OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "How to Define Yourself" by Chuck Clifton.]

Have you ever had a situation in your life when you wished you could take back an action? An unkind word? Did you ever react in such a way that, when remembered at a later time, you cringed? In life, there are no do-overs. However, we do have other chances to act differently, but we may need help to do better.

How to Define Yourself: Taking Control of Your Life is a non-fiction book written by Chuck Clifton. At under one hundred pages, it is a short self-help book. Although it is a quick read, it is full of information that could help you change your behavior for the better.

The idea of changing how you respond to a situation sounds simple, but sometimes people need help in making that change. This book is here to walk you through making those changes. The book starts by explaining its purpose and the language that it will use, simple concepts like Defining Yourself and Predefining Yourself. Clifton walks you through specific life situations (smoking, anxiety, speaking with friends, etc.) then suggests a proper and healthier response, then gives the reader a specific example of someone in the situation. Finally, the readers are given experiments to try, actions that will help you to integrate this response process in your life.

This is not a book I would recommend reading in one sitting. While the language is simple and clear so that the reader can understand it, it can feel a bit redundant as the ideas of better responses and actions are somewhat similar across the various situations. This is not necessarily a bad thing as people can learn from repetition, but reading this book in small chunks will make it feel less repetitive and it will also give the reader time to reflect and apply the ideas.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. There were no grammatical errors, though I did notice a few places where the formatting was inconsistent (no extra spaces between paragraphs or chunks of paragraphs that had an extra indent, for example). But because of the simplicity and redundancy, I could not rate this a four. I think the language could be more varied and I myself did not agree with some of the situations that were presented as problematic. For example, there is one chapter suggesting that booing while watching a sports game is a behavior that should be changed. While I do not think of the behavior as negative as Clifton explains it to be, other readers may agree with his reasoning. However, there are things that can be learned and used to help make positive changes in your daily thoughts and actions. If you like self help books or need to make a change in your life, this book is for you.

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How to Define Yourself
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I like the book. The title though seems intriguing, but the cover page does not seem inviting. I think the author should use a more captivating cover page. Great review!

I like that you mention the book is simple therefore easy to understand. This means it would easily appeal to a larger audience. Thanks for the insightful review.

self help books are always helpful when a lot of research is done and the author shares some personal experiences, that way some readers can relate and it makes it more practical. thanks for the review.

The opening paragraph of your review sells the book. I think everyone would love to have a do-over at some point in life!

The author has some valuable techniques to offer. The experiments would be helpful. This might be a good book for a youth group study. Thanks for the review.

I think we could all use help changing actions. I know I could. This book is intriguing to me. I like that the author gives specific ways to change. I'll look this up. Thanks.

Wow, I think I need to read this book! Thank you for your review, I will give it a try!

This is a nice book. Thanks for the reply. Indeed, there are times when we wish to undo some things we have done or words we have spoken. I would like to read this.

I appreciate a well-written opening paragraph and this review meets that qualification. I want to read the book after reading about what it is about, and I appreciate the advice to read it in segments. I think small moves in change are more likely to become permanent ones.

I love this book because it goes a long way to help out some bad habits in life . But I think the cover of the book should be more attractive as per the content.

such a lovely book title, but not a really good cover. A book about a hundred page teaching you specific ways which could change your for good makes the book intriguing except for the book cover.
insightful review I must say with a beautiful opening paragraph.
nice review.

I like any book that encourages us to use past mistakes as learning experiences. It sounds like this one is simple to understand and has a good message for righting past wrongs. Thanks for the thorough review.

A self-help book that helps us to change, improve our lives, and make better choices sounds useful. It is good that the book contains specific life situations and specific examples. A pity some of the situations were not good examples. Hopefully, the formatting issues were fixed by now. Not for me, but I am glad you found it helpful despite the issues you mentioned. Thank you for the review!

I like that this is a self-help book that forces readers to think about certain situations and how they react to them. The book isn't about making big changes all at once, rather little changes to behavior. Thanks for the wonderful review!