random. when we talk about things this becomes very apparent, he is a philosophy major always talking about things in those terms and i'm always trying to bring it down to real world examples and extrapolate from those specific examples. he said that i'm not as creative a thinker as him. i think maybe this is true, i'm most comfortable learning other peoples thoughts and going from there.

[Ulysses]

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i'm most comfortable learning other peoples thoughts and going from there.

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I think you would gain a lot from challenging yourself to go beyond this.

[Overdrive]

or just do like the ancient sage said and: "Eat, drink, and be merry. For tommorrow we die."

It works. And quicker than reading a whole book....

[jokerthief]

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or just do like the ancient sage said and: "Eat, drink, and be merry. For tommorrow we die."

It works. And quicker than reading a whole book....

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That's the bible you are quoting sort of. That is advice that Solomon gives nonbelievers because after this life they haven't much to look forward for. It's really a melancholy axiom. However, I thik it's pretty good advice for everyone with one caveot: just don't drink to the point where you need it. Also, listen to tripping billies, DMB. Good song.

[Matt Flynn]

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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.

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I took the Dale Carnegie course in human relations and public speaking on scholarship in early high school and found the crib sheet "golden book" or whatever it was called to be the most useful aspect. In retrospect some of the advice is ridiculously straightforward, but then the package proved quite useful. The seminar overall was less so. I was a bit put off by the whole how-to-remember-names crap. Carnegie was gifted at it and like a great many people with gifts preferred to think of it as a skill instead of a talent, rendering himself virtuous instead of blessed or lucky.

I have listened to a couple Anthony Robbins tapes and found them annoying and unhelpful, although I was amused by "It helps to arrive at your problems in a limousine."

Self-help books can be divided into naval-gazing and useful concrete information / strategies /etc. The naval-gazing books are more plentiful and give the whole thing a bad rap. The best self-help book I have read was Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. I still suck at negotiation, but I suck a lot less.

[MyTurn2Raise]

I'm a huge fan of John Maxwell, though I'm athiest...go figure.

His books are great for working with others, getting the most out of others, and getting the most out of yourself.
My favorite is "Failing Forward." The "21 Laws of Leadership" was also excellent.

I read a self-help book every other week or so. At the very least, it gives me material to use to inflate the self-esteem of lonely college freshman girls.

[jokerthief]

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I'm a huge fan of John Maxwell, though I'm athiest...go figure.

His books are great for working with others, getting the most out of others, and getting the most out of yourself.
My favorite is "Failing Forward." The "21 Laws of Leadership" was also excellent.

I read a self-help book every other week or so. At the very least, it gives me material to use to inflate the self-esteem of lonely college freshman girls.

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What? What does John Maxwell have to do with this thread? Please elucidate.

[TheWorstPlayer]

Getting Past No was also quite good. I don't suck at negotiating and never really did but I improved a lot from reading those two books in a negotiation class.