Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way [Paperback]

Rick Carson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 8, 2003

A completely updated edition of this classic, explaining the author's laid-back but stunningly powerful methods for taming self-defeating behaviours.

Your gremlin interprets your every experience. He has nothing good to say about you or anything you do, not to mention your dreams and aspirations. Just when you feel you've out-argued or overcome him, he changes his disguise and his strategy. Grapple with him and you become more enmeshed. What he hates is simply being noticed. That's the first step to his taming. This and many other straightforward and powerful techniques await you in Taming Your Gremlin: A Guide to Enjoying Yourself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Rick Carson is a genius at exploring our inner conflicts in novel ways. ...And there’s a bonus: it works.” (Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words )

“I loved Taming Your Gremlin(R). . . .this book led me to a very profound awareness.” (Virginia M. Satir, author of Peoplemaking, about the first edition )

“I have found ‘Gremlin-Taming’ to be a unique, imaginative, and effective tool. . .I highly recommend it!” (Joan Baez )

About the Author

This is Rick Carson's fourth book for HarperCollins. His seminal work, Taming Your Gremlin^®, has had a remarkable track record. Translated into several languages, Taming Your Gremlin has been a consistent seller since 1984. For thousands in a cross-section of cultures and circumstances, the Gremlin-Taming Method serves as a foundation for responding to everyday challenges and for living a satisfying life.

For over thirty-five years Rick has been a counselor, personal and executive coach, and trainer for mental health professionals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. His work is used in the training of psychotherapists, personal and executive coaches, substance abuse specialists, corrections personnel, teachers, corporate executives, clergy, and others. He is a former faculty member at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and a clinical member and approved supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Rick is the founder of the Gremlin Taming Institute in Dallas, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Quill; Revised edition (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060520221
• ISBN-13: 978-0060520229
• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.4 x 4.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Self-Help > Self-Esteem
  • #100 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Happiness

More About the Author

This is Rick Carson's fourth book for HarperCollins. His seminal work, Taming Your Gremlin®, has had a remarkable track record. Translated into several languages, Taming Your Gremlin has been a consistent seller since 1984. For thousands in a cross-section of cultures and circumstances, the Gremlin-Taming Method serves as a foundation for responding to everyday challenges and for living a satisfying life.

For over thirty-five years Rick has been a counselor, personal and executive coach, and trainer for mental health professionals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. His work is used in the training of psychotherapists, personal and executive coaches, substance abuse specialists, corrections personnel, teachers, corporate executives, clergy, and others. He is a former faculty member at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and a clinical member and approved supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Rick is the founder of the Gremlin Taming Institute in Dallas, Texas.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Review by professional life coach, this is simple and powerful June 27, 2006

By Patrick D. Goonan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a simply written book that contains very powerful and useful ideas about managing your inner critic. It focuses on mindfulness of your process and disidentifying with the voices in your head that undermine you on a daily basis.

Some of the keys to this approach are being curious rather than critical about what is happening in the moment. This leads to an awareness that allows one to penetrate old conditioned patterns and achieve a state a heightened state of awareness that leads to conscious choice rather than unconscious acting out. It also encourages a playful and experimental approach to playing with new options which is helpful for people who take themselves seriously and have difficulty trying on new behaviors.

This book is fun to read, but like some of the other reviews, I agree that the metaphor of the "gremlin" is pushed to its limits of usefulness. On the other hand, the book is quite entertaining. I must admit at times I found myself annoyed by the recurring gremlin analogies, but I know other people who have read this found it to be a strong point.

The exercises in this book are very good and like that the author included space in the book to record observations and written answers from exercises. In short, this is a great tool for self inquiry and a good companion to combine with counseling or life coaching.

237 of 271 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Will work for some, not for others June 9, 2004

By Traveler TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

I heard Rick Carson on NPR some time ago and was impressed with that he had to say. I had never heard of his book until then and I immediately wrote down the title so that I could buy it at a later date.

Now that I've read the book I'm trying to figure out why what I heard him say is so different than what I'm reading.

My problem with this book started right at the beginning with his "trademarked" Gremlin-Training Method (all caps, just as he does in the book). This seemed contrived to me, absolutely false. It was like reading a book talk about the author's patented passive solar windows as their own trademarked "Sun Energy Capture Device." In other words, like an infomercial. This intial reaction was confirmed as I continued to read. The tactics and topics Carson raises are extremely simplistic. Practical perhaps, but hardly worthy of a "trademark."

The other problem I had with the book is that Carson uses his metaphor to excess. This is a danger he should have been aware of. A Gremlin is a workable metaphor for most people as long as you make it abstract. That is, that voice in your head which puts you down. As soon as you start describing its supposed physical nature (the minister, the coach, the monster, etc.) the metaphor starts losing its audience. Not everyone wants or needs to describe that nasty voice in such terms.

I wished Carson had backed off the metaphor somewhat, backed off from from the hard sell on his "trademarked" method, and just gave an in-depth analysis of people's internal negative voices, where they come from, how to control them, etc. I don't want to read something that makes me feel like I'm buying a used car or the next TV control clapper.

This book, based on many previous glowing reviews, works for many people. No doubt that is true. Criticizing this book is rather subjective - if it works for you, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't. You can't debate it. My recommendation is to really look at the text before buying and THEN decide if you want to purchase. You might find that you like it, or you might not.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Choose your best option September 14, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Taming your Gremlin is a great book because it helps us to confront our own demons and overcome them. This book will help people who have self-destructive patterns of behavior. I suggest you read another book, Optimal Thinking: How to Be your Best Self which shows you how to make the best choices in every situation. There is also a chapter that shows you how to identify the core beliefs that stop you from being your best and realistic simple strategies to overcome them. I absolutely recommend each of these books.