Book Summary Preview : Make A Life, Not Just A Living

The Big Idea
This book provides us with a healthy number of principles and wisdoms to live by, in order to be happy and truly make a life, especially in today’s highly materially oriented world. These principles on how to live happily and contentedly, according to Dr. Jenson, the book’s author, are intended to serve as a map or a model in order to look at life afresh and where it matters.

Make Things Happen
In Irwin Shaw’s beautiful short story about trying to recapture past success, a formerly promising football player wallows in his failures, thinking, on a perfect day many years ago, how life promised to be all grand and pleasant. Waiting for something just around the corner is merely reacting to life. If you are going to be a difference-maker, a maximizer, you need to be assertive and proactive in your thoughts and actions. You need to make things happen – and not just wait for them to engulf you! You need to take responsibility for your life and future.

A Civilization of Victims
Today, like never before in history, much of the world is becoming a civilization of blamers and “victims.” We blame our past, our parents, our society, our heritage, our “dysfunctionalities,” or anything else we can think of for our existing personal problems.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive
Your decision to take charge of your life is the seed of your cusses. Another way of saying “taking charge” is “being proactive.” This word – proactive – is a simple combination of two familiar words: pro, meaning “for,” and active, meaning “doing something.” In other words: Don’t just sit there! Do something! You and I get into trouble routinely by focusing on items over which we have no control – will this meeting be positive, will my child be safe, will people like me, will I close the sale, or will I be happy? What good is it to focus here? None. In fact, it is harmful, often resulting in worry, fear and manipulation. Instead, you need to focus on those items you can control: (the roots) right attitude, right beliefs, and right commitments. By so doing, you will use your emotional energy in a positive way and actually move forward more quickly. Reactive people focus on the result. Proactive people focus on the principles.

Be Disciplined, Not Lazy
We begin to make things happen when we become disciplined. We don’t accomplish anything in life without self-discipline. Richard Shelley Taylor, in his book “The Disciplined Life,” defines self-discipline as “the ability to regulate conduct by principle and judgment rather than impulse, desire, high-pressure, or social custom.” You see discipline is the ability to consciously control your circumstances. It is the ability to control your life – to put things in a proper order.

To maximize your personal and professional effectiveness, you need to develop and cultivate right patterns through constant, arduous repetition. How do you do this? You must learn two major skills: First, work hard. Second, develop right habits.. . . . . . . . .