What Matters Most

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: Hyrum Smith does an excellent job portraying the tools we all need to use in our life if we are to succeed. As I just happen to live in the same area as he does it would be wonderful to run into him someday. Most of the material he's used in this book has been used (either books or tapes) by him before. However, like any positive material, it is all worth repeating. The only drawback to this book (four stars) is that it dwells so much on Hyrums experiences- rather than giving usable advice to its readers (the old WIIFM). This book did leave me with the warm fuzzies, which by the way, is one of the ways I rate a book. If you are a reader of self-help books, this is a winner.

Rating:
Summary: "Great ideas and ideals from a man who lives as he writes"
Review: Hyrum Smith does an excellent job portraying the tools we all need to use in our life if we are to succeed. As I just happen to live in the same area as he does it would be wonderful to run into him someday. Most of the material he's used in this book has been used (either books or tapes) by him before. However, like any positive material, it is all worth repeating. The only drawback to this book (four stars) is that it dwells so much on Hyrums experiences- rather than giving usable advice to its readers (the old WIIFM). This book did leave me with the warm fuzzies, which by the way, is one of the ways I rate a book. If you are a reader of self-help books, this is a winner.

Rating:
Summary: Very general, bud good
Review: If you are searching for a set of rules to get your life on track this is a highly advisable read. He talks about the affects of roles, missions, and values on how we make decisions about who we are and identifying who we want to become. It is a very COMMEN sense book which does have a lot of what's already been said alot of other times, but is still well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, puts some perspective on life
Review: Nice book, easy to read, very interesting insights about what to do to make living better on a daily basis. Have practiced the concepts Mr. Smith points, and they really make the difference.

Rating:
Summary: Very "strategic". A good book, but not as outstanding as
Review: the author's first book "The 10 natural laws of time and life management" which got a better balance of strategies and tactics.

According to page 66, the primary objective of the book is to help readers close the gap between what they really value and what they are doing, which the author describe as the most excruciating kind of pain. Along such, the author "prescribed" : "Burn it into memory. Wake up each morning and ask yourself, "What am I going to do today to close the gap between what I am doing and what really matters most to me?"" In my opinion, the author had been very successful in achieving his goal. This is a very enjoyable book under the author's very good writing skill. I might have rated it a five star if I had not read "The 10 natural laws" before this.

Below please find some passages I love for your reference. Hope you can have a better grasp of the strengths of this book.

Page 64: Why New Year Resolutions don't work? Part of the problem is that we have the cart before the horse. We think that by simply setting out a few vague goals, behavior changes will miraculously happen. Setting goals is important and necessary, but it's not the place to begin. My suggestion is that you delay writing resolutions until you have identified your governing values, those things in life that matter most to you, those things without which you would find life meaningless or unfulfilling, those things that lie at heart of who you are and who you hope to become.

Pg 150: The most effective tool I have discovered in whipping the demons is to have regular victories in my life every single day. When you do something right, take a moment and savor the feeling. Even a little victory does wonders for your confidence and motivation. Make a conscious effort to successfully complete some task each day related to something that really matters to you. That'll help keep the demons at bay.

Pg 151: There are many types of diseases that afflict the human body, and we spend millions and perhaps billions of dollars trying to find cures. But there is one disease of epidemic proportions in our society on which we spend little or no money or effort - the crippling disease called fear of failure.

Pg 153: There is a wonderful story about a very successful entrepreneur who was asked why he was so successful. His response was "Good decisions." The second question was "Well, how do you make good decisions?" The response,: "Experience." And then the final question: "How do you get experience?" And the response:"Bad decisions."


Rating:
Summary: Life changing book!
Review: The concepts presented in this book have completely turned my life around. I've tried numerous "self-help" or "self-improvement" books but most tend to focus on the problems you have in your life, rather than your core values. In What Matters Most, Hyrum Smith brings these values to the forefront and helps you focus on the important things in your life.

It's unfortunate some people are not happy with the book - especially when they haven't even looked at it! While some of the concepts may have been published elsewhere, this book presents them in a wonderful and easy-to-read format. What Matters Most certainly doesn't rehash The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People - rather it compliments it quite well. In fact, I've started to read The 7 Habits book again and it all makes much more sense now.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Life changing book!
Review: The concepts presented in this book have completely turned my life around. I've tried numerous "self-help" or "self-improvement" books but most tend to focus on the problems you have in your life, rather than your core values. In What Matters Most, Hyrum Smith brings these values to the forefront and helps you focus on the important things in your life.

It's unfortunate some people are not happy with the book - especially when they haven't even looked at it! While some of the concepts may have been published elsewhere, this book presents them in a wonderful and easy-to-read format. What Matters Most certainly doesn't rehash The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People - rather it compliments it quite well. In fact, I've started to read The 7 Habits book again and it all makes much more sense now.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: the improvised version
Review: The ideas in this new book no longer amaze me. Why? Because I have practised thus integrated them into my life and be 'one' with most of them. I am a better person now - and thank you to Hyrum Smith for his former book. That book really revolutionizes the way I look at things that matter most to me and at the same time ignore if the things that bug me are out of control.

Every idea goes through a refinement process. I thus see this new book as a better version of the first; along with some new ideas that sure will change my perception about life again. Human being needs to be constantly reminded. With this new version, I can look at the same idea from a different angle.

I do not have any complaints about this new book. After all, Hyrum did change my life and save myself from getting an ulcer. Thank you Hyrum!

Rating:
Summary: Very good, and useful, but lacks guidelines for values
Review: This book is great at showing the importance of recognizing one's values and not contradicting them with one's actions. Further it has exercises to help one discover one's values and keep them more in focus. The only shortcoming is the book's failure to show how reality precludes certain choices. I recommend the book Viable Values by Tara Smith to cover that gap.

Rating:
Summary: I'm not the target audience for this book, but maybe you are
Review: This book's target audience is stressed-out business people. So for them, I bet it is great. But right now I am a stay at home Mom, so coming up with a Mission Statement is not high on my priority list. But I really enjoyed the stories about Winston Churchill and Mother Theresa, so I gave the book one star per person. This book would be a great starting point to help you figure out what is most important to you if you haven't done anything like that before with your life. On a skiing scale, it would be for novices. I've been doing a lot of work on myself lately, so I'm an intermediate and I didn't get much out of it. One book that I did enjoy was Dr. Phil McGraw's Life Strategies. It's a quick read because he writes in terms everyone can understand, and it gave me a lot to think about.