Customer Reviews

The Power of Choice : A Guide to Personal and Professional Self Management

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This is an exceptionally lucid exposition of the power of personal choices in each of our lives. It also details the innumerable ways in which we all do everything we can to deny the choices we have in our lives and how the evasion of personal responsibility serves only to psychologically weaken us.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned by any of the previous reviewers is that Ted Willey uses some of the key language and notions of Werner Erhard and the old est movement to forward his ideas. He does so in a way that is highly conversational, rational and communicative, without any of the controversial baggage that made est and its later incarnation, the Landmark Forum, so unpalatable for so many people. For this alone I appreciate Ted Willey's book. Erhard had some great perspectives, learned from his own personal experiences and also from therapists such as Fritz Perls. Unfortunately for Erhard (as well as for Perls), his overall lifestyle was eccentric enough and his packaging of his ideas controversial enough that the message was lost in the sometimes bizarre medium of its expression. Ted Willey's book manages to bypass all of that. His expression of fundamentally sound ideas is framed in a way that is immediately understandable. The average person stands to gain a great deal from reading and applying the concepts presented in The Power of Choice.

In conjunction with The Power of Choice I might recommend John Narciso's book Relating Redefined as well as William Glasser's book Choice Theory. They all complement each other and are most relevent in this time of personal and cultural abdication of responsiblity.

Ted Willey's *choice philosophy* is extremely appealing to people of reason. He suggests that every aspect of your life is determined by the choices you make, and he supports that assertion with eminently plausible arguments and examples. His book is quite illuminating, and if you read it thoroughly and critically, you will significantly upgrade your personal effectiveness in life.

Consider: Have you ever been offended over something? Well, the fact is that no one offends you but YOU. Feeling offended is a CHOICE you make - as is being angry, embarrassed, irritated, annoyed, upset, exasperated, humiliated, degraded, guilty, insulted or any other state of mind. Willey drives this valid point home very well.

Additionally, he focuses upon living in the present, the here and now, your body and your mind in the same place at the same time. Such constant consciousness naturally leads to constructive choices, both internally and in your relationships with others.

Willey suggests you treat his book as a cafeteria, extracting from it the portions you can use. The fact is, much of his philosophy is integrated, its components working well with one another. Though he is a purist (he has to set that example, for gosh sakes, he's the one who wrote the book!), about 95 percent of his material is instantly comprehensible and useful - one need not perform exercises every night, or work at developing habits. It's all pretty immediate.

Thus if you don't want to feel a little guilty, and mess around in life because things come up, you will read this fine book and begin living it now... and in your every now.

I met Ted years ago in Lake Lure, North Carolina and Read his book very near the time on recommendation of a close friend who was also my boss. No book I have ever read has had a more profound effect on my view of life or how to live. I don't read self-help books, but if you read this "self help" book you will never need another.

What I took from Ted's Philosophy is as simple as it is true. When you blame circumstances or others you are a "slave" to them. When you accept responsibility you are in power and you are the "master". Want to be in control of your life? Then take responsibility for it.

Who's the daddy? It's your life. It's your choice.

helpful, inciteful, advice. There are many ideas presented and you can choose to apply any or all of these principles to be successful with it. It is not an all or nothing philosophy.