Self-Defeating Thinking Habits - How to Change Lifelong

Wayne Dyer continues to inspire and touch my life in love and gratitude and intention. I continue to read and re-read his books and teachings and incorporate the wisdom into action in my life. He will remain a positive influence as I continue to practice his sharing in my life.

I had read 2 chapters before my sister slipped off with it. I liked the first two chapters so well, that I have ordered the DVD to watch. I have enjoyed everything so far that Dr. Dyer has written or produced.

Good ideas tortured by terrible writing and editorial decisions. As one reviewer noted, nothing really new here, but it does contain good stuff that could help someone looking to make major life changes. That is, if the reader can crawl through the turgid prose and useless content. Kind of like looking for a diamond ring that accidentally fell into the compost pile.

First, the author's thinking is schizo. We find eighteen (yes, a one followed by an eight) "types of excuses." And, he hints that there may be more. Nuclear physicists are more parsimonious. This is just laundry list after laundry list.

Second, much like a typical NPR "host and interviewer," we learn far more about the author than about the topic. Oh, he swims a lot? And, he quit smoking. And, he likes to quote Buddhist writing, because it is, you know, cool. Enough, already!

Finally, the editors should be flogged. How did anyone allow such agonized writing? I'm guessing that he used the same editorial staff that "helped" with Rowling's last five Harry Potter books!

This should have been a short, punchy book of, say, fifty or so pages, or, even better, a well-focused article or two. It's an awful lot of work to dig out a well-used cubic zirconia ring!

Excuses Begone! is another helpful book by Dr. Dyer. I have been reading his books since the 70's and have always felt better about life after doing so. There is no excuse for not reading this book. I recommend it for everyone, but especially for people who don't realize that by making the right choice (for them) they can live a happier life.

The book provides alot of ideas that people can apply to their own lives and become better individuals. I think the book can help a person achieve some level of personal freedom by changing one's attitude.

Excuses Begone! is entrenched in the lessons taught by Lao Tzu, psychologists William James and Abraham Maslow and Theologian Thomas Troward, in addition to the work of Henry David Thoreau and more recent scientific research that "what you are is what you believe, not what you were handed genetically." In fact Dyer uses no less than 160 quotes from other sources to back up his wonderful paradigm to help us shift into an excuse-free life.

Referring to the scientific work of Richard Brodie, in his book Virus in the Mind Dr Dyer says much of our thinking is "a thought belief, or attitude in your mind that....spread(s) to and from other people's minds." Effectively our thoughts are contaminated with an excuse virus. We are all essentially hosts of a virus that Dr Dyer refers to as a Catalogue of Excuses. Many of which were picked up as children.

"By the age of six or seven we've all been programmed with an endless inventory of memes that act very much like a virus." "Once a meme is in your mind, it can and will subtly influence your behavior."

Similarly Bertrand Russell told us "From childhood upward, everything is done to make the minds of men and women conventional and sterile." And Lao Tzu told us "Every human being's essential nature is perfect and faultless, but after years of immersion in the world we easily forget our roots and take on a counterfeit nature." Dr Dyer adds;

"Your subconscious mind may be so programmed that you allow all of these memes or mind viruses to dictate your options in life."

The good news is according to Dr Dyer and the detailed research;

"You can change any excuse pattern, no matter how long or pervasive the conditioning process."

Throughout Excuses Begone! we are introduced to many examples in Dr Dyer's life of how he has overcome `the virus excuse in his own mind' infected he says growing up in multiple foster homes, overcoming addictions, cant's and even labels that he had in later life as being `absent-minded.'

As a great overview of what we can expect by ridding our mind of the excuse virus quoting from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau Dr Dyer writes "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour."

"There are four words in Thoreau's quote that I want to highlight--encouraging, unquestionable, elevate, and conscious."

1. Excuses Begone! is encouraging you to challenge patterns and feel inspired by a newfound awareness of the life hidden beneath your excuses. Invite yourself to move out of established thought patterns, and realize that there is nothing standing

in your way of living at your highest levels.

2. You have an unquestionable ability to eliminate excuses--they'll get up and go when they're revealed as the false beliefs that they are.

3. You elevate your life by taking responsibility for who you are and what you're choosing to become. You can transcend the ordinary, mundane, and average with thoughts of greater joy and meaning; you can decide to elevate your life, rather than have it stagnate or deteriorate with excuses.

4. You can bring your desires to consciousness by disconnecting the power from your subconscious so that it can't continue to run your life. Your subconscious (habitual) mind is accessible, so unearth the excuses buried deep within you. Become conscious!

I think that is a great way to look at Thoreau's philosophy and certainly a way I would welcome living my life.

He introduced some concepts here (memes as viruses of the mind for example) that I found very insightful and helpful. However, there are too many personal stories that offered no lesson to me. Also, he gave us a long list of typical excuses. I could have come up with more, and the mere fact that he called them out did nothing for me. Too many philosophers, psychologists, and self-help gurus think that once they can conceptualize something and give it a label, it is genius! I think that he could have condensed the useful portions into a 2 or 3 disk collection. 7 CDs of his personal stories about swimming, and meeting famous people, being told to an audience gathered near his home in HAWAII, was not inspiring to me.

Dr. Wayne Dyer outdoes himself once again. This is a book EVERYONE should read because---believe me when I tell you---EVERYONE has lifelong, debilitating excuses that we mostly subconsciously cling to and that often manifest as a tributary of fear, stymying the fulfillment of our true passions, intentions, and desires. This is an exceptional book, at once easy to read and understand while provoking the very awareness of the thoughts that hold us prisoner to a mediocre life. Keep your post-it note pad handy, you will be flagging every page containing powerful positive affirmations or wonderful quotes from the masters. If you have loved Dr. Dyer's work before, as I have, you will love him even more through this work of passion, compassion, and ultimate truth about ourselves. This is an important writing, a gift from a wonderful, important, loving man. I am grateful to him, to his message, for the blessings we receive through his life's work.

Being a big Wayne Dyer reader and having read most of his past books ... I had high hopes for this one ... but afterall ... do you need another book from Wayne! Well the answer is yes!

Wayne has proven that his books and writing both have improved over time. I loved his book about the Tao, A Spiritual Solution and some of his past titles ... but this is the best! If you are looking for a book to get you off the couch and into action about for your life this is the one to purchase (Although ... you should finish the book ... or at least probably put it down before you head out the door).

He delivers a fresh, meaningful, and poignant message in this book that will have you thinking about some of the more important issues in your own life. I recommend reading this book with Virus Of The Mind at the same time as they will go great together and create a meaningful push together. Although ... if you are looking to only pickup 1 "self help" book this month ... Pickup Excuses Begone.

For WHATEVER you are trying to accomplish in life, this is an excellent concept to incorporate into your life! No matter what stage or phase you are going through in your life or any books or belief systems you are following this is still an excellent referral book to keep you on track and moving forward.