Finding Strength and Moving Forward When the Stakes Are High
Genre: Self-help
Year of Publication: 2002 (First Edition)
Author: Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
About the Author: Richard Carlson is the bestselling author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff; Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at Work; Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens; and Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Men, among other titles. He lectures around the country and internationally, and lives with his wife and children in North California.
How did you learn about the book? I randomly found this at my in-laws’ book-filled cabinets. :) I have previously run through a copy of Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff somewhere and thought it was actually timely and helpful at that time.
About (per back cover):
In What About the Big Stuff?, Richard Carlson’s warm reassuring advice helps us learn to deal with some of the larger issues in life, in chapters such as:
- Overcoming Aging Anxiety
- Become a Healing Force
- Experience Calm Resolve
- Retirement
- Listen to Your World
- Let Go of Your Past
- Finding Life after Death
– and much more. What About the Big Stuff? will help anyone going through a difficult time to feel more calm and better able to deal with life’s twists and turns.
My Thoughts:
Whenever overthinking and worry creep in me, I surprisingly find comfort in reading books such as this one. It somehow relaxes me and brings me back to perspective.
I borrowed this book from my in-laws from Kuwait just to break the ice during my flight to Dubai and my expected short stay in the UAE. It turns out having this book will also help me brush off the negative thoughts that may visit me during my long wait (apparently, it was a little longer than expected) in the country.
Not only that, it touched sensitive topics, which I found applicable to some of the battles that I faced, such as grief. I cannot count the number of times that I nodded my head and agreed with Dr. Carlson’s words about acceptance and recovery.
Finishing this book was sort of a drag for me. Well, not because it isn’t good because it is actually great! It’s just that it’s not like a novel where every chapter is a continuation of another. I felt like one has to read each chapter on a particular day, internalize it for a little while, totally understand it and apply it to his/her day-to-day living.
This book is an excellent reminder that each individual you meet is facing a different problem every single day. You might find that yours is bigger than theirs or sometimes it would be the other way around. But, the truth is, problems are always going to be there. It may sound like a cliché, but our thinking about that problem will affect how we react to situations – big or small.
Dr. Carlson presented different relatable life stories and logic that reminded me of this truth. True enough it touched various issues, which are considered “big” in our society, such as death, divorce, anxiety, financial setbacks and retirement.
I love how he ended this book about “Happiness” and humanity’s misconception about it. This may have been first published fifteen years ago, but the facts that he presented still continue to hold true.
With this, I am ending my thoughts about this book like how Dr. Carlson it – quoting happiness. :)
I once heard Rabbi Harold Kushner on the radio. He said something to the effect that “people are so busy chasing happiness – if they would slow down and turn around, they would give it a chance to catch up with them.” Happiness is within the grasp of anyone. One of the keys, however, is to stop grasping.
Happiness is a state of mind, not a set of circumstances. If circumstances and getting what we want were the keys, then most of us would already be euphoric.
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