Customer Reviews

DISCIPLINE : TRAINING THE MIND TO MANAGE YOUR LIFE

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Lots of "rah rah" palaver about the value of self-discipline with almost nothing about how to acquire it. The book is stuffed with quotations from famous dead people and the authors of other self-help books, making you wonder if the authors of this book have ever read anything other than self-help books and Bartlett's Familar Quotations. The one useful idea that I got from the book is that most people can get by on less sleep than they think. The authors don't tell you how to do it, but they're probably right. The authors are rather boastful about their own self-discipline but are unable to share that success with their readers in any useful way. You could tear out every other page and, aside from transition problems, never notice their absence.
I bought another book on self-discipline at the same time as this one. The second, Self-Discipline in 10 Days, was excellent. It included practical, step-by-step, how-to-do-it information. There were almost no quotes or success stories.

If you are looking for a how-to discipline book, this isn't it. If I could give it 0 stars, I would.

If you're looking for a quote book with little blurbs about how great the quotes are and how true they are, maybe it's worth while. Oh, and there is a time managment schedule that you could create on your own. There are also stories about the authors' childhoods and tales about how disciplined and great they are. The recommendation that blew me away though, was the recommendation that you get as little as 4 hours of sleep in order to have more time in your day. Unless you're over sleeping, sleep isn't exactly a time waster, though the authors appear to think so.

There is almost nothing in here about techniques to help yourself achieve discipline. The title is completely misleading. The book is a complete waste of money. The authors seem to think they were born with their spectacular discipline, so they are not the ones to help others learn it.

This book may have some time-saving ideas for some, but they are pretty intuitive - don't waste time watching TV, bring things to do when you commute on public transportation or wait at the doctor's office.

Now reading the other comments about this being a self-published book, I understand why I thought the editing was horrible. The book is rife with grammatical errors - sentences with plural subjects and single verbs, a complete lack of commas in sentences that need them, incorrect use of possessives ("as the year's go by"). Perhaps the authors should use their self-proclaimed discipline to learn grammar.

This product has many fake 5-star reviews, and people who give low reviews are attacked by name.

This is not surprising for a SELF-PUBLISHED book - no legitimate company would resort to the marketing scam tactics outlined below. This book is from Author House, the world's leading self-publisher. And I certainly wouldn't take self-help advice from a con artist who can't even get a book deal.

Some things to watch for regarding the reviews of this book:

1) If you write a bad review, the authors will load more fake 5-star reviews (sometimes attacking you by name) until you're no longer on page 1.

2) Most 5-star reviewers have written only 1 review - ever. It's for for this book, and it's a one sentence review.

3) Most other 5-star reviewers have written only 2 reviews, the other review being for the author's one and only other self-help book. That review is also 5-stars, and the exact same VERBATIM.

4) The "different" reviewers also write in a similar manner and give life anecdotes that are uncannily similar.

5) Of the more than 100 5-star reviews, only a few have an Amazon "real name" badge.

Shame on the authors. I've reported them to Amazon, and they are investigating.

In the mean time, I suggest the reader seek books from legitimate publishing houses. Or if you want honest feedback on this book, try sorting by the lowest-rated review first.

Not only do the authors rant on and on about the demise of discipline in our society, they write as if they were still in junior high! There were lots of little suggestions about what the authors do to be disciplined but they apparently grew up this way and have no idea how to explain this to others who've been less than disciplined most of their lives. I also didn't like the bashing of the undisciplined; I thought the authors' mission was to teach discipline - they sure don't think much of people who don't have it. Overall, a poorly written, negative, repetitive, uninformative book. Just goes to show that anyone can start their own publishing company in order to publish their own propaganda! And a tree was killed for this! After reading the titles of the positive reviews, it is pretty evident they are marketing ploys - they sound like the ones you find inside front covers (written by people who are requested to come up with something to say)!

I am absolutely SHOCKED at how many positive reviews this book has received! It just goes to show you that Amazon cannot be fully trusted. These reviews are FAKE! I've bought the book, started reading it, but it was so bad that I just couldn't finish it.
A little about some of the books I've read on this subject, "Kiss Guide To Organizing Your Life", "The Now Habit", "Getting Things Done" by Allen, "Attitude Is Everything", "Total Self Discipline In Ten Days", "Time Management For Dummies", and another time management book that I can't remember the title to.
Of all of these books that I've read, this one is the absolute WORST! The best one's were "KISS Guide To Organizing Your LIfe", "The Now Habit" and "Getting Things Done". In that order.
Another book that was bad, but not as bad as this one, was "Total Self Discipline In Ten Days". I read it and really tried what it said and it just didn't work. "Attitude Is Everything" was also one of those books that was so nonsensical and full of self help fluff (the universe loves you ...) type nonsense that I couldn't finish that one as well.

Good News: Here is a book that promises to help me deal with my lifelong problem with self-discipline, written by a man who is so full of energy he's practically bouncing in front of the conference room as he gave his talk.

Bad News: It takes discipline to actually finish a book that does not drive you with a storyline etc. So I've taken nearly three months to read it.

Good News: The book is written by two highly motivated people, who know what they are talking about and who actually do it. They show me it can be done, and how they do it.

Bad News: The writing style can be improved, and the editing also. Punctuation is often missing, cliches abound, the book organisation is hard to discern. The book essentially reads like the author(s) are jumping up and down in front of an audience, exhorting them on, and typed out word for word. Not the best written book I've read, and the problems with the editing are quite distracting.

Good News: The authors' intent and ideas do show through the book despite the writing style. Looking past the prose, one sees two highly charged individuals who are doing something right, and makes you want to be just like that as well, charging out there and changing the world.

Bad News: They cannot show me how *I* can do it. It's so easy to say you want to, to plan elaborate schedules, to buy snazzy PDAs etc, but get nothing done for all that effort.

Good News (which was actually Bad News): My age is finally catching up and I discover that I am borderline hypertensive. I finally decide to get my exercise in order, and found that I strangely had the motivation (this time) to get started and keep going. I am now in my fourth week of (relatively) consistent exercise, and going strong. I've lost 1.5 kg, and my blood pressure is also more stable.

Bad News: I am just starting on my weight reduction and BP stabilization. A long way to go, might as well lose the extra 10 kg I am supposed to be carrying around.

Good News: I finally make the link between the books' *attitude* and how to apply it. I had the same sheer drivenness of the authors tho just for exercise, gotta maintain it and to apply it to other areas. Now for other projects, other achievements. Learn French? Write a book? Tidy my CD collection? My books? It's all possible now.

Bad News: The book is a glimpse into the minds of two frankly strange and uncommon people. It's no great help in making you one of them, unless you are already a latent Type AAA Personality (and don't actually need the book), or unless some other influence pushes you to it, like me.

Good News: You gotta start somewhere, and reading this book (ignore the actual writing, look for the authors' minds) is a good as any other. Good luck!

From the reviews, I was expecting more. The word "discipline" was used so often without giving a clear definition or clear steps of how to obtain it. A lot of the meaning of this book was lost in ramblings about their authors own lives, families, and innate discipline.

Mostly the emphasis was on maintaining a strict schedule and talking to yourself in your head to trick yourself into doing something. Yes, positive affirmation can go a long way to training the mind to achieve your goals, but this approach was unscientific and childish.

Save your money.

Instead of strategies to discipline our mind, it is full of tactics of how to manage our time, say, one should wake up at 0400 and drive home at 1600 to avoid time wasted in rush hours. My wife had read the first thirty something pages and she had to quit it of boredom. (She then gave it to me. Sigh....) I agreed with her in that the messages in the book are quite repetitive and the writing skills of the two authors are at most mediocre. Perhaps we are not used to the style of "Harris writes:... Karen writes:..." Furthermore, the association of chapters are weak. It would be much better if they had employed some professional editors for the book. I assure you that if it were not for the very good idioms/quotes I might not be able to continue after 20 pages. For those who really want to read to improve their own discipline, "Unleash the Warrior Within: Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals by Richard J. Machowicz" is a much better choice.

In short, if the book is titled as tactics for time management, I wont get that disappointed. However, for the subject discipline, I must comment that there are far better choices in the market.

Below please find some of the great quotes I find in the book for your reference.

Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a year while another man gets a full year's value out of a week.' - Charles Richards
People with goal succeed because they know where they are going. - Earl Nightingale
Knowing is not enough. We must apply. Willing is not enough. We must do. - Goethe
Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. - Leo Buscaglia
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. - Henry Ford
Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. -Thomas Jefferson
Speak when you are angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret. - Lawrence Peter
Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed. - Peter Drucker
You may delay, but time will not. - Benjamin Franklin
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. - Beverly Sills
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. - James Arthur Baldwin
You begin saving the world by saving on person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics. - Charles Bukowski

Do not buy this book. It is written poorly and is loaded with useless anecdotes and virtually no information on how to practically apply what they preach. It reads like a cheap magazine article. The author "Harris" is very full of himself and his co-author has been duped into believing he is some kind of mentoring god. From what I gather, Harris is a pusher. He basically tells you to work more, sleep less, and read while you go to the bathroom. What silly, adolescent advice. Harris is your typical A type personality that is clueless about what focusing on a task and focusing on details is all about. The authors multi-task, do-it all, don't ever rest mentality is freightening. By his own admission he is never satisfied, and you shouldn't be either. Always chasing the horizon, but will never get there. Meanwhile he probably doesn't realize the things he's missing or the people he's run over in his pursiut of his self-absorbed desire to always get more. People can't and shouldn't live like this. The fact that he's divorced and has a child that he sees only a few times a month (apparantly because he's more absorbed in himself and his half a million mile travels that he takes each month)speaks volumes about the quality of his personal life.

Save your money. Do not buy this book. I am so sorry that I was duped into wasting money on it.

It is clear to me the authors felt they have some credibility issues. They talk about their strengths and achievements a little too much. It is probably because the authors really have no formal education or is an "expert" on the subject of discipline. They are just professionals who seemingly have reached their success using their personal discipline. The book has lot of good pointers and inspiring text, which makes it a worthwhile read, especially for its relatively cheap price. Just don't expect the pointers to be backed up by any clinical research.