Product Description

Take a good hard look at your life. Are there things you are unhappy with? Your life is your responsiblity; the choices you made yesterday brought about the life you have today. If you don't like what you have, then get ready to act and move on. Life Strategies gives powerful, straightforward advice on shaping your life and tells you how to make dramatic changes. Whether it's a bad relationship, a dead-end career, or a harmful habit, Dr McGraw helps you wake up and get out of your rut. It is never too late to take charge of, and be responsible for, your life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20879 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Dr. Philip McGraw holds a B.A. from Midwestern State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from North Texas State University with a dual area of emphasis in clinical and behavioral medicine. He is the author of six New York Times bestsellers including Life Strategies and Relationship Rescue and his books have been published in 39 languages. He hosts a hugely successful US talk show 'Dr Phil', where he helps guests solve their problems by stripping away their emotional clutter, and providing them with the tools they need to move confidently ahead in their lives. Visit his website www.drphil.com

Customer Reviews

True way to an honest and satisfying life
What a book! I have read many self-help publications in my life in an effort to improve my understanding of human characteristics to enable me interact with others in such a way to minimise friction.
I studied eastern philosophy,many spiritual books and quite a few on psychology. To be honest I found and learnt much of interest from the majority of these books, but too often the advice and suggestions given missed the point which is that it was me who needed to change most of all.
Dr Phil leaves the reader in doubt that until you look at the way you operate in the world and change your attitude, then you are most likely to continually misdiagnose the problem which confronts you and never obtain a satisfactory solution.
In short, each of us must take responsibilty for our own lives no matter what type of childhood or parents we had. Too many of us continually blame others for the adverse things that occur to us instead of looking critically of the part we played ourselves.
I have read several books that tell you that it's all part of God's plan and everything that happens to us is pre-ordained. Rubbish. It might be part of God's plan that we mature as humans through the traumas and challenges we experience, but the way we react is definately down to us.
One of the saddest sights is seeing an elderly person still not taking responsibility for their own actions. Our society to some extent helps us in this thinking in that there appears always to be somebody there to 'hold our hands' when things go wrong. It gets you into an unhelpful mindset.
I wish that I had know the contents of this book years ago. I did not, but do now - no excuses from now on! I would also recommend to readers another book that expands in more detail other aspects of human natue which I found helpful and that is Robert Greens's 48 Laws of Power.
Get both these books, read them and apply. You will then be operating from the only truly base that matters and that is YOU!
The only reason I awarded this book 4 stars and not the maximum 5 is because it starts off with a lot of talk on Oprah Winfrey that I personally found mostly irrelevant and boring. Get past that bit and be prepared to have your eyes opened.

Great Self-Assessment Exercises and Planning Instructions
I must admit that I like to use self-assessment tools to find out what I am taking for granted, and ignoring. Complacency is a terrible foe! I found the exercises in this book to be the best that I have ever used. If you have read a lot of self-help books, you can skip right through to the exercises.

If you haven't read many personal self-help books, be sure to read his ideas first before doing the exercises. Basically, Dr. McGraw is pointing out that we become victims when we stop making conscious choices. He helps us surface those areas where we are operating on automatic pilot, and helps us to take the controls again, consciously.

I think that this book is one that everyone would benefit from, who wants to improve their own situation. If you feel particularly weighted down by failure in your own eyes, I also suggest you read Failing Forward. My review of that book will tell you how to find self-assessment exercises for that book, as well.

If you want to improve how other people perform, however, that is beyond the scope of this book. You'll have to look elsewhere. If you have read nothing on the subject, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The One Minute Manager will be good starting points.

I found Dr. McGraw's beliefs to match my own very closely, which is why I liked the book so much -- even the parts that paralleled things I knew already. If you skip the exercises, though, you will have made a serious error. That's probably 98% of the benefit of this book.

I first read the book four years ago, and keep the results of the exercises in a place where I can review them daily to help me stay focused on the changes I need to make.

If you like this book, be sure to also read, use and think about the questions in The Life Strategies Workbook.

A self-help book to stick with
Phillip McGraw sounds like a scary kind of guy, a half-lawyer, half-therapist who you'd be mad to cross.

So if you've tried to read books by life coaches like Fiona Harrold you might be expecting the kind of smug hectoring which makes me, at least, leave counselling books half-read.

Instead McGraw comes up with some clear rules that govern how we fail to live up to our own expectations, and if you've spent any time thinking about the ways your life has gone wrong you may feel a sense of deep familiarity with some of the things he points out.

One thing I would be critical of is McGraw's emphasis on life as a competition that you can win or lose, yes he's trying to boost the reader's desire to act to change, but that just doesn't seem healthy to me. No, you can't always get what you want - but you can know you did your best and keep your life aims fluid without giving up on them.