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349 of 367 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No more excuses: this will blow your "habitual mind", May 26, 2009
This review is from: Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits (Hardcover)
I have read most of Wayne's books, and this was one of the better ones. I used a highlighter on many areas of the book: I love Wayne's style of intertwining great philosophical quotes, anecdotes and personal stories to illustrate his points.
The book starts out citing compelling science and studies, including Bruce Lipton's research proving that genes are far from destiny, and that our beliefs influence even our genes. This is truly the foundation for a "no excuses" paradigm. Wayne delves into the concept of memes, or mind viruses and explains how these are passed on to people like cold viruses.
Next, 18 typical excuses are presented (many of these solicited from his readers). It will be difficult, risky, take too long, create family drama; I don't deserve it; it's against my nature; I can't afford it (surely a popular one today!); no one will help me; it's not happened before; I'm not strong/smart enough; I'm too old/too young; the rules/laws won't let me; it's too big; I don't have the energy/time; it's in my family history; I'm afraid. I was disappointed that my favorite excuse "I'll do it later" wasn't listed, although it was addressed indirectly in various parts of the book, especially in the "commitment to overcoming the inertia" part.
The second section seven contains principles for overcoming excuses: awareness, alignment, now, contemplation (with a very powerful quote from Aristotle--"Contemplation is the highest form of activity"), willingness, passion and compassion.
The third section promotes a new way of viewing excuses, creating a paradigm shift. This includes asking yourself six questions, starting out with "Is it true?" Where did the excuse come from? What is the payoff?" These are very reminiscent of Bryon Katie except that instead of undoing beliefs, you are undoing excuses and eradicating them from your subconscious mind (which Wayne argues need not be beneath your consciousness, and in fact renames as the "habitual mind").
I see people all the time using these excuses to avoid eating a better diet of more raw foods: It will create family drama; I don't have the time to fix good food; I don't have the money to buy fresh produce." My father's excuse was, "I am too old." Unfortunately, he died of cancer two years after using that excuse!
I am confident that this book will inspire people to take a new look at their habitual mind patterns, breaking free to move on to their highest potential!
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Accountability 101, June 21, 2009
This review is from: Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits (Hardcover)
As an old-school management kind of guy, where excuses are not allowed, I didn't find anything overly earth shattering in this handy little guide to making yourself accountable...to yourself. However, it's still a good resource and certainly worth reading. I really enjoyed it, especially since it alligns with my way of thinking. Self-affirmation is good.
The author, Dr Wayne Dyer, put together his material in a very well-organized manner and was kind enough to remind everyone that their lame excuses won't cut it. I must confess, I have used a few of them myself, primarily to justify my laziness about not wanting to work out. However, I'm still not going to work out. I'm just not going to make excuses anymore. There. I feel better already.
By forcing yourself to increase your awareness level concerning any difficult issue you may be faced with, you'll more than likely come away accomplishing a lot of things you didn't think you could do, or didn't want to do. Again, this is basic stuff, but it's still valuable, especially for those less than enthusiastic chronic complainers who always feel the world is against them. You know the type. Everything is "a problem"...You just want to slap them. Well, now you can hand them this book, and hope they can fit it into their busy schedule.
In the final analysis, you've got to be your own boss. Give yourself frequent "reviews", and be honest with your own performance. If you're not cutting the mustard, go back and read this book again.
It's worth it, especially if you usually begin every day wondering what's going to go wrong and who's going to plot against you now. Yeah it's definitely worth it.
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109 of 127 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Repackaging of common ideas from the self-help field, June 29, 2009
This review is from: Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits (Hardcover)
First of all, I have all the respect and admiration for Wayne Dyer. I love his work and his style and the man has been an inspiration and a role-model for me. Having listened to almost all of his audio materials, which I can heartly recommend, I decided to finally buy a book of his.
I have to say that I am disappointed with "Excuses Begone!". In itself, it is not a bad book at all. To give some credit, this book has Wayne's honesty and principles in it and if one was to apply the hundreds of advices in there I am sure there will be a positive effect. But overall this book does not stand to the high expectations I had from Wayne.
What repelled me, was the cheap repetition of "Excuses Begone" which looks like he tries to create a mantra or something. Also it seemed that Wayne has adopted some of the "mainstream" terminology of the self-help movement, something I didn't expect from him. For example the terms "subconscious", "programming" and so on, which is not bad and I certainly understand why he did it, although I didn't like the style of the text. It seemed uninspiried and usual, although the ideas a very good but nothing original.
All this doesn't matter a lot to me, because this is a book about changing habbits. Well, the approach Wayne took with self-inquiry and self-investigation certainly was something I like. What I didn't like is the execution. At the last part of the book where he is supposed to get practical (and ideas a practical, no doubt about that) he continues to repeat those old concept in the same way as before - with no original commentary or some new point of view.
I am sorry but this book seemed very usual to me. Maybe it would be great as introduction to people who haven't read much in this field before, but for the more read it has nothing new to offer.
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