You Can Title: You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series)

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Manufacturer: Prelude Press
List Price: $7.95
Our Price: $3.96
Customer Reviews:
You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) by Prelude Press

Easy read with great results

I never thought of myself as a negative thinker but after reading this very funny, interesting and helpful book I now understand. Yes, I am a negative thinker but I don't have to remain so. This wonderful book explains what a negative thought is, how to evaluate your thinking and the best part, how to stop that distructive process.
This book is filled with thought provoking quotes, easy to understand explainations and practical advice and a wonderful sense of hope.
You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) by Prelude Press

Not worth the time

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with You Can't Afford. Their writing felt very light and airy, lacking in substance. It didn't help that every other page was completely blank save a quotation.

More troubling, there's a not-so-fine line between thinking positively and denying reality, and the authors here fall on the wrong side of it. Ironically, they acknowledge this line early in the book and pledge to heed it. Yet later in the book, for example, they encourage the reader to deal with painful memories by simply imagining how they would have liked things to go and dwelling on that. I found this invitation to denial insulting in more than one way.

My final verdict: Don't bother with this one.
You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) by Prelude Press

Help and Hope for Finding the Positive Side of Life

There is a ton of inspiration, plus humor and wit, packed into these 500-plus pages. Author Peter McWilliams, writes in the introduction "This is not a book just for people with life-threatening illnesses. It's a book for anyone afflicted with one of the primary diseases of our time: negative thinking."
Although published in 1995, the message is timeless. The quotes by famous people that are scattered throughout the book, are thought-provoking and uplifting. "There is no failure except in no longer trying."- Elbert Hubbard. "A man needs a purpose for real health."-Sherwood Anderson.
"Do what you can, with what you have, with where you are."- Theodore Roosevelt. "Most of the time we think we're sick, it's all in the mind."- Thomas Wolfe.
McWilliams asserts "Negative thinking is always expensive-dragging us down mentally, emotionally, and physically-hence I refer to any indulgence in it as a luxury. When, however, we have the symptoms of a life-threatening illness-be it AIDS, heart trouble, cancer, high blood pressure, or any of the others- negative thinking is a luxury we can no longer afford."
McWilliams exhaustively explores "The Disease of Negative Thinking," in sections such as "The Power of Thoughts" and "The Addictive Quality of Negative Thinking."
He delves into "The Cure" with his thoughts on "Strengthening Your Intention to Live," "You Can Have Anything You Want-Just Not Everything You Want," "The Willingness to Change," "Choose Well Your Companions,"
etc.
The book has an excellent index, which helps the reader refer back to favorite parts. This is a book to keep handy, which offers something new upon each re-reading. Excellent advice for overcoming negative thinking. Highly recommended!
You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) by Prelude Press

An easy to read, entertaining book on positive thinking

I got this book from the library during a very low point in my life. I didn't really have any faith that it would help, but I was desperate. As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better I felt after reading it.

McWilliams does sometimes employ overused pep-talk truisms and occasionally plugs one of his other books (he's written many), but every time I was tempted to put the book down, the next paragraph would keep me reading. Soon I was noting down passages nearly every other page, and in the end, after wanting to copy the whole last chapter, I decided to buy the book so I could dip into it the next time I was feeling down.

In my opinion, the book is saved from its minor flaws by the extremely easy to read format (short chapters, a large-font quote every few pages) and the author's wry tone and practical advice; he knows positive thinking is hard for some of us some of the time - as a cancer survivor, he's been there - but he encourages the reader to take responsibility for his or her attitude and come out stronger on the other side.

Part comic, part persuader, part tough-love coach, McWilliams doesn't produce a flawless book here, but it IS well worth reading.
You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) by Prelude Press

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE, WRITE DOWN THE POSITIVE

THINGS YOU DO FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS. Also read; The anxiety and phobia workbook.