Dr. Sean Stephenson was predicted not to survive at birth because of a rare bone disorder that stunted his growth and caused his bones to be extremely fragile. Despite his challenges, he took a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world including Sir Richard Branson, President Clinton, and his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Dr. Stephenson has appeared on everything from Oprah to Jimmy Kimmel, in addition to online videos with millions of views. The Biography Channel did an hour feature on his life called 鈥淭hree Foot Giant.鈥� Dr. Stephenson鈥檚 message has been heard at live events in over 15 countries and 47 states over the past 21 years. His latest book, Get Off Your But, has been released in ten different languages around the world. As a board-certified therapist, Dr. Stephenson sees clients in a unique 12-hour session to enhance their confidence and speaking ability. He also hosts $10K Speeches, a live event and Mastermind, training professionals to command $10K+ speaking engagements. He and his wife, Mindie Kniss, reside in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The corny title drew me to pick this book up initially. I thought "I bet this is really aweful, perfect for a scathing review." But it wasn't the case.
The author, Sean Stephenson, was born with a brittle bone disease. During his birth every bone in his body broke. The poor baby was shattered, born into excruciating pain. None of the doctors believed he would survive for long, but he did.
Because of his disease he had constant fractures through his childhood, and wherever these fractures happened that 's where he would have to stay. Fragil as he was, moving him would break more bones. So they would have to adapt everyday life around the situation, eating, sleeping, and...well other things, would happen right there in the very same spot. He never grew taller than three feet tall, and is confined to a wheelchair.
Sean went to college and got a degree in political science. Afterward, he landed an internship in the Clinton Whitehouse. Became an inspitational speaker, which led to a degree in psychology, leading Sean into being a therapist. He also has a very active dating life.
The next time you feel like whining about how hard life is, think about this guy...........take a moment, then STFU.
Much of what he said in this book has been said before, oddly though I got some of it this time in a way I hadn't before. Gratitude, for one thing, is something I understood intellectually, but I never truly knew what all these new-age people were getting at. But the author told a story about going out for a walk around the neighborhood, he started out in a good mood but then it took a turn as he looked around and he started focusing on all he didn't have. Didn't have that big house, that family (we all do this stuff) soon he was in a rotten mood. At this point he started thinking all that he did have, good friends, great job, and began to feel much better.
If you are grateful about what you do have, and who is in your life, it's is impossible to wallow in the stuff you don't have.
If only i can rate it 10 stars or above !! [image error]
>> Sean Stephenson >>the author of this book. Now what would you expect of a person in such shape! A person who has a malformation since he was born! He would be devastated, and totally ruined, he won鈥檛 be able to live with all the struggles facing him! Yet he is the most inspirational person... A truly motivational speaker who can change your life...The way you consider life problems and issues... Throughout 6 lessons (in each there are additional inspirational stories would astonish you) you will gain more than you can imagine...
There was a lot of good material. However, the big takeaway for me on this book wasn't the material. It was the author and his personal testimony. All of the principles that Stephenson espoused were punctuated by stories from his personal life. They were truly remarkable.
At birth, Stephenson wrestled with a profoundly destructive bout of brittle bone disease. He was born with virtually every bone in his body broken. Only his parents believed that he would survive.
He beat the odds, but not without consequence. The disease led to "deficiencies" in his physical development. He grew to only three feet tall and uses a wheelchair. Stephenson still suffers from periodic episodes of extreme pain because he breaks bones far more frequently than most people. Despite his circumstances, he has still accomplished much more than virtually anyone I know.
The theme of the book, that you get to choose your orientation to bad events, is commonly held in the self-help market. My favorite part had to with his beliefs about how to maintain friendships.
Stephenson advocates deciding on spending time with friends by observing the energy that they bring to your life. I've always tried to be a loyal friend before anything else and have kept people around even when I should have said goodbye. Time to time, when a friend is found wanting, ". . .it has nothing to do with how much I like or love an individual. It simply describes the amount of time I can afford to spend in that person's company." I love the idea of being able to keep an old friend, who is temporarily a drain, by moderating exposure. The idea that such moderation doesn't have to reflect esteem, is revolutionary to me.
If you're into self-help books, it figures Tony Robbins, a self-help uber commando, prominently. The ideas aren't extraordinarily provocative, but the author's story is. All in all, a good book.
Stephenson's book is a series of strategies for eliminating excuses and taking control of your life. His own life story is one of the most moving points in the book, with the early chapters being almost painful to read.
That Stephenson has done what he has with his life is nothing short of amazing. It gives him all of the authority needed to author such a book.
One problem I had with his advice was that he continually harped on looks, bodies, and wanting to show off his ability to attract the opposite sex. I get that he also has a web site devoted to men overcoming inhibitions to dating, but the constant references just became annoying. For all his talk about getting in touch with and mastering your inner self, his talk about such superficialities ended up coming across as disingenuous to me.
Sean, you seem to be such a lovely human being! ----- a book worth reading
-it has a very meaningful and poweful story. a real one. the story of a man who succeded despite his condition and basically grew into a lovely, smart, kind man. not the story of some snobbish, arrogant businessman who'll tell (actually sell) you nothing but lies and wall street bullshit.
-it contains a lot of (truly) USEFUL advice based on FACTS. this man knows something about psychology and social psychology. it's not a revelation (at least not to me, because I already knew about a lot of the points in the book, that are already part of my life, let's say. which, to me, valides the quality of this book).
-it's not a complicated book. not full of studies about why this particular point is true and you should apply it to your life, so it's an easy read if you're not looking for a social psychology book, duh.
-funny. full of charisma
-the enthusiasm is exaggerated at some point
per total it's a useful book. I thought is one of those boring, full of bullshit personal development books, but it's not. 3,5 stars because it wasn't a total revelation (so I'm subjective, as the amount of "help" this book could serve you depends, of course, on you). I usually hate this kind of books but this time I actually took notes on some interesting facts and tips so maybe you wanna check it out. also, the A-B-C friends rule - a really good point.
Reading books from other people's reading lists is an interesting personal journey on how much more of a cynical crank and judgmental jerk I am than I even realized, but I have 15 minutes or less to dive into it anyway. I will try not to speak ill of the dead or something.
First, the concept Stephenson lays out of effect > cause is simplistic, but within the narrow definition of personal change, I don't have an issue with it. I do see plenty of people who can't let go of causes of their pain and spend lifetimes tending them like dysfunctional Japanese gardens. Personal responsibility is a verboten topic, and Stephenson dives right the hell in. His disability helped act as a bit of a criticism shield for this take no doubt.
I'll call that the good.
Sidebar: I've seen countless variations of a story Sean tells early in the book about 8th grade heartbreak. A girl dumps him because he's not tall, dark, and handsome and he blames her friends. While he may be three feet tall and in a wheelchair, he's awesome inside and she lets her friends and outward appearance dictate who she wants to be with. This is wrong and hurtful to people who have much to offer outside of customary dictums of attractiveness. He confesses that he develops a underlying dislike of woman from these psychic cuts that lasts into his 20s.
A few pages later, Sean complains that he was having trouble attracting his "type", and has a very specific list of the woman he wants in his life. She must be beautiful, fit, smart, and have an amazing personality. These woman don't seem to want a lifetime relationship with a three foot man in a wheelchair, because "they can do better" they are told. When Sean can't achieve all those elements in his person, he reports that he spends years studying the psychology of woman to understand how to attract his type.
Good thing pretty heterosexual woman who are smart and fit have a base psychological makeup that can be deconstructed and manipulated, or that might have been a waste of time.
Lesson one: We are really good at being duplicitous hypocrites.
The book is focused mainly on "health, wealth, and relationships" and how to take responsibility for our own outcomes by being proactive, positive, and focused.
Boilerplate.
Most of Stephenson's examples are also members of the $1.9 billion motivational industrial complex, and it seems like most of what he knows is Bill Clinton, some in-your-face therapy methodology, and motivational speak-ing/ers.
Not a terrible premise (we are really good at self-sabotage), but it's also the usual simplification of obstacles and lack of personalization of approach which seems to pepper the genre. Perhaps this book can nudge those people in your life who externalize every bad result in their own lives as someone else's fault, but I'm not going to prescribe it for the leadership training I'm launching regardless of it being on the CEOs list - seems too much based on individual and not institutional needs.
Next on the list is the 7 habits, which somehow I've never read.
This book does an excellent job of giving you exercises to get you off of your "but...". I like the fact that he uses powerful stories (many autobiographical) to lead into them. This helps with both the relevance and focus of the exercises. While this book is no miracle breakthrough, it is full of solid information that can help individuals achieve breakthroughs that can be miraculous on an individual level. If you know someone who is struggling with self esteem, in a bad relationship, or hanging out with a bad group of friends, get them to read this book and DO the exercises.
I listened to the audio version of this book. Sean's voice is not that of a typical narrator, and can be off-putting at first. Give him a chance. His public speaking experience and the autobiographical nature of a lot of the stories make him an excellent narrator.
I hated the fact that at the end of each chapter he ask you to complete a task in a journal BUT!.... I did it and Wow! It is hard to actualy see on paper how many BUT's I need to overcome. Sherri
I know, the author of this book doesn鈥檛 tell anything new, but the way he conveys his message is amazingly good!! I understood things I thought I already knew on a whole different level. Going to read it again and again, really inspirational
I started this book with my eyes rolling. Yes, I'm that cynufa it seems. I guess I have a strong BS meter and I instinctively have always thought that self-help books were just piramid schemes or just positive affirmations. After ally undergrad was in psych so that was a real science so what could these hacks know that the great theorists didn't.
Well. It turns out everything. Nearly all psych pathologizes behavior. It then diagnoses you with a chronic, biochemical disorder that you'll have for life-threatening in some varying degrees. This then accomplishes the following: 1. It opens you up to taking the psychotropic drug de jure. Again for life or for a very long time. Mind you that the precise mechanism for these drugs is "unknown." It's bases on our "deep" and "comprehensive" understandjng of neurobiology. Cough. 2. It makes anything in your life not your fault. It's your disease you see. 3. It looks for the Genesis of this "disease" by mucking around, in perpetuity on a Tolkienesque quest to find the one true answer. The epiohany. The psychological equivalent to "my precious." Most people then go through this cycle over and over ad nauseum.
Except that it's all BS. Like an alcoholic, it ultimately is a decision to get better. It's accepting responsibility for our own actions. We may have had a horrible childhood and that's tragic but how one deals with the present is entirely in one's own control. You are not some inanimate object floating in space. You can effect change. This little man, Sean Stephenson, has so much in his life to complain about. But he chooses not to. That's right he makes a concerted effort to not indulge in self pity. Are you getting this? It IS, ultimately, a choice. This means being physically positive and thinking positive.
Of course not all pscyhogists were prone to pathology based reasoning. James Lange proposed this as did Martin Seligman. Today, due to the eastern influence, we are starting to see more receptivity to the idea of "positive psychology." But go to most therapists and they'll give you the sake derision I said I did. They'll laugh it off as beneath then whole they continue to counsel you for the fifth year in a row. Now who is the tool?
Mr. Stephenson makes use of neuro linguistic programming. This has been the hot topic among motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins as well as counselors like Dr Wayne Dyer. It has yet to be widely adopted by the psychological establishment. The remaining cynic in me thinks it is due to the fact that this perspective doesn't really make the case for neuroleptics, ssri and their progeny. Nor does it lend itself well to years of profitable therapy.
This is really an easy but, at times deceptively deep book. The message hits home every time you think about the author. My problems seem insignificant in relation. It's that context that is what slaps you in the face. Ultimately most problems are phantoms. They're illusory and akin to predicting the future- for that is what a fear is.
Picked this up on audio and it really did the trick for my long work days on the computer. Sean Stephenson narrates the audio for his book. What separates this from other "self help" books is the "to-do" exercises he has throughout the book in order to engage the reader. Sean was an inspiration for me to listen to. I particularly enjoyed listening to his take about the groups of friends we carry, that he calls our "pit crew" and his anecdotes, especially about seeing only the yellow in our lives and not all of the other colors. I found myself using his advice in my conversations with family and friends and his anecdotes crossing over to my personal life. I found this gem when I needed it, thanks Dr. Sean Stephenson!
A video of Sean giving a talk is provided at the following website:
A friend recommended me this book when I was going though a rough time with my friends. I was unsure to continue many friendships that drained me personally. Those that claimed to be there for me but never was. And those that used me as an emotional sponge to relieve their stress on me instead of handling it in a more healthy manner. finally the friends who rather be passive aggressive instead of talking it out.
This book helped me develop skills for myself. outside of friendship. I learnt how to recognize myself saying but, and drill deep into what insecurities I had. And once all the important lessons were learnt, the final chapters related to friends.
friends are your pit crew. they can either help you improve and get off your butt, or they can drag you down. I learnt who my A pit crew consisted of and who didn't.
Nicely written and very easy to absorb. Some very inspiring stories from the author and his ability to overcome difficulty.
Very common sense approach overall, useful to get you thinking about where your life is at and how to move forward with things that might be holding you back or unfulfilled ambitions. Nothing ground breaking but I guess it depends where you are starting from.
There are a number of references to other motivational speakers and sources.