Summary and Reviews of Life Strategies by Dr Phillip McGraw

Life Strategies by Dr Phillip McGraw

Life Strategies

Doing What Works, Doing What Matters

by Dr Phillip McGraw
  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Readers' Rating (5):
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2000, 255 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

With a seven-step process for achieving your goals, Dr. McGraw shows you how to strategically control your life, rather than continue as a frustrated passenger.

Do You Know the Ten Laws of Life?

Life Law #1:
You either get it, or you don't.
Strategy. Become one of those who gets it.

Life Law
#2. You create your own experience.
Strategy. Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life.

Life Law #3:
People do what works.
Strategy.- Identify the payoffs that drive your behavior and that of others.

Life Law
#4. You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.
Strategy. Get real with yourself about your life and everybody in it.

Life Law
#5. Life rewards action.
Strategy. Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger.

Life Law
#6.- There is no reality; only perception.
Strategy. Identify the filters through which you view the world.

Life Law #7.
Life is managed; it is not cured.
Strategy. Learn to take charge of your life.

Life Law #8. We
teach people how to treat us.
Strategy. Own, rather than complain, about how people treat you.

Life Law #9.
There is power in forgiveness.
Strategy. Open your eyes to what anger and resentment are doing to you.

Life Law #10.
You have to name it before you can claim it.
Strategy. Get clear about what you want and take your turn.


If you are:

  • capable of more than you are accomplishing,
  • frustrated that you are not making more money;
  • stuck in a rut and not getting what you want;
  • bored with yourself,
  • silently enduring an emotionally barren life or marriage;
  • trudging, zombielike, through a dead and unchallenging career,
  • just "going through the motions" of your life with no passion, no plan, and no goal;
  • living in a comfort zone that yields too little challenge and too little of what you do want, and too much of what you don't want;
  • living a lonely existence with little hope for change

then hold on as Dr. McGraw takes you on a guided tour of your life to truthfully label the problems and causes that control your destiny.

Life Strategies will give you the most honest explanation of your life and how you got where you are. Dr. McGraw is results based and measures success in terms of changed lives, not rhetoric. This book is a plaintalk, entertaining way to learn to take control of your life, right now.

In the book, the author describes the ten Laws of Life that every person needs to know. These laws are like the laws of gravity - they exist, and you don't get a vote. Learn them, use them, and improve virtually every aspect of your life, from work to home to spiritual to physical. Ignore them and you'll continue to pay the price.

Author Phillip McGraw gets you not to just give lip service about being accountable, but shows you how to be accountable and how to do it effectively. With a seven-step process for achieving your goals, Dr. McGraw shows you how to strategically control your life, rather than continue as a frustrated passenger.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Library Journal
President of a litigation consulting firm, McGraw is also a member of Oprah Winfrey's "Change Your Life TV" team. He advised Oprah during her Amarillo beef trial and attributes the inspiration for this book to that episode. McGraw claims that people in dire situations have serious problems, including denial and choosing initial assumptions without testing them for accuracy. To create a life strategy that works, McGraw lays out his ten "Life Laws" along with checklists and 18 assignments. Each chapter begins with one of the life laws: e.g., get real; you create your own experience; people do what works; and life is managed, not cured. He concludes with a wrap-up of a seven-step strategy, working toward set goals.

Publishers Weekly
While McGraw's presentation may play well on the small screen, it suffers on the page from lack of focus, awkward writing and a relentlessly hectoring tone......McGraw does a good job of identifying many self-defeating behaviors, but it will be up to readers to determine for themselves the efficacy of his methods of changing them.

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Read-Alikes

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