How to Read How-To and Self-Help Books: Getting Real Results from the Advice You Get

Rating:
Summary: Making Self-Help work for YOU!
Review: "If you feel that you have fallen short of getting the promised results from self-help programs, you need to know that the real problem isn't you personally or the advice you've received." -Janne Ruokonen

What do you dream about becoming? There is probably a book out there for just about anything you have ever thought about. But how do you achieve your dream? Is reading the book enough?

This is the first guide to show how you can use personal development books, tapes and seminars. Janne Ruokonen will show you how to:

1. Find and use the best personal development advice
2. Understand why you may have failed before
3. Avoid the common self-help- pitfalls
4. Make sense of gurus and their ideas and methods
5. Discover how ordinary people achieve extraordinary results

By reading this book you will see how to get the most out of the advice self-help books give. This is a realistic guide that shows you what works in real life and how you can create lasting change. Janne has come to the realization that many books fail to show the reader how to take the advice and use it to achieve maximum results.

He started collecting self-help books, interviewing people who used the books and participated in online discussion groups. He soon saw a pattern emerging. In the last section of the book, he lists page after page of books you will want to read. I've always thought a good book was one that recommends other good books!

The Contents Include:

Part One: What You Can Achieve and Whose Advice to Follow
Part Two: Why Self-Improvement Fails and How to Succeed
Part Three: From Advice to Action: Making a Lasting Change in Your Life

Janne also gives lists of what people are reading and listening to. Then he shows you how to read effectively and "actively." I like that he says you should make notes and almost "review" the book. I've found that if I review a book I really do absorb more of the content. I'm not sure I could only read two chapters per week, but many people are probably encouraged if they can read two chapters of a self-help book each week. After all, that might not be all you are reading.

Janne Ruokonen has worked as a manager and consultant. He knows how to put personal development ideas to work for himself and his staff and his career includes working at a leading personal development and sales training company.

In this book you will realize that life is far too short to learn everything on your own by trial and error. Why not learn from other people's mistakes or success?

Who would have thought you would need a self-help book to read self-help books, but it makes complete sense.

One of my main problems is that I tend to think Big and then try to take Big steps. That is why I've failed with self-help on numerous occasions. When I sat down and realized that each time I tried to get fit, I was jumping in too fast and exhausting myself from the onset, I started to realize that at time if you take smaller steps at the start, you will be able to more easily reach your final goal. You would think this would be obvious, but ambition can often blind you to reality.

I mean, you can sit and watch a workout tape all day, but if you don't get on the floor and start working out, it isn't going to get you very far. Sure, the tape is fun to watch and review, but the satisfaction comes from looking in the mirror and seeing the results you have achieved. I also found that watching movies while walking on the treadmill keeps me more interested in walking. So, everyone had to find that secret way to motivate themselves. Rewards do seem to work.

Janne says that many people go wrong because they try to just focus on the "goal" and not on the "steps" to get to that goal. He also discusses Procrastination and "The Overload Barrier."

"How to Read How-To & Self-Help Books" is a balanced approach to achieving your goals, gives you the motivation to take the steps needed to improve your life and shows you how to realize your dreams!

-TheRebeccaReview.com

Rating:
Summary: Getting the best use out of personal development books
Review: How To Read How-To And Self-Help Books by psychologist and management consultant Janne Ruokonen is a simple and practical guide to getting the best use out of personal development books, tapes, and seminars. With informative tips for avoiding myths about self-help, cogent advice against pitfalls that block one's ability to absorb wisdom, illustrative anecdotes, "real world" solid techniques for achieving consistent improvement, How To Read How-To And Self-Help Books is very highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader and a superb addition to any personal or community library self-help reference shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Honest, to-the-point, no-nonse and useful
Review: I've read too many advice, self-study, skill devopment and self-help books to count. Some of them have been useful to me, most not.

The problem for me has been either due to achieving no measurable results or having conflicts with what I've read or tried earlier. It can be difficult to know what to trust and which things to try.

If time wasn't limited, I could of course try them all. However, like for most of us, time is pretty scarce resource for me.

What this book writes about is very useful to me. It breaks down failures and success of using advice (from books) into something that is practical and applicable in real life.

While it may not score the highest points in terms of motivational liturgy of wonderful stories, it is one of the most practical and useful books on the field that I have read.

As such, I intend to revisit it again on a regular basis. Not because the content is difficult, but because the practical advice it gives is so profound that it sometimes easy to forget and not to apply it oneself. This is especially true with some of the more conceptual books that lack almost any useful instructions on how to utilize all the information contained within.

If you read self-help books or want to get more benefits out of them, I highly recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: This book can benefit just about anyone. A must-read
Review: Self-help books are amongst the most popular of all the books sold. They are almost always at the top of the bestseller lists. Yet, how many have you bought that sit dusty on your bookshelf, testament to a failed attempt to changing a habit or gaining a new skill?

Was the problem the book or was the problem within you? Author Ruokonen lists a spectrum of ideas and advice on getting the most out of self-help and getting the results you want.

The chapters in Part Two: "Why Self-Improvement Fails and How to Succeed" tell a lot about what is in Ruokonen's valuable book:

Here's Why you Failed Before
Why Goals, Planning and Hard Work are Not Enough (!)
Why Knowledge Does Not Equal Learning (!!)
Learning Effectively
Avoiding the Self-Help Pitfalls
Daling with Pardoxes and Contradictory Advice
Breaking the Barriers to Success

and from Part Three:
Putting Advice into Practice

I recommend this as a MUST-READ not only for anyone embarking on a course of self-improvement, whether through a book, a seminar or a course, but also for every Human Resource and Training professional who will be spending company funds on books, courses and seminars for employees. I will be recommending this book at my company because I think it will help us get the most from any training we do in future.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!