Customer Reviews

Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The first Spencer Johnson book I read was Who Moved My Cheese. This book follows the same formula. The reader is told a story. At points in the story the author stops and explains a self-help message, learned by one or more characters, which is relevant to the reader. A series of self-help messages (which are relevant individually or as a group) lead to a conclusion about how to make life better.

This story focuses on a man who is troubled by life. A friend tells him a story about a man, also troubled by life, who lives in a valley and makes a trek up a peak to see a wise man. The man also makes other treks up and down other peaks and valleys.

In this story the man learns that peaks and valleys are part of life. The key to living a richer life is how you perceive and address the peaks and valleys and what you learn while you are traversing the peaks and valleys.

I have found the information in Spencer Johnson's books often times to be intuitive. For instance one message in this book is "You can have fewer bad times when you appreciate and manage your good times wisely."

Yet Spencer Johnson also addresses truths that I often want to forget. One message is "The pain in a valley can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring."

Finally Spencer Johnson always manages to come up with a couple of things I had not really thought about. For instance one message is "The path out of a valley appears when you choose to see things differently."

As mentioned these messages correspond to events in the story. Spencer Johnson is most effective when the events in the story lead the reader to the message. In fact, when he is at this best the author does not even need to state the message because the reader will get the message without having to read it.

If you liked Spencer Johnson's works before you will be pleased with Peaks and Valleys. If you have never read anything by him and you are looking for a story which leads you to key truths about life, without a bunch of analysis, then you will enjoy this work.

This little, in every sense, book is 99 pages long. That's with large type, lines spaced well-apart. Reading in a rather studious manner, it was a 45 minutes read.

Read Page 90 and you'll get the whole message, only with less sentiment,
sunrises, sunsets, or moist-eye mentions, in a quick 1-2-3 outline style.

A whole page? 23 words would do: If you're in a valley (a bad place), apply
that experience while you envision the peak (a good place) you want to be.

PEAKS AND VALLEYS' format laces together a parable format (think sensei and grasshopper-acolyte) for passing on wisdom with loads of sentimentality ('His eyes moistened' kept repeating) and renderings of too-many too-well-worn platitudes over and over again. Far more fluff than facts.

Its platitudes are recognizable as common sense today. Or trite. Most are found in many self-help books already. There are, by Amazonian count, 30,548 such books
on the racks waiting to point the way to wherever.

Say, here's a tip: Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books (Wiley Books for Writers Series) Written by Jean Marie Stine. I've read her very well-done book - New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing There's a workbook book too. Maybe you can write a book and next for V&P will be a map.

(Oh, if you write that book and it doesn't sell, well, there's How to Heal a Broken Heart in 30 Days: A Day-by-Day Guide to Saying Good-bye and Getting On With Your Life (I actually read it. It kept its promise. Gave it 5-Stars!)

The only thing I found remarkable in P&V is that, as proclaimed on the back inside flap, Dr. Johnson's formula has sold over 46-million copies of his find happiness/ success/whatever books in 47 languages.

If you're past a ninth-grade reading level (where this book seems aimed in style and grammar), you might like a better though more challenging, sophisticated read: Just type in 'self help' in the book search window at Amazon; they have a wide variety of such books, enough to fit most-every specific need. When you search, note that many reviewers complain of the old same-old same-old repetition of advice. Sorta like P&V struck me.

I truly hate writing a negative review. So I followed a thread in the book which solicited comments and suggestions: An email address. After reading about Dr. Johnson's impressive Harvard credentials and 46,000,000 books sold in 47 languages, I asked if I missed something. Even included a copy of my review
(this one is a bit revised). Alas, no reply.

If you are looking for a self-help book to get you out of your rut in your career, your relationships, and in the day-to-day of living your life, then PEAKS AND VALLEYS may just do the trick. This book gives you simple, common sense tools for surviving the low times (valleys) in your life when things may seem to be the worst while giving you the proper perspective for the good times (peaks) so you don't get too caught up in the moment. This balance and stability will serve you well in EVERY area of your life and we owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Spencer Johnson for imparting his life-coaching skills in such an easy-to-read, but highly profound book.

PEAKS AND VALLEYS
by Spencer Johnson

Spencer Johnson, billed as "The king of parables" by USA TODAY, has
long been one of my favorite authors . . . his ONE MINUTE MANAGER,
co-authored with Ken Blanchard, helped revolutionize my thinking about
management, and his ONE MINUTE FATHER helped me become
a better parent.

His latest, PEAKS AND VALLEYS, is the story of a young man
who lives unhappily in a valley until he meets an old man
who lives on a peak . . . this encounter changes the former's life,
and it will change yours too as you encounter both good and bad times.

I particularly appreciated being reminded that during bad times,
I need to:

* Relax, knowing the valleys end. Do the opposite of what put you
in the Valley. Get outside of yourself: Be of more service at work
and more loving in life. Uncover the good that is hidden in a bad
time and use it to your advantage.

By the same token, when times are good, I need to:

* Be humble and grateful. Do more of what got you there. Keep
making things better. Do more for others. Save resources for
your upcoming Valleys.

You may think you are reading nothing new here, but the material
catches up on you . . . it's something that we all need to
reminded about and Johnson does an excellent job of doing this
in PEAKS AND VALLEYS.

I was fortunate to have heard a CD copy of this book, and am glad
that I did because it contained a bonus audio interview with the author
that shared some of his unique insights on putting the principles to work.

An excellent book and a quick read. The book concentrates on how to achieve peaks (happiness and joy)and remain happier longer and how to make the valleys (sadness, depression, frustrations) in your life to last a shorter period of time as well as how your joy continue to grow and your sad times have less of an impact on your life, but turning the negatives in life into positives simply by changing your perspective on what is happening to you.
The book is the story of a man who lives in a valley, he is happy, but eventually becomes frustrated with his life in the valley and wants to know what life would be like on a peak. In story form, you experience the man's challenges of success and failure as he tries to remain on the peak.
I highly recommend this book for anyone with a positive attitude who wants to remain positive during hard times. I also highly recommend this book for people who can see no joy in their life. It will help who ever reads the book find inner peace and happiness.
I have all ready shared the book with three people, all have found ways to improve their joys and reduce the effect of the bad times.

This book is a must reading, and as the book cover says, a real GEM. One of the positive points of this book is that it is right straight to the point in just 100 pages. We all know how sometimes these kind of books go around and around in circles, beating around the bush, repeating the same point over and over, to fill out 300 pages. This book is not. This book is to be highlighted every page, every single line. We are living tough times now. The question is: what do you do when you are down, so when things recover, you are on the top of the game again? I can't praise this book enough, which has helped ME reconsider my whole professional situation and that is already giving me great results. Read it!

"Making Good and Bad Times Work For You"

Spencer Johnson, M.D. has written many books that I have purchased over the years from "One Minute Manager" to "Who Moved My Cheese?" and several others, each book has made a significant in my career and has been a source of inspiration.

But in tough economic times, sometimes some of us who have done well end up in a position in our careers that are unexpected and you look at things as a temporary setback.

If you are a person who has been trying to survive or just make it during these tough times, sometimes a book like "Peaks and Valleys" provides that extra clarity that you need in your life.

A story about a young man struggling with work and getting sick and tired of his valley, he has dreamed of climbing that tall peak and trying to make it up to get away. He meets an older man, who gives him advice and clarity of his current situation and eventually applies it to his work life. But as things get better, he has yet to learn humility. He has yet to learn how one that can be successful one day, can easily have their bad days. But how is one able to bounce back?

Using a story of a person's ability to make their own peaks through their own valley at work and their life. Making reality their friend. Finding and using the good hidden in a bad time. Appreciating your good times wisely. Following your sensible vision and sharing with others.

After listening, I realized that this book is what I needed and now to take what I read and apply it to my life.

If you are a person who is in danger of losing a job to budget cuts or feeling that things are spiraling downhill careerwise and you just need something to give you a little clarity, then "Peaks and Valleys" is a fantastic book for you.

Someone sent me a free copy of this book, so I read it, hoping it might provide some useful insights on how to manage the inevitable ups and downs of life. I had previously enjoyed Spencer Johnson's earlier book "Who Moved My Cheese?" and could identify with the futile persistence of metaphorically looking for cheese in cheeseless tunnels. But in this case, my hopes were not rewarded. The discussion of peaks and valleys, potentially a valuable topic, is done at the most superficial level in a tone that seems condescending to the intelligence of most readers. The book is both unedifying and annoying, not a good combination.

In form and format, the book is a classic enlightenment parable. Here a young man who is unhappy in his physical valley climbs to a peak and speaks to a wise old man. The young man's starting level is such that he needs to ask the wise old man "What exactly do you mean by 'peaks and valleys'?" Maybe the target readership is people who would need to ask that question.

At various points, the author puts in a capitalized adage, in case we have missed the point of the previous few pages. Here are some examples:

"It Is Natural For Everyone Everywhere To Have Peaks And Valleys At Work And In Life."

"Between Peaks There Are Always Valleys. How You Manage Your Valley Determines How Soon You Reach Your Next Peak."

"You Can Have Fewer Bad Times When You Appreciate And Manage Your Good Times Wisely."

"My Valley IS Fear."

I'll spare you the rest. Unfortunately, starting each word with a capital letter does not make an idea more profound than it would be with a small letter. Or less banal.

I assume that like me you try to be careful about how you spend your time and your money. In my humble opinion, this book would be a waste of both.

I liked "Who Moved My Cheese" but I don't think this title is on par with "Cheese." This is also a very short book with big type font. Even though this is a short book and you can finish it in about an hour, I found the last 20 pages to be boring because I thought the message came across somewhere in the middle.

The main ideas I got from the book were that we are usually the cause for our peaks and valleys and if we properly manage our valleys, we can get to a peak faster. How we respond to a valley or a peak also decides how long we stay there. Also we are told to look at the positive in every negative and to follow our vision; to imagine our future so that we enjoy doing what will take us there. We get out of a valley when we change our thinking.

I've read a few self help books and I know I've heard this message somewhere else. Unless you are a lazy person, I think you know that when you are in a "valley," you start working right away to get to a "peak." You don't need someone to tell you this. You get a bunch of those assurances in this title. I was expecting more advice on how to deal with life in a valley, how we got into the valley, and more advice on how to get out. It's not that this is a bad book, it's just that I thought it could have offered more on the subject matter. I came away from the book saying "I already know this." I don't recommend buying it at full price because I don't think it is worth it. Borrow it if you can.

My favorite quote from the book:

"The pain in a valley can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring..."

'Peaks and Valleys' is a book that could be described as self development advice in a story within a story. The full title is actually 'Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You - At Work And In Life'. It was written by Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of the bestseller 'Who Moved My Cheese'.

'Peaks and Valleys' is a short book and easy to read. As such, some may consider it to be a simplistic self help book. However, if you truly contemplate the essence of it - a wonderful story within a story and one that you can keep passing from one person to another - you soon realise its true power.

The author explains that the 'Peaks' and 'Valleys' are actually the highs and lows that you feel in your work and personal life. These could last seconds or years and are totally connected, with one having a significant effect on the other. His analogy of 'Peaks and Valleys' to your heartbeat is interesting: the fact that you need the ups and downs of life in order to be alive.

The book covers self development advice that can be used in virtually any situation you may find yourself in. It is suitable for anyone (adults and teenagers) who wonders about the ups and downs of life and how best to deal with them.

Even if you already know a fair amount about self development, it is always useful to see things from a different perspective or in a new light. The lessons the author touches on in this parable format can be used in any context, right across your social and work or business life for self empowerment. They include:

* How to find a Peak in every Valley
* The power of truly following your vision
* The importance of trying new pathways
* The influence of self development mentors
* How you can control your Peaks and Valleys
* What the source of fear is and how to deal with it
* How to find and use the good that is hidden in the bad
* The fear and doubt of moving out of your comfort zone
* The importance of not taking people and things for granted
* How to see new things by changing the way you look at them
* How people you encounter give you gifts without you realising
* The importance of allowing others to help you to find your way
* Why you might consider your Valleys to be your Peaks and vice versa
* How you intentionally and unintentionally create your own good and bad times
* Why both Peaks and Valleys are essential to your overall emotional health and emotional wealth

In summary

This book is all about how to use a Peaks and Valleys approach to all aspects of your life to become more calm, be more at peace and have more success overall. If you are at an all time low and are looking for some self development advice, this book will definitely help. If you are at the pinnacle of your career or life, read this now while you are at the top as those moments do not last forever.