Customer Reviews

Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Originally, I got this for my girlfriend as a present. We started going through it together and found tools to help our relationship in the first few paragraphs. I've read many books dealing with self-improvement, therapy and relationships. This book has little or no "fluff" and "filler", and is full of very down to earth, practical things anyone can do to break non-productive patterns, whether it's inappropriate arguing, overeating, phobias or sexual issues. What's funny, is the book is full of stuff, that when you read it, you say, "of course, that's intuitive", but it's stuff that few of us seem to actually `do'. The only book I've ever rated 5-stars.

At last! I've been reading O'Hanlon's books written for therapists for years though I'm not a therapist, all the while hoping he'd write a change manual for the general reader. Here it is, and I'm so pleased. This book contains practical, respectful, gentle, yet oh-so-effective change techniques that anyone can use quickly and easily.

One of the things I love most about it is that it is solution-oriented, no preoccupation with "why" but focusing on "how," how to get what you want for yourself, and in your relationships.

I'm giving copies to several family members and buying extras to have on hand. It's that good.

This book really helps you to see that by making small changes in your life you can start on the road to making big changes. Bill O'Hanlon has managed to bring his professional expertise down to a level that anyone can understand and benefit from. I am excited to try his one thing different in order to make my life and the life of those close to me better.

"Do One Thing Different" is a much-needed, straightforward do-it-yourself (DIY) guide to solution-focused techniques. Clients love or loathe this book.

Some clients are unwilling to look into a book that is plainly written and easy to read. They loathe dryly written more academic texts, however, complex text that relies on diagnostic labels and bleak prognoses seems more appropriate to the perceived gravity of their problems and issues.

Other clients love this book because it has scant respect for diagnostic labels and is optimistic about the possibility for improvement for most people and their circumstances. They love it because the simplicity overlays subtleties and practicalities of DIY techniques that can be put into use, right now and safely tested in their everyday lives.

If you want an evidence-based justification of solution-focused therapy, then this is not your book. If you want to explore the biography of your emotions and distressing behaviours, or to gain an insight into the human condition, then there are many, very fine books that explore those topics. O'Hanlon plainly states that he has no interest in examining these or similar areas.

"I began to realize how messed up I really was. I was `clinically depressed,' and most probably I had a biochemically based brain disorder. I probably needed medications. Since I had been sexually abused when I was a child, the books indicated that a minimum of several years' worth of therapy was in order. I would have to spend lots of time, money, and energy getting in touch with the repressed, dissociated memories and feelings associated with the abuse. But I wasn't certain that I wanted to take medications or go through years of painful therapy. I was certain I couldn't afford either. Now wonder I became even more depressed!"

O'Hanlon tells us the story of his personal epiphany when he discovered how to help clients to develop self-management strategies that are grounded in their personal experiences and strengths.

"Problem-oriented and explanation-based theories focus on what is wrong with a person or what went wrong in the past. Solution-oriented therapy highlights what is right with the person, what has worked or been helpful in the past, and what the person can do right now to change things...

Solution-oriented therapy...encourages people to move out of analyzing the nature of the problem and how it arose and instead to begin to find solutions and take action to solve it."

For readers who are interested in the Solutions-Focused approach to dealing with their issues, then "Do One Thing Different" is a user-friendly, DIY guide to developing your own Solution Keys. The 10 Solution Keys are described with useful examples and suggestions for implementing them: they are

Sabotage Your Problem Behaviours (find what leads up to the problem behaviour and disrupt it)

Recognize What Works Well for You (what do you already know and do what works well for you)

Keep Your Past and Feelings in Perspective (they don't have to determine your present or your future)

Shift Your Attention (you choose where to focus your attention: what is worth your energy and time?)

Tell Your Success Story Backwards (in the future you are telling the story of your success and how you achieved it: so, what simple things do you need to do RIGHT NOW?)

Change Your Problem Biography into Solutions-Focused Auto-biography (acknowledge what is in your circle of influence, change that, and change yourself)

Explore the Wider Meanings of Your Life (spirituality and Spirituality)

If You Need to Complain, Be Clear About It (what is the outcome that you want, what needs to be different to achieve that?)

Rituals Exist for a reason (use them to mark the passing of old habits or to welcome new and happier ways of living)

Celebrate What Is Good in Your Life (routine can promote intimacy and connectedness as much as set-piece social occasions)

O'Hanlon writes with warmth and clarity: there are times when the tone is too self-consciously humorous and irreverent, and the text can occasionally border on the trite, however, it is a clear and easy to follow book. I recommend this book to

anyone who has caught themselves thinking, "I am so tired of this. I've thought this to death and I'm still no further forward";

anyone who is attacted to Solutions-Focused therapy, and senses that they DO know what to do, they just need a few hints and tips to get them started.

These tips really are "uncommonly sensible solutions." I found this book marvelous, as a person and as a personal life coach. I work with clients all the time who are "stuck" and am always looking for ways and means to get them going again and back in touch with their personal power. This book gave me many wonderful ideas. It's well-written, with clear, step-by-step instructions. No jargon, and non-intrusive. Just good, practical stuff. Useful for yourself, useful for helping others. We all need to go toward our heart's and soul's desire. GO BILL!

I am glad this very practical and wise book is available so quickly in paperback, with a clearer new subtitle. O'Hanlon applies his expertise in Ericksonian hypnosis, solution-oriented therapy and his possibility therapy to life in general. Through simple language without any jargon, and numerous enlightening true stories, he instills hope by freeing people from the past and limited beliefs, and by helping them to stop analyzing and actually change by doing what works, changing their viewing of the problem and applying the 10 solution keys. He is "painfully aware that life is more complex than anything even the wisest and best-written book can contain." and quotes Mark Twain's warning: "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."(p.195) The whole book is precisely the anti-dote to such obsessive and rigid thinking at the root of many of our problems and stuckness.

This book may just as well have been a poster. It was an interesting, and well written book. Just as the word 'change' implies, we must do things differently than we did them before. Change is not easy. The author points out throughout this book that even the most minute changes can create massive results. Do one thing different--read this book!

This book has been extremely helpful to me. It's clearly written, solution oriented, and practical. I have (at the risk of labeling myself) a somewhat obsessive compulsive personality that expresses itself in several ways, mainly in the desire to save books, magazines, newspapers, and many things with writing on them.

I've had therapy, been prescribed different medications, and spent countless hours wondering why I couldn't just throw these things away without reading them. No matter how trivial the message, I had to read it. Junk mail, newspapers, old coke cans, books (especially books!): I couldn't toss them out and I didn't have time to read ALL of them. I could, from time to time, clear out things, enough to spare me any embarassment if someone came over but still, I would start collecting again...

I read this book, its focus on dozens of possible strategies, none of which requires knowing everything about a problem, but all of which suggest action, and found that I didn't need to know why I collected, only that I be able to identify what I did that enabled me to throw things away eventually.

It's been 2 years since I've started employing the strategies in the book and my house is a model of order and restraint. The urge to save is still there but rather than sit and be totally overwhelmed by anxiety, I remind myself that a momentary guilt at throwing away something is far better than a constant wave of guilt at saving everything.

This books works. Try it.

I got this book and I thought "I don't know when I am going to read it". But I decided to do one thing different and put it in the bathroom and have read it just a page or so at a time. I really like the book and have recommended it to my friends. I like that the information is easy to read. No small print. Lot's of reminders for what you have learned. And I like that the information is fun and do-able.

I was delighted when a client I coach found this book and told me, "He says the same things you do." That was the best compliment I've ever had, but it's Bill O'Hanlon's books and workshops that have taught me how to help people make significant change in their lives. As O'Hanlon writes, the explanations of traditional psychology and psychiatry focus on "why" people have problems but don't always help solve them. These ten "simple" ways are profound, and based on a well-respected and researched tradition that focuses on solutions. I've used these practices in business and personal coaching for years. And they work. O'Hanlon is handing you a wonderful gift for a very small price.