Customer Reviews

Easier Than You Think ...because life doesn't have to be so hard: The Small Changes That Add Up to a World of Difference

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When we're looking into self-help book, we are an easy prey for the happiness sellers. Indeed, happiness being what all of us want most, those who claim to know the way to happiness can charge a lot to divulge their secrets. In many cases, these happiness sellers will propose you new systems of beliefs, mantras to repeat to yourself throughout the day, three-day retreats, seminars, and a whole work-on-yourself agenda designed to alter your life or your consciousness in ways that will make you happy. This, of course, costs you a lot of money and the results may never come.
In fact, I think we all more or less know, intuitively, that happiness is never far away. After all, we all have experienced it in the past, perhaps when we were children or at least sporadically during our adult life, without needing any special philosophy of self-development products. It was there naturally and, believe me, it can come back just as naturally. All it takes is a small shift inside.
This book is about this shift. It gives simple, easy advice that does make an enormous difference. There is nothing mystical or transcendental about it; just small adjustments we can make in the way we relate to our thinking and to the world to get back in touch with this nice feeling, happiness, that we have lost touch with.

The subtitle really fits the book (Small Changes That Add Up to a World of Difference). In less than 200 pages, and small pages at that, Carlson gives easy adjustments for people to make in their lives. They may seem a bit simplistic at first, but that's what makes them work. Don't divorce your wife, change your job or make other huge changes, then find out life is still a rat race and you are still unhappy.
Some of the changes involve attitudes. Stop negative thinking. Pause before making a decision to think, "Is this what I've always done or what I really want?" Be kind to yourself. Recognize your stress triggers. Start a "rainy day" fund. Make a small difference in someone's life everyday.
There are 39 of these recommended changes. It seems to me that instituting even one or two would give immediate relief to someone overworked and stressed out. Gradually adopting many of these behaviors and ways of thinking could be life altering.
Yes, they may seem simplistic, but what do you have to lose? Hopefully you will lose a lot of stress that your current behavior brings you. Life doesn't have to be so hard.
I also recommend another book: The Happiness Makeover.

Loved Richard Carlson's latest book, EASIER THAN YOU THINK
(see also Sections 2, 10 and 11), but that's no real surprise because
he is one of favorite authors . . . if his name isn't familiar, then methinks
you might want to jot it down and start reading his DON'T SWEAT THE
SMALL STUFF or anything else in that series.

Carlson has the unique talent to make things simple . . . in EASIER,
his subtitle says it all: BECAUSE LIFE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE SO
HARD . . . it really doesn't, especially if you start implementing what
he mentions in his second subtitle: THE SMALL CHANGES THAT
ADD UP TO A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE.

As an example, his advice from Chapter 18, "Set Your Expectations
to Zero," hit home because of some of the stress I'm presently
encountering with a move into a new home . . . he mentioned that
when you work out, you should set your expectations to zero so
you can appreciate your body, as opposed to resenting it and
wishing you were different.

He then cites the story of a dear friend of his dad's who recently
died: Even at the very end of Wally's life, he would say, "Life
doesn't get any better than this. I have today. I have my friends. I
can breathe. I'm alive. I'm very happy to be here." And the most
beautiful part of Wally's attitude was that everyone who knew
him know that he meant every single word.

There were many other tidbits I gained from reading EASIER
THAN YOU THINK; among them:

You can make an articulate argument for either side-being grateful
or being overextended. One will lead you toward satisfaction, and
the other toward guaranteed and sustained grief. And the beautiful
part is that you get to make the choice.

If we can accept the fact that the grass is as green as it needs to be
and that it's possible for us to be happy right now, then our lives
will be easier. Focusing on what is wrong as opposed to what is right
leads to a never-ending cycle of frustration. There are things we
simply cannot change or control no matter how much we would like
to. If we let these things take over, we are choosing to make ourselves
unhappy.

One of the most powerful observations I've ever made about stress is
this: obsessing over what stresses us out can cause more stress than
what originally made us stressed to begin with. I know that's a mouthful,
but it's true. And once you see the wisdom in this statement, your life
will never be the same. It goes to the heart of what really causes stress.

A lot of the material in this book is rehashed (or refried) from the author's own works and from other self-help material. This is fair game in the self-help genre, since only a few, really new significant insights are arrived at periodically. Having said that, in his earlier works Carlson introduced the notion of thinking of your thoughts as "just thoughts". This thought (the spicy salsa) can be a very liberating one when it allows you to step back from your current anxieties or worries and view them as manifestations of your own mind, rather than necessary burdens imposed by external circumstances. Carlson reinforces this teaching early on. Pretty much everything else in the book he has said himself before or others have. Having said that, the book remains a useful review of these themes and techniques.

What a great book at such a good time. Life (in general) seems to be getting more and more stressful and this book gives really shows you that life really is easier than you think. I highly recommend this book!

It's odd to give about the same number of stars to a little self-help book as to Anna Karenina, but for it's genre it's pretty good. It's probably 3.5 stars, but I rounded up.

The book is short, and as it suggests, it gives several ideas for simple things one can do that may have pay off in out of proportional ways. Some you have heard forever, and some are new, or at least stated in a new enough way to seem fresh. An example that sparked me was the advice to observe your thoughts as you would a movie- in a detached way that causes one to desensitize to the negative ones and see them lose power. Very little background is given (or probably required) as to cognitive reasons for how or why this works.

Much of the advice seems to come under the Zen notion that "desire is suffering", and some is a restatement of kharma or the golden rule, but regardless of their source, they have been hammered by the author into practical chicken soup advice.

Is is worth the read? Is it worth 15 dollars? If it helps you, and it may, to make a much needed attitude shift or deal with a blind spot in your life, then clearly the answer is yes. I would say for me personally it was worth the read based on one or two chapters, but I'm sure the rest of the book didn't hurt me any.

After I read this book, I told everyone I know about it. It is a simple book that makes you think. Everyone should read this book. I think it is a great gift for graduates.

Richard Carlson has done it again! "Easier Than You Think" is a great new book by Carlson that expands the scope of his previous books, in his classic easy-to-understand manner. Carlson is a genious at presenting deep wisdom and powerful truths about life, in a way that is straight-forward and user-friendly. I love that about him and I love that about this book. I gained so many great new ideas from this book...I am recommending it to my friends and colleagues. I HIGHLY encourage you to buy and read this wonderful book!

I loved Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, so I was eager to read this follow-up book. I'd say about half the advice in it is valuable and thought-provoking, but unfortunately the other half fell far short of my expectations. In fact, some of it didn't even seem to fit logically into this book. A good example was the section on saving money, which was really kind of silly and reminded me of the nearly useless Don't Sweat It Guide to Finances that this same author published a few years back (a book that completely bombed because it's quite possibly the dumbest financial advice book ever). In addition, I thought the advice in Easier Than You Think tended to be repetitive, as if the author said everything he had to say in the first 100 pages, but kept on writing because he felt that wasn't long enough. And some of it was covered in Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Already, so the author is kind of double-dipping. Don't get me wrong, I think this book is worth reading, but I would strongly advise just checking it out from your library rather than paying for it. Unlike Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, this is not a book I feel like I'll ever refer to in the future, so I don't need it on my shelf for convenience.

This book has helped so much to be a more peacefull person. Very outstanding power of positive thinking. Making my life so much easier..