Customer Reviews

Excess Baggage: Getting Out of Your Own Way

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the most useful book I have ever owned. Where other self-help classics catch a piece of the internal puzzle, Sills somehow sees the greater picture. Most importantly, Sills understands that basic human truth-- that what we are is sometimes our greatest blessing and sometimes our greatest curse. The book offers understanding and practical advice for finding balance, rather than offering abstract notions for "fixing" some personality flaw. Buy this book and Scott Peck's The Road Not Taken, and you won't need any other self-help book in the store

Judith Sills' astonishing EXCESS BAGGAGE will make you think the author has been spying on you. In describing the five major personality types, she provides such a wealth of detail that you'll find yourself gasping or whooping as you recognize yourself, your family members, friends and colleagues.

Best of all, she provides real, concrete ways to "get out of your own way" and modify your behavior in a variety of situations. The lessons can be difficult (isn't change always hard?), but are well worth applying if you're interested in making fundamental changes.

HIGHLY recommended for anyone interested in learning more about themselves and others. The advice Sills offers comes from years of counseling experience, and is provided in a nonsensical, easily understood way that maximizes your chances of putting these lessons to work in your own life.

The BEST self help book I have ever read. It not only tells you, who you are, but why you are that way. Great for those who think they have to be in total control,because no matter how much you want control, you can't have total control, and have a productive life

Appropriately named, the author's interpretations of the problems of human nature boils down to the vary basics of our own personality - the facade we create for ourselves. More often than not we tend to paint an inaccurate picture of ourselves far removed from reality and that is the real stumbling factor in our way to be better humans. The more we understand the accurate pattern we all project to others and to ourselves, we better we will be in realizing the "excess baggage", the emotional load we throw at others.

I was pleasantly surprised at the way this book analyzes and portrays the human behavioural patterns. It has three simple steps to make you feel more worthy of living - identify the pattern you are protraying for yourself, identify the real you and make corrections to make them together. The author must have gone through rigorous research and observations before writing this book and made our tasks simpler to look at a mirror, of our own reflections. I initially got the book from the library but decided to own it for my own reference, and for others.

This book is by far the BEST, most enlightening self-help book I have ever read. After digesting its contents, I felt as if a veil were lifted from my eyes. Excess Baggage made me analyze my personality and discover how to identify self-imposed burdens and stop making myself and my loved ones crazy! The theme woven throughout its pages is that we all trip over our own personalities and unconsciously make life harder than it has to be. It probes the reader by presenting an array of specific personality profiles along with their baggage. For example: being a perfectionist is an asset in the career arena, but the strong inner drive to have everything go just perfectly is a liability in social settings. The natural, unconscious tendency is to try to control ALL variables in life, which creates rigidity and grates on the nerves of the people in our lives. Dr. Judith Sills hits the nail on the head with this doctrinal truth: our greatest weaknesses are always the flip side our our greatest strengths. But Excess Baggage is not just a diagnostic manual -- it is the prescription for recovery! Practical and very detailed exercises are outlined to teach the perfectionist how to "let go," the worrier to take risks, the intensely emotional to tone down, the angry to replace his core with love, and so on. Studying this book and applying Dr. Sills' advice has been the most liberating event of my adult life. This new awareness and the changes it has produced make me feel like, in the words of the author, I have "taken off a pair of shoes two sizes too small"! Excess Baggage should be in the library of every person interested in improving the very essence of his being

I have read many self help books, but none so thorough and dead-on as this one! Most self help books may only offer one or two major insights, but there was one on almost every page in this book. It is a quick read with little psychology lingo to stumble over, but you will be amazed st how much of yourself you see in this book. I felt like it was written just for me, and yet I was also able to recognize the personality types of my parents, spouse, child, mother in law, etc. and it filled in the blanks on many, many things about their behavior. I literally found myself taking notes from this book, there was so much great info that I didn't want to forget any! I checked this out from the library, but I will be buying it soon. If there was one thing I wish the author would have added, it would be a few pages on how others might (constructively) deal w/each personality type, but that is a very minor comment because the book is so great overall. I will read anything else this author publishes, her observations are so astute!

I was not expecting to find such an accurate description of myself in this book, but as I read on I did and I was amazed at how Stills hit the mark dead on. I pondered her assessment of my behavior and her suggestions on fixing things for days. I've also used the book to help understand other people. Self-help books are meant to bring about a stronger sense of self-awareness and if you're reading this and need a tool to help you start finding out who you are, READ THIS BOOK.

This book is awful. It's extremely superficial. Sills basically takes all human behavior, crams it into one of six rigid categories, and then spends the entire book describing each category, one by one, with a token bit of advice at the end of each description. She does not go into any real detail about any of them, and I found myself thinking that I could be every single one of them. This is sort of the psychologist's version of reading a horoscope. She also reads the book herself, and has obviously gone to the Overly Dramatic School of Reading. Lots of annoying drama and schtick. It's like being locked in an elevator with your overbearing Jewish aunt. Finally, she has a slight lisp, which over time, will drive you up the wall.

If you can get over the constant sneering about Americans you might like this book. American bashing wasn't needed but the author must have had a bad experience at one point in her life and couldn't get over it. Will not be reading any more of hers.

I read the reviews before I bought the book and was anxious to get it to see if it was really as good as the reviews I read. Let me tell you...I saw myself in EVERY chapter! There were parts that wasn't me, but a bit here and there. When I got to the chapter on Rage, I decided before reading it that it wouldn't fit me at all, but I would read it anyway...boy was I surprised! As I read it, I started seeing people from my past who had hurt me, or wronged me, and I began to feel the emotions popping up...I am just now starting my letters to get rid of the rage I was so sure I didn't have. And then I will start to work on the other items I identified with in the book. Like one of the other readers said in their review, I saw several people I knew in the book, and I wondered if they would be offended if they got one for Christmas! This is a GREAT book!