Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers

Post date: Oct 29, 2012 5:21:58 PM

Self-Help Books

Review

This self-help book is designed to explain and guide you through the Susan Jeffers approach to life:using affirmations to increase your self-belief and 'unravel the complexities of fear and thus help you deal with it' (p6). It contains detailed activities, exercises and affirmations.

Some people find this book very helpful, so if you're one of those people you will probably benefit from trying out some of the techniques. However, if trying to keep your thoughts positive does not work for you (it doesn't work for everyone) – then don't struggle on, but look elsewhere for techniques to help you to feel more positive – particularly if you struggle with depression or anxiety.

Academic interest: This is not an academic text (although Jeffers has a doctorate in psychology) and while it contains a bibliography and makes use of familiar ideas from the field of psychology, there are no references or notes pages in this book.

Practitioners: Useful for life coaching practitioners.

Self-helpers: This book is designed for you! It is a step by step guide to this self-help programme and it incorporates spaces in which you are encouraged to write down your own thoughts.

Best Bits:

Affirmation statements, which appear throughout the book.

The five truths about fear (p30)

The 'no win' and 'no lose' models (p112-113)

The 'life grid' concept – a nine-square grid for each area of your life (p139, p204)

About the author:

Susan Jeffers, who died in October 2012, had a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University. She developed her approach to life as a result of personal experience of managing her own fear, after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She recovered, and went on to develop and teach the course 'Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway' (also the title of her first self-help book) at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She wrote many books, published internationally, and launched a website at http://www.susanjeffers.com/home/index.cfm . Other books by this author include 'Feel the Fear... and Beyond' (1998).