How to Change Your Life in 7 Steps

By John Bird

In this highly-accessible self-help book Big Issue founder John Bird explains his seven simple rules that could help you change your life. Whether you want to get a new job quit smoking stop drinking or go back to college How to Change Your Life in 7 Steps explains how you can take what you've been given and turn it into something you'll be proud of rather than spend your life wishing for everything you haven't got.

For 99% of us life doesn't come knocking on the door; you have to go out and get it. But the trouble with aiming for the stars is that you're likely to end up in the gutter. John Bird has learnt through his work with the homeless that if you start by putting just 3% of your energy towards your final goal rather than a gutter-hitting 99% you will eventually make the changes you are looking for.

John's six other rules are as straightforward as this first one 'Start With 3%'. He writes with passion about the dangers of thinking like a victim and of not telling the truth; he shares with us the importance of thinking for yourself and never putting others down and he encourages us not to define our successes by the failures of others and to recognise our own achievements.

Written in his unique no-nonsense style this is a book about 'cutting through the bullshit and making the most of what you have.'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0091907039
• ISBN13: 9780091907037
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Vermillion
• Length: 84 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.9" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Sweet, Simple, Short Pep Talk

I live in Thailand and we have available many books from Australian and English authors, which is quite a nice change from the usual, and often redundant, American self-helper gurus who attempt these days to be 'oh so gentle' and politically correct so as not to offend absolutely anyone's delicate and sensitive emotional equilibrium. How truly tiresome many American authors have become. There is nothing new here, but the direct style is why I liked this little book: it is a pep talk in a few pages, without the gooblegook you get in other books of this genre. The direct style comes from, I believe, the author's own less than ideal home life, run-ins with the juvenile authorities, and his effective work with the homeless. He knows all the excuses we ALL give for being stuck, whether we're homeless or just whinning about how the universe 'really just never confers with me about how things should be.' I especially liked the chapter on how many of us dream up a victim scenario for ourselves by blaming the government, our last partner, our genes, our race, our church, our mum and dad and/or ___________(fill in the blank). The author says: no excuses. Even if you are a victim of some unfortunate event(s),there is no excuse for not doing SOMEthing to move forward. The authors down under seem to have their heads closer to the real world than those of us from the northern side of the equator. Very refreshing to know there is another world view out there than the pap coming from America.