Review by Jonas+Ginger -- If life stinks get your head o...

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Jonas+Ginger
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Review by Jonas+Ginger -- If life stinks get your head o...

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[Following is a volunteer review of "If life stinks get your head outta your buts" by Mark L. Wdowiak.]
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2 out of 4 stars
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Book Review of If Life Stinks, Get Your Head Outta Your Buts: A No-Nonsense Guide To Happiness And Success
by Mark L Wdowiak

As you might expect from the title, If Life Stinks, Get Your Head Outta Your Buts: A No-Nonsense Guide to Happiness and Success, by Mark L. Wdowiak, speaks directly to the audience in the second person with a tone that is informal and conversational, but not equal. The author is the teacher/expert and the reader is the student who has no prior knowledge of how to live a happy and successful life. The premise of the book is that one must take responsibility for his or her own life, the way the author has in his life, in order achieve happiness and success. The book is a thorough compilation of topics on how to move forward in a positive way, specifically, taking responsibility for yourself, changing negative thoughts to positive, and taking action toward your goals. Wdowiak had success changing his life in this way and is encouraging others to use these three steps to change their own lives for the better. A clear picture of Wdowiak overcoming specific challenges, how he applied the three steps to his own life, and what his own successes were, would make his point more convincing, and the book a more compelling read.

The book is organized in three different sections which reflect Wdowiak’s "Three Areas of Critical Consideration". He calls these "Crawling": accepting full responsibility for yourself, "Walking": taking control over your thinking, and "Running": taking action to achieve positive changes you want in your life. In chapter five he says these three areas are determinate of whether you succeed or fall short in your life. However, there was no evidence or specific examples given to back this claim. Throughout the book, statements are often made as fact without evidence to back it up. For example, in chapter two he writes “if you focus on positivity, you will get positive results. This is a fact of life…” If this is actually a fact, then it should be backed by some evidence, a study, or at least an example of when this has happened in his own life or someone else’s. There was no bibliography in the book sighting references, although he did acknowledge several authors in the acknowledgements.

Wdowiak writes about many different self-help and self-motivation techniques. Most of the ideas are not novel, but recognized from various other self-help books. Examples of the topics covered include taking responsibility for oneself and not blaming problems on other people, learning form all of life’s situations whether good or bad, changing our lives by changing our thoughts to focus on positive thoughts rather than negative, not worrying about other people’s opinions of us, taking care of ourselves first to be a better asset to those around us, committing to change instead of saying we are trying to change, not being controlled by our fears, and setting specific goals that focus on what is of value to us.

The "About The Author" section states that Wdowiak “has overcome challenges and mediocrity to thrive and become a successful entrepreneur and author” without any details about what those challenges were or what type of entrepreneurial successes he has accomplished, which leaves the reader wondering why it is so vague. It was a relief in the 4th chapter when the author finally used an example from his own life, a divorce. He mentions his divorce, but the reader is left to guess what particular challenges he faced during the divorce and how he used his techniques to overcome whatever the challenges were. Some descriptive details about Wdowiak’s challenges and entrepreneurial successes would be helpful in drawing an audience to the book.

Wdowiak does a good job of organizing many topics on self-improvement into a set of three general parts that are easy for the reader to follow. He cares about his subject and wants others to know the way to find success from challenges and turn their life around the way he did. He has knowledge of the topic and has applied it to his own life to find success, but we are left to guess how he has applied the knowledge to his life, in what situations, and what type of entrepreneurial success he has experienced as a result.

I rate this book a 2 out of 4 stars. It is a collection of many points on positive thinking and changing one’s life in a positive way that people may find helpful, especially if they have not read many other self-help books. However, there are many other books of the same genre that will encompass the ideas presented here with evidence and real life experiences to back the ideas.

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If life stinks get your head outta your buts
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