What's Your EXCUSE?
Ellis is really swimming against the current tide with this one in that it promotes an attitude of personality responsibility and getting past EXCUSES when pursuing the kind of life you desire.
This is in stark contrast to a some popular self-help works of late that maintain that somehow you will be rewarded for wishful thinking without any further effort on your part-a recipe for disaster in many cases.
Yes, it is important to develop a positive mental image of what you want, however as the old saying goes, "winning starts with beginning!"
Experience has shown that one of the best ways to help people overcome motivational blocks is to convert their "whys" in to "hows."
Traditional therapy dictated that insight was an essential key to personal transformation.
"Why do I continue to smoke?"
"Why can't I stop overeating?"
"Why has success eluded me?"
Yet even if you do manage to answer these questions, what are you left with? A pile of
EXCUSES!
Insight is at best a starting point, it is action that will really make the difference.
Now take a shot at turning a why into a how. "How can I quit smoking?" suggests that you can quit smoking, it is just a matter of figuring HOW. "Why can't I quit smoking" implies that you can't and encourages you to search for an EXCUSE.
The Forbidden Book is based on the premise that when you accept personal responsibility and let go of of
EXCUSES and blame, you create a kind of trap that forces you to succeed. A great quote I found in the book goes:
"Life is not based on the quality of your EXCUSES!"
(Note: the 2nd email you will receive from me today details the promotion for the Forbidden Book if you are interested. If not, just disregard.)
