The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook: Exercises, Questions, and Self-Tests to Help You Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life [Paperback]

Richard Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1998

For the millions who have read "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff", this inspiring new workbook has been designed to help put the book's principles into practice. Includes exercises, questions, and self-tests designed to help readers put things into perspective and keep the little things from taking over their lives.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sure, Richard Carlson's bestselling Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... contains plenty of sensible advice, but it's not always easy to follow. Enter this intriguing workbook with its universal appeal: it's aimed at anyone interested in reducing stress and improving their relationships. Designed to help you put the many peace-promoting, "just let it go" principles of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff into active practice, it's bursting with fun quizzes, checklists, self-tests, questions, and activities. If this doesn't instruct and inspire you to make concrete personality and life improvements, there's nothing much that will!

In one exercise, "Lower Your Tolerance to Stress," Carlson suggests that we'd be better off if we didn't brag about how much stress we can handle. People who do brag about their stress tolerance, he says, are usually stressed out all the time. To help you reduce your tolerance, he lists 20 signs of stress (among them: allergies, anxiety, depression, frequent headaches, and restlessness) and asks you to put a check mark next to the ones you've experienced. The next time you feel any of these symptoms, he says, you should analyze and write down how you might change your behavior in order to alleviate or prevent these problems in the future. In another exercise, "Create 'Patience Practice Periods,'" he first asks you to analyze your level of patience (Do you drive above the speed limit? Grow furious when stuck in voice mail mazes? Feel like everyone else at the mall walks too slowly and gets in your way?). He then gives a series of hypothetical patience-killing situations--a long line at the grocery store, or slow, tricky traffic--and leaves space for you to write about how these situations would make you react.

Some exercises are true/false, some are of the never/sometimes/often/always variety, while others require thoughtful written responses. A few are by nature harder to handle than others ("Imagine Yourself at Your Own Funeral"), so the workbook therefore shouldn't be devoured in one sitting, but dipped into a bit at a time. This is a fine way to nurture the much-underrated concepts of empathy, forgiveness, tolerance, and kindness.

About the Author

Best-selling author Richard Carlson, Ph.D., creator of the popular Don't Sweat the Small Stuff series and the just published Don't Get Scrooged, died suddenly of cardiac arrest enroute to New York on December 13. Carlson, 45, published his first book in 1985 and went on to publish more than 20 books that remain popular in English and in translation in 130 languages and 35 countries. Richard Carlson grew up in Piedmont, CA. He received his undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University and his Ph.D. in psychology from Sierra University. He was in private practice as a psychotherapist when he started to publish books about psychological and spiritual health. As his books started to attract a large audience, he began writing full time so he could teach more people how to live with presence and ease by cultivating gratitude and generosity. Dr. Carlson was a large supporter of and participant in the National Center for Family Literacy and at the time of his death he was working on a project with them called for "A Penny a Book" from publishers, authors and literary agents to promote literacy. Dr. Carlson is survived by his wife and life partner of 25 years, Kris Carlson, his co-author on Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love and the author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Women, his loving daughters Jasmine and Kenna, sisters, Kathleen Carlson Mowris of Olympic Village, CA and Anna L. Carlson of La Selva Beach, CA, and his parents, Barbara and Don Carlson of Orinda, CA. A private memorial service will be held next week. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made in Richard's honor to local food banks, Challenge Day, Girls Inc. or Children Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (August 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786883510
• ISBN-13: 978-0786883516
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

During his life, Richard Carlson, Ph.D, was considered one of the foremost experts in happiness and stress reduction in the United States and around the world and was a frequent featured guest on such shows as Oprah, The Today Show, The View, NNC, CNN, Fox, PBS and over 2000 other shows.Don't Sweat the Small Stuff continued to be a publishing phenomenon with over 20 titles in the brand franchise, two of which were co-authored and authored with his beloved wife, Kris. He died of a pulmonary embolism in December 2006, at the age of forty-five.

The words "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" have become a part of American Culture thanks to Richard Carlson's book that became a runaway best-seller and made publishing history as the #1 best-selling book in the United States for two consecutive years.
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller list and is still considered one of the fastest selling books of all time and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars work!!!, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook: Exercises, Questions, and Self-Tests to Help You Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life (Paperback)

It really is a "WORK" book. It takes alot of thinking and quiet time to answer the questions and to go back and analyze what you have written down. Too much work for me. I guess this book would be good for someone who has alot of extra time on their hands to ponder their life. I do not have that time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book for College/University students!, September 9, 2005

By 

Dawn@Algonquin (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook: Exercises, Questions, and Self-Tests to Help You Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life (Paperback)

By Richard Carlson, PH.D (printed in the United States. Published by Hyperion, 77 W. 66th Street, New York, New York 10023-6298 (previously published as `Don't Worry, Make Money').

This book is a non-fictional, self help/motivational book.
The main theme of the book is how to live a life that is more productive, wealthy and carefree. It consists of one hundred short chapters, each with its' own philosophy like `Be willing to change' or `Remind yourself that your life isn't your enemy, but your thinking can be'.
Richard Carlson has created a whole series of "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" books. When you read one, continue and read them all, they all go hand in hand. He is a frequent guest on many National Television and Radio programs. He lectures many enthusiastic audiences, both in the United States and Internationally. Recently, he was featured on PBS in a special about his don't sweat philosophy. He has paired up with his wife Kristine Karlson to write `Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love'. What a great idea!
"Don't Sweat the Small Stuff About Money" covers everything from getting rid of fear, anger and stress revolving around budgeting, by providing practical solutions. In these one-hundred short chapters, Richard Carlson motivates his audience with his own philosophies on life and money combined.
The "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" series of books all have a philosophy with each chapter. I find it motivating to learn different strategies on how to deal with life and financial problems. I can really appreciate constructive criticism, and there's lots in this book and all of Richard Carlsons' other don't sweat books. My favorite chapter in the book was "Give, Give, Give". In this chapter he states that "giving is its' own reward". I am a firm believer in giving whenever and whatever possible. I believe this is the only way things will come back your way. Overall, I would say the book was instructive, memorable and inspiring.
The book greatly affected the way I budget my money, and the way I deal with not having a lot. He taught me that you don't have to be rich to live an abundant life.
I would certainly recommend this book to any college/university student, as most of us are struggling to get by! It enlightens you as you read, as it helps to know you are not alone in the money struggle. Great book!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpful book!, May 14, 2009

By 

D (Hemet, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook, The: Exercises, Questions, and Self-Tests to Help You Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life (Paperback)

This book has been very helpful to my husband and I. We are reading the book and doing the workbook at the same time. It as been a great starter for many conversation that we might not have otherwise talked about. Really made us evaluate ourselves and each other. For example do you get upset while driving. He said no and I said yes. Helped me to explain that when he gets upset it is very stressful for me.