Book Review: Subject - Personal Life Skills Development

Title: Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life
Author: Larry Winget
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc.
ISBN: 0-471-65465-5

Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life. Bet you know someone you'd like to say that to, someone at work or at home who could do with reading Larry Winget's latest book. Perhaps you should buy them a copy and leave it out where they'll see it. Maybe they'll pick up on the fact that they can use it. This book is for those people who walk around with dark clouds over their heads all the time. It's for those who like to play the blame game-who like to blame everyone else for their lot in life instead of blaming the person looking back at them when they look at themselves in the mirror.

"All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is." So said Buddha. You are responsible for your own happiness. This, too, is Winget's philosophy. Be forewarned. Larry Winget is known as the Pitbull of Personal Development® and the World's Only Irrational Speaker®, and for good reason. It's a reputation he wears as a badge of honour. His latest book, Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life, is not meant to make you feel good. It's meant to shock readers, to shake them up and to make them take stock of where they're at. It's meant to make people become the stewards of their own lives. And maybe it's meant for you.

I was searching through the titles of all the books that I've read recently for just the right one for my last review of 2005 and couldn't resist choosing Winget's book. I want 2006 to be your break-out year. I want 2006 to be the year that you finally take control of your own life and live up to your full potential. I want you to make that your New Year's resolution.

I loved this book because I agree with Winget's message. A tactic I often use in my workshops if I sense the participant is complaining too much about their lot in life and don't seem to want to take control and change the situation is to toss them a quarter and tell them to call someone who cares. I get the feeling that Larry does care in his own special way but he'd rather you save up your quarters instead of making that call, and buy this book instead.

Winget isn't short on opinions. He gives you his take on fitness, screwing up, religion versus spirituality, sex, love, kids, money, and attitude, and why worry "is just a waste of time". Women, in particular, should read Chapter 27 - Selfishness is a Good Thing. "Be selfish with your time. Learn to say no to things you do not have an interest in. You are not serving anyone when you spread yourself too thin. Your first obligation should be to yourself. You cannot be any good for someone else unless you are first good to yourself." (To me, "someone else" includes your children, husband, live-in, your immediate family, extended family, friends and anyone else you know that I haven't included in this list.)

Go out and buy yourself a gift. Go out and buy this book. Read it. Take Winget's advice, and then place it on your coffee table for everyone else to see. Maybe, just maybe, they'll get the message and shut up. They'll stop whining and get a life. You never know. Miracles have been known to happen.