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annasirius 's review for:
The Chimp Paradox
by Steve Peters
I know a number of people that need to read this book.
I have struggled for the past 15 or so years with the problems tackled in this book, mostly with being insecure and unable to present my 'true' self when it mattered. In the course of this development process, I have established many of the strategies outlined by Prof. Peters and have indeed learned the hard way that I need to learn to manage my emotional reactions because many of them are just malfuntioning due to bad experiences in the past. Since I'd already established much of this myself, I listened to the audiobook more as a motivational speech, although it did sharpen my focus on some aspects. I can only warmly recommend it.
Why not five stars? The book explains the theory but it does not consider the practical application in enough detail, in my assessment. Changing yourself, working against your instinctual beliefs and automatic reactions is, as Steve Peters points out himself when stating that your 'chimp' is five times stronger than your 'human', really hard work. Starting that with some theoretical ideas in mind alone is setting yourself up for failure. What I would have liked to hear from him are some practical guidelines. He mentions once or twice to involve friends in 'training your chimp', but surely there is more. I, for example, found using a diary very helpful for a time, in which I listed positive experiences each day, small moments of success on my mission of opening up and being more confident. It can be a tool for those ten minutes (or more) of daily inner reflection the author mentions and allows to look back on your progress and feel good about it. Especially when you're currently feeling you're not making progress, having some form of tangible measure in such a form can help motivate you.
I also thought that his illustrations of his concepts were clumsy at times. Why do you put confidence onto a different planet, which automatically invokes the feeling of being out of reach? Why do you mix the concept of a confidence planet with moons encircling it with that of a confidence machine with various cogs?
Still, these are issues that could be improved but do not deminish the value of the advice given.
I have struggled for the past 15 or so years with the problems tackled in this book, mostly with being insecure and unable to present my 'true' self when it mattered. In the course of this development process, I have established many of the strategies outlined by Prof. Peters and have indeed learned the hard way that I need to learn to manage my emotional reactions because many of them are just malfuntioning due to bad experiences in the past. Since I'd already established much of this myself, I listened to the audiobook more as a motivational speech, although it did sharpen my focus on some aspects. I can only warmly recommend it.
Why not five stars? The book explains the theory but it does not consider the practical application in enough detail, in my assessment. Changing yourself, working against your instinctual beliefs and automatic reactions is, as Steve Peters points out himself when stating that your 'chimp' is five times stronger than your 'human', really hard work. Starting that with some theoretical ideas in mind alone is setting yourself up for failure. What I would have liked to hear from him are some practical guidelines. He mentions once or twice to involve friends in 'training your chimp', but surely there is more. I, for example, found using a diary very helpful for a time, in which I listed positive experiences each day, small moments of success on my mission of opening up and being more confident. It can be a tool for those ten minutes (or more) of daily inner reflection the author mentions and allows to look back on your progress and feel good about it. Especially when you're currently feeling you're not making progress, having some form of tangible measure in such a form can help motivate you.
I also thought that his illustrations of his concepts were clumsy at times. Why do you put confidence onto a different planet, which automatically invokes the feeling of being out of reach? Why do you mix the concept of a confidence planet with moons encircling it with that of a confidence machine with various cogs?
Still, these are issues that could be improved but do not deminish the value of the advice given.