Self Help Yourself

Hello! This episode, I review Make Your Bed, which is a book by Admiral William Harry McRaven. This book started as a commencement speech he gave at The University of Texas at Austin in 2014. The book is ten lessons he learned from his training as a Navy SEAL and has applied in his life. It's a great book. It is short. It is direct. It makes you feel powerful. And I am pretty sure if you read...

Hello! This episode is about Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. She came to fame with Eat, Pray, Love. I did not read that book, but I did read Big Magic. I actually rather liked this book. She works to give you permission to be creative, whatever that may mean to you. She stresses that you do not have to get famous or make money with your "art" to be creative. Just get out there and make s...

This book is not for the weak. Eddie Jaku survived the Holocaust. He is an Auschwitz survivor who gives us some profound lessons about happiness in this book. He maintains that happiness is a choice, that there are certain factors that help us choose to be happy, but that ultimately, it is up to each of us to choose to be happy. What am I going to do? Not agree with this guy!? It's a great boo...

I'm back!! After a long Holiday break and the craziness of the New Year, I am bringing Self Help Yourself back with a banger of a first episode. I read Carry Fisher's The Princess Diaries. I was blown away by her writing...which my wife informed me is well-known to be amazing (Carry has helped write quite a few good movies and written some other books). I found her writing to be wonderfull...

This episode is a wonderful conversation with Will R Young, a CFP, stoic philosopher, and the author of The Enough Equation. I messed up royally with the technology required in this episode, so it is a bit of a Frankenstein's Monster situation...just in time for Thanksgiving. No better time for a conversation about trying to detach from our American Materialism. I hope you enjoy it. You can fi...

I review Cait Flanders' book, The Year of Less. In the spirit of less, I have very little negative to say about it. I enjoyed this book quite a lot. She saves the more self-helpy portion for the end after telling you of her experience with her own experiment. It is a refreshing book that organically highlights some common and helpful self improvement tips. Please go check it out. Email me at s...

This book is a real mishmash for me. It reads like it was written in the 1950s but references stuff that has happened in the relative recent past. The book was published in 2004 for goodness sake! I have organized my comments about this book in order of worst tip to bets tips. Honestly, there are some fantastic tips in here that I have used to Big Success in my Relationships. And you can too! Emai...

Hey gang. I interviewed Colby Wilk, an Intuitive Guide and Wayfinder. He is all about what he calls self-acceptance. We discussed his advice for working toward self-acceptance. He explained that improvement he sees in his clients usually happens once that person accepts the situation or circumstances that person is in and then concentrates on learning from, rather than fighting through, the situat...

Hello all! This episode is all about Charlamagne tha God's book, Get Honest or Die Lying: Why Small Talk Sucks. This book is fantastic! I really enjoyed it. I feel like I learned a lot...even if his friend Aaron thinks I am the enemy. Come see what I loved so much about this book and then check out the book for yourself! Email the pod at selfhelpyourselfpodcast@gmail.com

I listened to Drew Afualo's LOUD this week. Spoiler alert: I did not really like it. But it's not for me. In fact, I am the enemy. So, I think it's understandable why I wouldn't like it, to an extent. But the book illustrates some of the living contradiction that Drew Afualo embodies. She claims that our society is driven by pleasing men, but she has made her living by making fun of men. She claim...

Sorry this one is getting to you a tad late. But I think the wait will be worth it. I review the fantastic David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. I will be reviewing more books from him. David and Goliath is a wonderfully positive book that gave me some great insights on how I could improve how I view myself and how I try to deal with obstacles. Write me at selfhelpyourselfpodcast@gmail.com

Hey all! This episode is about Lysa TerKeurst's Good Boundaries and Goodbyes. It was published in 2022. Lysa is a NYT best selling author. She has written 12 books so far in her career as an author. She is a founder of Proverbs 31 Ministries and does a lot of preaching and speaking with religious groups. The book is a good introduction to setting and enforcing boundaries. I think it could have...

Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful week. I review Don Miguel Ruiz's book The Four Agreements this episode. Spoiler alert: I did not like it. The best part about it are the actual agreements he specifies, but the rest of the book is basically flimsy gibberish. So, maybe just find a summary of it online somewhere...or listen to this podcast to get the best from this book! selfhelpyourselfp...

This episode, I am reviewing Katie Ledecky's Just Add Water. It is a memoir about her youth and journey as a swimmer. She is the most decorated American female swimmer in history. Her memoir focuses on her life as a swimmer. She glosses over most of her childhood and adolescence. She focuses on the swimming and her journey to multiple Olympic gold medals. There isn't much struggle discusse...

AND WE'RE BACK!! I apologize for such a long hiatus. Summer travel kind of killed me off for a bit there. My kids are back in school and I am on the road to recovery. So, here is a fitting book, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. I try to summarize the arguments against the sciencey part of this book, but know that I liked this book overall. Big takeaway: don't let trauma rul...

My apologies for the late release on this. I honestly thought I had done it only to find out that I had clearly not. This book is amazing. No bones about it and no need to beat around the bush. I loved it. Yes, it has some serious language and sure, it deals with some very dark topics (mental health and suicide) so definitely do not listen to it with kids around. But it is so refreshingly honest a...

This is a great book. Very interesting. I love the stories that Charles Duhigg includes. Duhigg does a great job illustrating how powerful habits are, how difficult they can be to change, and how impactful replacing one bad habit with one good habit can be. It is a motivational book. It has changed how I think about habits and agency. However, I think that if you are looking for a more helpful boo...

I'm back! I apologize for the long hiatus. I was out of town and then just sick and kind of fed up with stuff. But, now I am back! Which is kind of perfect given the book I review this episode. Grit, by Angela Duckworth, is a great book about rising above failure and endurance. I liked the last third much better than the first two, and I think her pointers on how to parent to develop gritty ki...

This episode, I tidy up my act...and my sock drawer. This one is all about Marie Kondo's book about tidying up our house and tidying up our lives. I actually liked the book, though I think it is catered to the singles out there in the world...which maybe wasn't a great choice on my part for the Valentine's Week episode. Oh well! Come see what sparked joy for me in this book and listen...

I hope you all had a wonderful week. This episode is my review of Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation. It is a very interesting book. I think it is well presented, well thought out, and well argued. I agreed with just about everything in this book. I would love for you to point out to me where I, and Mr. Haidt, are wrong. Email the podcast at seflhelpyourselfpodcast@gmail.com

I had the pleasure of listening to this book and loved it. It is heavy. It deals with trauma, focusing on childhood trauma...so it covers just about every horrible thing that can happen to a child in this day and age. But it is about how to help children with that trauma, and how to avoid inducing trauma responses. Fascinating stuff. I hope you enjoy my summary and thoughts. Email me at selfhelpyo...

This episode, I take a look at The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. This book dives into Adlerian Psychology...and I am not sure how accurately Adlerian Psychology is explained here because I know nothing about Adlerian Psychology. I also think that the authors did the translation from Japanese into English. All that said...I did not like this book. It seems too simplist...

Hello! I hope you are all doing well and are safe. My family and I are doing just fine. Luckily, we weren't too affected by the fires. And my heart and prayers go out to those who were. This week, I review Brene Brown's Dare to Lead. Spoiler...I did not like it...most of it. But I did like one aspect of it quite a lot. Listen to the episode to find out what it is and see if you agree! As a...

Happy New Year!! I wish everyone a wonderful 2025. In celebration of the new year, I read Fluke by Dr. Brian Klaas. The book isn't really a "self-help" book, but it will influence the way you think about the world and where you fit in it. I found this book very interesting, thought-provoking, and disagreed with some of Dr. Klaas's arguments (but who am I?). All things considered, I would recommend...

Hello! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. This is the final episode of 2024! What an amazing year. I give you my best of and worst of lists from the 30ish books I read this year. I hope you enjoy and agree(?). Please, let me know if you don't agree. What were your favorite books? Write the podcast at selfhelpyourselfpodcast@gmail.com. Leave me some reviews, comments, and share this podcast with a...