No Excuses by Brian Tracy

In his book No Excuses!, self-help, business and sales author Brian Tracy says that there are several strategies that can lead to success. Self-discipline makes them all work.

For Tracy, self-discipline is the same as self-control, self-denial, delayed gratification and self-mastery. As you might guess from this description, he relates discipline to character. One of the important aspects of exercising discipline, even more than what you achieve by it, is who you become by it. Self-discipline leads to greater character, courage and persistence.

Self-discipline is also important to having a great personal life. Our relationships with spouses, children and friends, our physical fitness, and even our happiness and internal peace can be improved by discipline.

Of course, as you would expect from Tracy, he addresses the importance of discipline in business and work. Discipline is important to success in every aspect of business.

If you’ve read many self-help or business books, you may have seen many of the ideas presented by Tracy in No Excuses! Even so, some are so simple, powerful, possibly obvious and often overlooked that they bear repeating.

-Always be improving your skills.

-Writing down your goals greatly increases the likelihood you will complete them.

-When you are at work, work.

-If you want to be wealthy, save money.

-Spend most of your time on your most valuable activities.

Tracy presents an interesting idea that you may not have seen elsewhere. Happiness is not an end to itself; it is not something you achieve. Instead, happiness arises out of the process of doing what you love, having great relationships and meeting needs. To paraphrase the cliché, happiness doesn’t come from reaching a destination, it comes from enjoying the journey.

Tracy brings up another worthy concept about discipline. Disciplining yourself in one area helps you to discipline yourself in another. Every chapter in the book is about using self-discipline in a different aspect of life. Don’t burn out trying to do it all at once. Pick an area or two that you find most important or needful and begin disciplining yourself in those areas. When you make a habit of being disciplined in those areas, it will be easier to be more self-disciplined in other areas as well.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein

The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott

The Thinking Life by P. M. Forni

Tracy, Brian. No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline. New York: MJF, 2010.

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This Year I Will... by M. J. Ryan

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, but few of us keep them. There is less interest on the statistics of other goals, but it seems likely that resolutions are hard to keep whenever we make them. Self-help author and consultant M. J. Ryan would like to change that sorry state of affairs. Her book This Year I Will… has advice on how to turn goals into action and dreams into reality.

Ryan makes the important point that much of our behavior is habitual. We have repeated behaviors so many times that we unthinkingly return to them when we encounter the stimulus that triggers them. To complicate the matter, our behaviors fill a need or solve a problem. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t have become ingrained habits.

You don’t have to delve into you half-remembered childhood to change behavior, though. You just need to identify the underlying need or problem and find other means of dealing with them. Ideally, the new behaviors will also help you meet your goals instead of getting in the way.

I suppose I have made it sound easy.  It is not, and Ryan does not promise quick fixes. In fact, she warns her readers they will face internal resistance to change. There are parts of brain, power emotional parts that exert a lot of control over us, that see change as a threat and will not easily leave the familiar path. Ryan offers advice on how to handle this, and even how to get our emotional brain to help us instead of hinder our change.

The book is organized into short chapters. Ryan suggests you can go directly to the parts you need and return to the other parts later, or when they seem more useful. Instead of being a book you read through once, she wants This Year I Will… to be a reference you can return to when you need fresh ideas or a refresher on techniques you’ve used before.  Some of the subjects that stood out to me were

• concentrate on “what” instead of “why,”
• dealing with doubt,
• taking action,
• focusing on one or a few changes at a time,
• taking one step at a time (though sometimes we need a big goal to motivate us),
• track your progress (I’m a believer in this),
• have a Plan B (and C, and D…),
• tips for effective visualization,
• performance review, and
• remember to have fun.

There is more than that. The book is not a collection of unrelated mini-chapters. Though the book isn’t necessarily made to be read linearly, I found that later chapters tend to build on earlier ones. There is also a subtle shift from an almost wholly practical to a somewhat philosophical view. You’re not just doing a better job of setting and achieving goals. The goals you achieve and the habits you form shape and define your life.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer

Secrets You Keep from Yourself by Dan Neuharth

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Ryan, M. J. This Year I Will…: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True. New York: MJF, 2006.

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Mojo by Marshall Goldsmith

Mojo, as used by Marshall Goldsmith as the concept and title of his book, is not a magical ability, though when you have you may feel supernaturally potent. Mojo is a combination of identity, achievement, reputation and acceptance. That is

-Who am I?

-What are my worthy accomplishments?

-Who do others think I am?

-Am I enjoying life now?

If you have satisfying answers to these questions, you probably have good mojo. If you lack satisfying answers, or you have no answers, you probably lack mojo and it shows in your performance, your relationships and the way you feel about yourself.

As you can see from these concepts, Goldsmith’s idea of mojo is a result of our thoughts, actions, and relationships. It is not a thing in itself, but it arises from living in a way that we find to be happy and meaningful.

Mojo is not constant. It can be lost and found. It can be too easily lost through bad habits, selfishness, bad relationships, and refusal to adapt.

Goldsmith devotes a chapter to how one can lose mojo, but much of the book is about keeping or regaining it. For each element (identity, achievement, reputation and acceptance), Goldsmith describes three or four strategies to build mojo. Some of these resonated with me more than others, as I suspect would be true of most readers. With 15 strategies, readers are likely to find at least two or three they can use. Sometimes one good idea put into practice is enough to make a great improvement.

You can have great mojo in one part of life, and less in another. Goldsmith distinguishes between professional and personal mojo. Ideally, you spend as much of your time as you can on things that are high in both types of mojo.

Sometimes you may have high professional mojo and low personal, or vice-versa. Goldsmith presents the option of changing “it” (your job or situation) or changing “you.” He doesn’t argue for one over the other. He includes examples of people who improved there mojo from both camps, those who changed their work and those who changed themselves. If you understand yourself well (identity), you should be able to make a good decision about what to change. Reading the chapter on this subject, with its examples, may give you an idea of how to approach it. It’s not an either/or choice. If you have low in either professional or personal mojo, you can make changes that lead to high mojo in both areas.

Goldsmith, Marshall, with Mark Reiter. Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It. New York: MJF Books, 2009.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Bradford Enlarged Edition. 1776. Reprinted in 46 Pages. Scott Liell. New York: MJF Books, 2003.

Thomas Pain came to America form his home in England at the encouragement of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin encouraged Paine to write about conflict the American colonies and Britain. The product was Common Sense.

Common Sense was an essay making the case for American independence. In a sense, it is two essays, one directly supporting the call for independence and one providing background on the impossibility of liberty under the British system.

The first parts of the essay deals with the concept of government in general. In particular, Paine argues against monarchy as a form of government. To him, monarchy is unnatural and hereditary monarchy insanity. Even a constitutional monarchy that gave real powers to a king, such as England had at the time, could not guarantee the peoples right, particularly in a colony where it was in the monarch’s and mother country’s interest for the colony to be dependent. Paine advocated throwing off the British monarchy and adopting a constitutional republic.

The latter half dealt with directly with American independence. Building on his earlier statements, he argued that America could not meet its potential if it did not act on its own interest. Paine saw a confluence of things, particularly the population and resources of the continent that made for the best possible time to pursue independence.

In this edition, Paine offered an answer to some of the detractors of his first edition, especially the pacifist among the Quakers. He argued that peace under Britain was impossible, but that independence would bring a lasting peace. In addition, there was already an aggressor on the continent in the form of British troops. To Paine, taking up arms against Britain was not to start a war, but a defense against foreign attacks.


Paine’s arguments seemed to tip the scale. Common Sense was widely read among the founding fathers. Within months of its publication, the Declaration of Independence was published.

If you're interested in Common Sense, you may also be intersted in:
His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis
A Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

The Big Con by David W. Maurer

Maurer, David W.  The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.  1940.  New York: MJF, 2009.

Even as it was coming off the press in 1940, The Big Con was describing history.  The confidence game described by David W. Maurer had evolved with the times, opportunities, and creativity of the con men, and it surely didn’t stop evolving 70 years ago.  Even so, it’s an interesting history.

Maurer was a linguist who studied the jargon of criminals.  The book includes a glossary of terms used by con artists in the early 20^th Century.  If you want to talk like a character in a hardboiled crime story, check it out.

This study led him to the culture and methods of confidence men.  Con men were the kings of grifters. The grift involved nonviolent crimes, in contrast to the heavy rackets.  The confidence game was the highest grift because the marks would give their money to the grifter.  It was a game of intelligence and acting (and deceit) that tripped up the greedy.  Con men had to be able to mix with legitimate society and seem to fit in with people who had regular jobs, legitimate business, and money.  The appearance of respectability was so important that con men avoided the company of other criminals and cultivated associations with straight citizens (maybe just a little bent).

The Big Con is not a textbook for running a con game.  It does give you a pretty good idea of how con men worked.  Maurer concentrates on the big cons: the wire, the rag, and the pay-off.  These games all convince the mark to get involved in a crooked scheme for sure-thing bets on horses or stocks.  They give him a taste of winning, and then send him off to get all the money he can get his hands on.  When the big money is in, the scheme falls apart and everybody needs to skip town to escape suspicion.  A hooked mark is convinced he was onto something and may come back to try again.  Even if he is suspicious, he has little recourse because turning in the con men means admitting involvement in something shady and possibly criminal.

Maurer summarizes several short cons, too.  Some of these may still be around.  I saw a version of the wipe depicted on and episode of CSI: New York.  Because it was a CSI: show, the con artist was murdered; obviously not part of the plan.

The big cons are not one man operations.  Maurer describes the con mob.  He also discusses the relationship between con artists and crooked officials and other criminals.  He is interested in culture as well as methods.

Maurer comes off as having some a fascination with the con men, even a kind of admiration.  I don’t think he admired what they did.  He seemed to respect the skill it took to pull a successful con, especially to do it over and over.   The con men come off as charming, probably because they were.  They had to be charming, they had to be able to read people, and they had to recognize people who had the right combination of money and greed to make a good mark.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Man Who Loved Books too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

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46 Pages by Scott Liell

Liell, Scott. 46 Pages. New York: MJF Books, 2003.


In 1775, British citizens in the American colonies were seeking reform in the government of their king. By the summer of 1776, Americans were seeking independence from the oppressive rule of Britain. This change in public perspective made loosed the American Revolution. The thing that tipped the scales was a 46-page book.

That book was Common Sense by Thomas Paine. In 46 Pages, Scott Liell describes America contemplating its colonial condition and how a British lover of freedom and his essay tipped the scales toward independence.

Before Common Sense, Americans were seeking reform. They wanted more liberty within the British system. They were seeking to preserve their rights as British citizens. They weren’t sure they could enjoy those rights without the British government to protect them.

Loyalty to George III was widespread, also. Parliament might be awful bunch of oppressors, but the king was a benevolent father who would surely help his children if he understood their plight.

Paine attacked these notions. The king was just as responsible as Parliament for the oppression of the colonies. Parliament would not persist in a policy that was not also the king’s. In addition, a constitution and government that preserved a monarchy, with real powers and privileges, could not be trusted to preserve the rights of commoners.

Common Sense was widely read in America, and newspapers and pamphlets were full of response, both approbations and counterarguments, and speculation about the author (Paine did not include his name on the work). It was read and discussed by the founding fathers and influenced the thinking of many who were not already inclined toward independence. Benjamin Franklin encouraged Paine to come to America and write about the conflict between the colonies and their mother country, though he probably didn’t imagine Paine would create such a book.

46 Pages is an enjoyable, readable, short book. It provides a glimpse into the American revolution and demonstrates the power of ideas.

If your intersted in this book, you may also be interested in: Common Sense by Thomas Paine His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen

Chance by Amir Aczel

Aczel, Amir D. Chance: A Guide to Love, the Stock Market, and Just About Everything Else. New York: MJF Books, 2004.
ISBN-13: 978-1-56731-735-0
ISBN-10: 1-56731-735-9

Chance is an introduction to the basic principles of probability and how they can be applied to understanding real-life activities. The math is not difficult. Someone with a good foundation in arithmetic and algebra should be able to follow it. Where more advanced math might be needed, Aczel presents the gist and moves on.

One of the interesting issues brought up in the book is how probability can give rise to counterintuitive situations. What we sense may be the likelihood of something may be very different than the probability worked out mathematically—the math better fits reality. One of these examples is how random events can, and often do, result in unexpected aggregations. For example, a fair coin has equal chances of coming up heads or tails, but if you flip it enough times, you’ll find times when heads (or tails) may be repeated in hundreds or thousands of sequential flips. Unlike events can be surprisingly likely if given enough trials.

This may be why unlikely things sometimes happen in gambling, because it is so common. Aczel acknowledges the early history of probability as a way to understand gambling problems. He draws several examples from casino games, poker and horseracing. The mathematician’s admonition concerning casino gambling is don’t do it. Most betting games are good examples of probability because the potential risks and payoffs are known. Poker provides and example of dealing with uncertainty. For those who follow the ponies, an appendix by Brad Johnson provides an understandable description of how pari-mutuel betting works.


Not all the examples are drawn from gambling. Aczel also describes how probability relates to polling and polling errors, coincidences, and making choices in life and in games.

A drawback of the edition I read was typographical errors in some of the mathematical formulas and equations. Those familiar with the notation will quickly sort out what was intended, and others can follow the text. In one instance, the formula is made wrong by the typo, but the text describes it correctly.

Gratitude by Melody Beattie

Beattie, Melody. Gratitude: Affirming the Good Things in Life. New York: MJF Books, 1992.

The underlying premise of the book is that the way we think leads to the type of life we have. Thoughts of deprivation lead to a life of lack, where even the things we have seem to be nothing. Gratitude makes what we have seem like more and leads to more of what we want. It makes what we have available for our enjoyment and opens us to hope for even better.

Beattie doesn’t present gratitude as a quick fix or a fast way to get what you want. Gratitude is hard, especially for those who are in the habit of think about what they lack. Gratitude doesn’t start when everything is good (though that is something for which to be grateful); it begins now by accepting what you have as things are and being thankful for them.

This acceptance isn’t resignation. It is looking at reality and accepting what is a beginning point, as all right for today. It is setting aside illusions and starting where you actually are. Gratitude is supported by acceptance, and Beattie gives is a lot of attention.

Beattie admits that she faked gratitude at first. She affirmed her thankfulness even when she wasn’t feeling it. She used affirmations to support her gratitude and counter negative thoughts. Eventually, this led to a change in attitude than made gratitude easier.

The path of gratitude takes some unexpected turns. Self-nurture and self-discipline are expressions of gratitude because they demonstrate that we appreciate and respect our life. Goals are and expression of thankfulness because they are “gratitude in action” and “build on what we already have.”

This book is assembled from excerpts from some of Beattie’s other books (Codependent No More, Beyond Codependency: And Getting Better All the Time and The Language of Letting Go). It is organized and edited to read as a single piece, not simply a collection of excerpts.

100 Ways to Happiness by Timothy Sharp

What if happiness is something you could practice? You co do certain things and those actions would lead to and support happiness. I’m simplifying, but that is the basic premise of psychologist Timothy J. Sharp in 100 Ways to Happiness.

Practice and doing are the aim of the book, so Sharp does not dwell on theory. Of course, many people want to bring more happiness into the lives they have. Only a few of them want to delve into psychology, and there are plenty of other books they can read.

The book is divided into five main sections. It seems to me that this is intended to help people get to the area where they want to increase happiness most and pick up the others later. You can read this book out of sequence. Each section stands on its own and so do many of the short chapters.

I do not mean to imply that the book is shallow. It is not easy to condense a topic into a few pages; most of the chapters are two pages long. I was impressed that Sharp could provide clear, action-oriented summaries of subjects that other books would take many pages to explain. The point is to do something. Instead of thinking about how to be happy, pick a tip that resonates with you and do it. Work on it until it becomes a habit and then work on another.

Some of Sharps tips that resonated with me are:

-Make time to regularly do something you enjoy.

-Make small changes. When you make a small change stick, you can start another. They add up to big changes.

-Practice gratitude. I’m convinced that a grateful attitude is immensely important for a joyful life.

-Move more and take care of your body. Feeling good, rested and healthy contributes to feeling happy.

-Build good relationships. That means making the best of the intimate relationships you have and making friends with positive people who can encourage you to live a happier life.

-Know your values and take action consistent with them.

-Challenge your thoughts and feelings. Are they true? Are they helpful?

-Use your imagination. Sharp suggest several simple ways you can visualize the life you want.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein

Just Say Thanks! by R. T. Kendall

Little Shifts by Suzanna Beth Stinnet

One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer

Small Move, Big Change by Caroline L. Arnold

Thanks! by Robert A. Emmons

Why Good Things Happen to Good People by Stephen Post and Jill Neimark

Sharp, Timothy J. 100 Ways to Happiness: A Guide for Busy People. New York: MJF Books, 2008.