Okay, I know it has a rather rude title - but it is a VERY good book! Reading it certainly lit a fire under my butt when I read it.
And in my humble opinion, the best proof of the effectiveness of a self-help book is the change it actually leads to in one's life.
It is one thing to read self-help books; it is quite another to implement the advice offered.
Reading is passive; change is active.
I'm not quite sure why the book, Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get A Life, by Larry Winget, resonated with me so strongly when it did - but whatever the reason, the author's candour seemed to have...
dislodged something in my psyche.
Perhaps when one is ready to hear the truth, uncomfortable as that may be, one is more open to hearing it from a stranger than a loved one? At any rate, reading this line in Larry's book hit me to the core: "The problem is never a lack of time.
The problem is poorly defined priorities.
" - Larry Winget Lack of time, I am finally realizing, is simply an excuse.
Here's another gem: "What you think about, talk about and do something about is what comes about.
" - Larry Winget Obvious, yes.
But here's the thing: when I stopped and really thought about it, I realized that when it came to an issue I supposedly care deeply about, such as climate change, I had to admit that I have been very strong in the 'thinking about' and 'talking about' part of the equation - but the 'doing something about' part, not so much.
And here's a nugget that speaks to the higher purpose of our lives: "People who understand that their purpose is service to others live lives of abundance.
Those who do not just live their lives.
" - Larry Winget I took nine pages of notes while reading Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life.
This, in and of itself, is nothing new for me.
Doing something constructive with said notes is what needed improvement.
"When you stop letting things slide and start taking advantage of every moment then amazing things happen.
The little stuff matters most.
Everyone gets the big stuff.
Very few take care of the little stuff.
" - Larry Winget I am a chronic note-taker.
I love writing stuff down.
I have neat little piles of scrap paper stored at various strategic locations throughout my home, so that whenever an idea comes to mind (which is frighteningly often) for say, a blog topic, I can quickly jot it down it so I won't forget.
Then I file it away in its respective folder and carry on with my day.
Now the astute reader may recognize a wee problem brewing with this system.
Yes, that's right: I have enough brilliant ideas scrawled on scraps of paper to sink a battleship.
I have a filing system that is so elaborate, the White House would be impressed.
Idea-generating and record-keeping are not a problem; getting my ideas to market in a timely manner is where I struggle.
I tend to spend so much time on the big stuff - which for me is my larger writing projects such as books, screenplays and play scripts - that I've missed countless opportunities to write and post smaller, informative blogs that will help me reach the very audience I wish to eventually reach with my larger projects.
Although this is due to a variety of excuses - ignorance, lousy time management, disorganization, procrastination, poor prioritizing and so on - in the end it doesn't matter.
What matters is that I identify the problem and figure out a way to correct it.
So I did just that by taking Larry's suggestion to start to take better care of the little work-stuff, which for me meant making time to write short, useful blogs on all sorts of different subject matters - and post them and get them sent out through social media.
What a concept! Of course, Larry was right: amazing things started to happen.
I began reaching significantly more readers as well as forming strategic partnerships with like-minded people.
"The problem is never that we do not know, it is always that we do not DO what we already know.
" - Larry Winget If I didn't think I would ever actually use the hundreds of blog ideas I so diligently wrote down on slips of paper, then I highly doubt I would've written them down in the first place.
I just didn't know how to start using them...
I was overwhelmed.
And rightly so.
Because I can't write fifty blogs in a week, so as to make a dent in the pile.
But I can write one or two.
That's what I love so much about a book such as Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life: it is chock full of suggestions that we already know are true - we might just need a kick-in-the pants friendly reminder...
when the timing is right for us to actually hear the message.
In closing, one of my favourite tidbits of wisdom from the book was this: "Do what you say you are going to do, when you said you were going to do it, in the way you said you were going to do it.
No excuses.
" - Larry Winget I have thought a great deal about this and I guess what it boils down to is being impeccable with our word...
living up to our promises.
Sometimes this is difficult to do because circumstances change and unexpected things happen.
But I do think that if we can strive to do our very best to honour the commitments we have made - both to ourselves and to others - it really does help make for a life of integrity.