Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life (Paperback)

by Larry Winget (Author) "What? You just told me to shut up?..." (more)
Key Phrases: stop whining, highest vision, Other Calamities, Slaughtering the Sacred Self-Help Cows, Money Rules (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life

This is not your typical self-help book. You won't find any motivational platitudes or cute business parables here. This is more of a "get off your butt and get to work" approach that can help you achieve more success, make more money, improve your business, and have more fun.

Larry Winget doesn't pull any punches here. He believes that business gets better when businesspeople get better through personal growth. And it works the same way in your personal life-husbands and wives improve each other when they improve themselves, and kids improve when their parents do. In other words, everything in life gets better when you get better, and nothing gets better until you get better.

This book can make you better, but it will probably tick you off. Winget is direct, caustic, and controversial. You won't like or agree with everything he has to say. Yet his advice is full of wisdom and truth that can't easily be argued with.

Words from Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life that prove that this book is anything but typical:

"If you don't have much going wrong in your life, then you don't have much going on in your life."

"When you work, work! When you play, play! Don't mix the two."

"What you think about, talk about, and do something about is what comes about."

"When it quits being fun-quit."

"Time management is a joke."

And that's just the beginning!

From the Inside Flap
Internationally renowned success philosopher, business speaker, and humorist, Larry Winget offers advice that flies in the face of conventional self-help. He believes that the motivational speakers and self-help gurus seem to have forgotten that the operative word in self-help is "self." That is what makes this book so different. Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life forces all responsibility for every aspect of your life right where it belongs--on you. For that reason, this book will make you uncomfortable. Winget won’t let you escape to the excuses that we all find so comforting. The only place you are allowed to go to place the blame for everything that has ever happened to you is to the mirror. The last place most of us want to go.

Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life is simply a self-help book like no other. It takes on every idea you hold sacred. It trashes the motivational platitudes we have all grown up with and learned to trust. Larry attacks the importance of a positive attitude, the sanctity of marriage, sex, religion, fitness, friendship, money, stress, and happiness. This is anything but conventional wisdom, yet makes so much sense that his ideas are nearly impossible to argue with.

Larry Winget, also known as The Pitbull of Personal Development®, is confrontational in his style, direct in his approach, irritational in his manner, yet Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life is still hilarious. You will find yourself laughing out loud as he discusses his frustration with people who refuse to take responsibility for their lives and their results. Yet the most interesting part of this book is Winget’s emphasis on the importance of love and service to others. He explains that these two factors are the key to all success, happiness, and prosperity in both your personal and professional life.

You probably won’t agree with all Larry Winget says in this one-of-a-kind book. You may not like the concepts and ideas he believes will change your life. Winget doesn’t care. His ideas aren’t for everyone and he readily admits that. He just wants you to look at your life and your business, and if you aren’t totally happy with your results, then give his advice a try. If it works, you are way ahead. If it doesn’t, you haven’t lost anything. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (November 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047177345X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471773450
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,407 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mostly excellent advice about health..., January 22, 2006

By	Charles Runels, MD "research physician & fath... - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life (Hardcover)

The honest, no "kick-butt"-pulled approach to discussing health in the 8th chapter of this book should be read by those struggling to start a healthy lifestyle.

First, a few stats, then what works and what doesn't work about the advice in this book.

The Stats: A report last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that less than half of the U.S. population engages in the minimum recommended level of physical activity of 30 minutes of moderate exercise most or all days of the week. Plus, 15.6% are inactive, reporting 10 minutes or less of activity each day.

So, the practice now determined to be the most important in keeping good health is actually practiced by less than 1/2 of the U.S. population. We live in a box, drive a box, work in a box and claim we don't have time to escape from our box and move around to preserve good health.

Just one of many articles published (New England Journal August 1999) showed that walking one hour only three days per week did more to prevent heart disase than any blood pressure or diabetic or cholesterol drug on the market. Yet, there's still much misinformation out about how to walk, why walk, and for those reasons and more many don't walk.

So, first the most effective advice in this chapter (and then a couple of places where I'd recommend something different):

***"Willpower is totally overated....Here is what works for me: lack of opportunity." Most people make it very easy to find junk food or alcohol with at most a few steps and a reach to a low shelf. But, they'll make exercise a 10 step process that involves travelling to a gym or meeting 3 people in a walking group that varies in it's meeting according to weather, emotional state, and whether we're on vacation this week. Environment is key and making the bad unavailable and the good easy to find is one of the crucial success factors I see in healhty people.

***"Turn off the T.V., get off your fatt butt and do something." Less than 1/2 of people will exercise, and most who don't use lack of time as the reason; yet, most Americans watch more than an hour of T.V. each day (the time in which it would take to walk 3 miles at a very comfortable 20min/mile pace and maintain a 30 to 40 pound weight loss without a change in diet by one calorie). Either watch your first hour of T.V. every day on a treadmill, or give your T.V. to the Goodwill. I haven't been able to watch T.V. in my home since I left home at age 18 (I'm 46 years old now), not because I don't like T.V., not because it's trash (much T.V. can be inspirational and educational), but because if it's there, I'll watch it and I won't go outside and walk or read a book or talk to my children.

***"Now Let's Get Really Ugly about Your Health...is that Twinkie really more important to you than your kids?...Fat people die quicker." Most people without realizing it will use their children/family as a reason to not care for themselves. They say they don't have time to exercise because they're too busy taking care of children or working. They eat poorly because they're stressed about something to do with family.

The healthy think in exactly the opposite way...I must not eat this because I want to be here to care for children and grand children and give advice to great grand children. Instead of, "I must skip my walk because I must feed or transport children," the mantra becomes, "this must wait, son, or we must do this a different way because if I don't go for a walk then I can't be as healthy and energetic as I need to be to be a good father." Health practices become a way to take care of the goose (you) who's laying the golden egg (care of your family).

**"Find a skinny doctor who doesn't smoke." Most people have trouble giving advice they don't understand or don't follow. You won't get all you need in the way of life-style advice from an overweight physician. I think the same applies to the clergy and to motivational speakers. Winget admits he must exercise or else he loses credibility with his audience. I must exercise even with a busy schedule, even with 3 sons who live with me most of the time (& I'm a singe Dad), or else why should anyone listen to me?

You'll find motivation and effective instruction stuffed into only a few words in the 8th chapter of this book.

I'd disagree with a couple of small points only.

1. "You do not have glandular problems."

If you're over 30 years old, you could indeed have a "glandular problem." After 30 years on the planet, many people do start to have a drop in testosterone, thyroid, and growth hormone. Get up-to-date advice (check out some of the other books I've reviewed and my website).

2. "Healthy exercise mainly consists of aerobic exercise - anything that increases your heart rate for a period of 20 minutes at least three times a week."

The heart-rate trap keeps many people from exercising. I never check heart rate when I'm exercising...forget heart rate. Even pro-atheletes have an off season. Expecting an intense workout everytime you exercise leads to dreading the event and stopping. Give yourself permission to walk or jog any speed that feels comfortable for that day (but always go the distance) and you'll accomplish all you need to do. You only burn about 5% more calories jogging a mile than you do walking a mile (it just takes about twice as long to walk it). By giving yourself permission to go any speed, you're more likely to go and the speed will be exactly what you needed for that day.

Read chapter 8 of this book. Sometimes, a "Kick-butt approach" can improve the health of the rest of the body.

(...)

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Questionable Advice, October 4, 2007

By	Mike (California) - See all my reviews

I like Winget's approach -- we all need a kick in the butt once in awhile, but his information is questionable in too many areas.

On Health: Winget insists all physical problems are our own fault. I agree with the theory, but it shouldn't be presented as a blanket statement. My wife was born with a defective heart and has to live with the problem. How did she "create" that?

On Stress: Winget tells us that stress happens when we know the right thing to do and choose to do the wrong thing. Excuse me, but how does that apply to being caught behind a traffic accident on the way to work, a loss of faith, the death of a loved one . . . what are the "right" choices to make when you come home to find you've been robbed?

On Relationships: Winget, on his second marriage and an admitted adulterer (with an adultress as a wife) claims he always likes his wife but doesn't always love her. I don't know what planet he's living on. I've been with my wife for thirty years and, although we don't always like each other, we've never doubted our love for each other.

Those are just a few of the problems I have with this otherwise entertaining book. It's a good read, and makes you take a look at yourself, but please don't embrace it as your new bible. The information is too simplistic and general.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A jerk writes a self-help book, May 10, 2008

By	KnottyFella (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

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This book contains the same message that you find in most of the better self-help genre. `Take responsibility for your life, your problems and your situation; then you can move on.' In short, it IS your fault, accept it, deal with it, move on.

This book is very well written, and makes for an easy, enjoyable read. Larry has a knack for illustrating his points. He very convincingly knocks out the "you become what you think about" theory.

However, Larry has written this book with all the tact, grace and compassion of a Drill Instructor. So if you are looking for a cuddly-feely "it's not your fault" book...keep looking...this ain't for you. If you want honest, constructive guidance for getting your life back, buy this book.

Oh, one more thing...HE IS ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, DEAD-ON RIGHT!