Product Description

Don't let fear hold you back from achieving everything you want to - let Geoff Thompson, author of "Watch My Back" and "The Elephant and the Twig", show you how to make fear your friend. Once a doorman at some of Britain's roughest nightclubs and now a world-renowned martial artist, Geoff has had more to be frightened of than most. Here he shares his secrets for overcoming your fears to help you live life to the max. From spiders to public speaking, job interviews to physical conflict, Geoff takes you through proven techniques of combating whatever it is you're afraid of. This work helps you to: understand your physical reactions to fear and how they can be used to your advantage; overcome the negative feelings that make you think you can't succeed; and, learn methods to defeat your fears with Geoff's unique Fear Pyramid system.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29531 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 260 pages

Review
"'...highly readable and engaging...genuinely inspiring... refreshingly down to earth, peppered with humour and humility.' The Big Issue"

About the Author
Geoff Thompson, author of the Sunday Times bestseller Watch My Back, is one of Britain's leading martial artists and the author of 25 books on martial arts and motivational self-help. He conducts workshops to encourage others to take control of their fears and harness their talents. His books have been published worldwide and many are available on DVD. * Ray Winstone executive produced his second short film, Brown Paper Bag, which won a BAFTA in 2004 for Best Short Film. * Watch My Back, which inspired the feature film Clubbed is in development and due to be released in 2007.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding to read, a suprising experience
When you pick up this book, you expect fear to be the most frightening of all things. Like standing in the street being threatend. Well Geoff has a unique gift of putting fear into a different context. A fear of success is one but a few. The actual succession of what you wish to complete is fear of leaving people behing in your life. Geoff opens your eyes into the outside world, and the only way to succeed fear, is to face fear. What a brilliant read.

Fear: The Friend of Exceptional People
Another practical common sense book by Geoff!
This book will highlight, in simple terms, why we get 'the fear', how we can can control it and use it to advance ourselves. This is not just a martial artist's book! It has good solid advice and ideas, that you can apply to other areas of every day life. I have you used it to help me progress, from being apprehensive of talking to strangers, to being able to give a talk in public.
This is a really good book to read, if your like the rest of us and have a fear you want to tackle.

Simple, but effective
As a massive sceptic of self-help books, I was wary about reading this title, but persevered on recommendation by a friend. Also, I made the assumption that I would not be able to relate to Geoff's experiences, given that we come from such different backgrounds and I have no interest in martial arts.

Having finished the book and implemented some of the suggestions, I am glad of my friends recommendation and my perseverance. Geoff's book is straightforward, straight-talking and effective. His message is simple and doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know deep down, but his delivery and positivity make for an inspirational read. He outlines his perspective of fear and describes the basic principles for managing fear well. He goes on to relate the principles to real-life examples and sets out clear guidelines for the reader to map out a plan to tackle their own fears.

Geoff uses his own experiences as examples, which is great for clarifying his point, but can seem as though he is beating his own drum. The only other drawback I have found is the examples are largely related to confrontational and martial arts experiences. While the techniques are transferable to other fears i.e. relationships, life-style changes and approaching strangers, I feel it would have been better to include more diverse examples to assist the reader.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking to tackle their fears, or even looking for some inspirational reading.