Enjoy these reviews from people who have enjoyed “50 Life Lessons to Enrich Your Life”
“The LifeCOACH Guide is both a fascinating and educational–yet easily understandable–resource for learning about practical applications of psychology in everyday life. It not only informs readers on the psychology behind important life experiences, such as self-motivation, interpersonal persuasion, social influence, perceptual bias, and stress vs. distress; but each life lesson includes discussion questions that can open up instructional dialogue between family and friends. Overall, this book will teach you how to use scientifically-supported principles of psychology to improve your life, with a unique presentation style that is simple (and interesting) enough for anyone to understand.” Celina Pearson
“Dr. Geller accomplishes a challenging feat through The LifeCOACH Guide–He brings the classroom to a broad audience. However, this is not the kind of classroom where people sleep through a lecture. Dr. Geller creates a teaching/learning discussion by first asking critical questions that inspire readers to discuss answers with their family, friends, and colleagues. Through the 50 research-supported principles, readers gain an understanding of the basics of applied behavioral science. Readers will learn how to better themselves through situational awareness and understanding their personal biases. They learn about self-transcendence–“the need to go beyond our own needs to benefit someone else’s well-being.” This is a primary theme of the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Movement. Everyone who reads this LifeCOACH Guide and takes this message of self-transcendence and AC4P seriously will be better for it. The world around us will improve one read at a time.” Brandon Lesniak
“This scholarship is a guide for all readers who want to gain insight about the psychology of life. The 50 life lessons relate to improving interpersonal relations. With applied behavioral science and AC4P coaching–humanistic behaviorism–readers can incorporate these lessons into everyday life for personal and interpersonal improvement.
I liked the way the author uses an illustration and discussion questions to teach a life lesson. The questions opened my mind to different perspectives and scenarios. I particularly appreciated “Life Lesson 26: Communicate with Empathy.” This lesson focuses on different ways an individual can express empathy. In today’s world, I believe we have lost empathy for those around us. I’m convinced that learning and applying this and related life lessons would be extremely beneficial to everyone because it teaches the value of effective communication skills and the power of diversity. Overall, the 50 life lessons are easy to understand and practice in everyday life.” Katelyn Yoo
“50 Lessons to Enrich Your Life presents key psychology concepts we encounter in our life every day. In an engaging presentation style, cartoons add humor to the concepts and provide the reader with a real-life example and visual representation of each life lesson. The discussion questions for each life lesson prompt readers to look at the related illustration in a different way than they might at first. The discussion questions make this a great book to read with a group of people and discuss the key messages from each life lesson.
The LifeCOACH Guide presents 50 key life lessons in a straightforward and to-the-point fashion. Books often present a lesson and then add “fluff” or too much additional information that confuses the reader. This teaching/learning guide enables readers to clearly understand the purpose of each life lesson and to apply it into a real-world context of their life. This book made me really think and consider the way I interact with others in various situations in my life, and I genuinely enjoyed reading it.” Hayley Tate
“This LifeCOACH Guide is a versatile tool for anyone who seeks to better themselves or the world. Psychological science has never been so easy to understand. Dr. Geller uses comics to convey extremely important lessons about human experience. These can help anyone to better understand psychological science, and from there, actually apply relevant principles to their lives.
The world seems to be increasingly hostile, apathetic, and disconnected. One of the life lessons is fundamental to solving some of these issues–“Life Lesson 14: The Power of Interdependence.” This life lesson highlights the advantage of changing our mindsets from independent to interdependent. By transforming self-importance to a combined value of self and others together, humans can improve every aspect of life on earth. Ranging from protecting our environment to just helping one person feel more connected to others, this life lesson is fundamental. More importantly, that is just one life lesson from this inspiring book. If we all took the time to read and apply these life lessons, the world would absolutely become a better place for us all.” Tristan Ingersoll
“The LifeCOACH Guide is concise yet entertaining. Each life lesson consists of a comic-like illustration, discussion questions, and a single-page research-based explanation that makes the life lesson stimulating and instructive. Each life lesson connects to a particular experience I have gone actually through–from my psychology course to interactions with other people.
One of my favorite life lessons is “Life Lesson 28: The Power of Reciprocity.” This is about paying forward acts of kindness. I’m sure many have seen videos on the internet or on the news of people paying for other people’s meals at a drive-thru or volunteering at a soup kitchen. No matter how big or small an act of kindness, such behavior is infectious and can spread in a ripple effect.
Overall, this book was an eye-opening read for me, and could be a helpful guide for people of all ages. These 50 life lessons are relevant for elementary students as well as students in high school, universities, and in the workplace. Out of all my textbooks, manuals, workbooks I have used throughout my education, this is one I would be most happy to purchase.” Nicole Tie
“As a psychology major, I am very interested in behavior and how to change the behavior of myself and others to make the world a better place for all. With that said, I was thrilled when I found out that Dr. Geller wrote a book dedicated to enriching the lives of others, filled with 50 life lessons about the human experience.
I read all 50 lessons and enjoyed them all, but two life lessons stuck out the most: Life Lessons 8 and 42. Life Lesson 8 is about using more supportive feedback to encourage the positive actions of others. My favorite part was toward the end when the oxymoron “constructive criticism” was mentioned. How can you criticize anyone and expect your words to help them? If you reward the good behavior, you increase the chance of the good behavior occurring more frequently.
Life Lesson 42 is about the good and bad of Type-A personalities. As a Type-A person, I could relate to this lesson perfectly. People with Type-A personalities are very goal oriented and will stop at nothing to achieve what they want. Although this is a great quality to have, it often leads to frustration and an unhealthy competitive spirit. Thus, it’s critical to understand the difference between Type-A behavior and Type-A emotion.
This book is filled with many life lessons that make you think twice about how you perceive our world. I believe everyone should have access to this book, so they know how to apply psychological science for human welfare. I love how Dr. Geller is teaching the subject of psychology to better our world.” Jordan Phipps
“I thought this book was very useful and the life lessons are applicable to daily life. I was already familiar with a lot of the terms and life lessons, having heard of them before in psychology classes. Additionally, the situations used were those I have experienced and encountered in everyday life. But, I did learn new terms, such as contingency management, synergy, vicarious reciprocity, and premature cognitive commitment.
The author shared important information and examples with each life lesson. For example, “Life Lesson 22: Watch Out for Groupthink” shares the well-known and tragic example of groupthink that caused the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. The entire crew of seven died as a result of an explosion on the space shuttle. The likely cause of the disaster was a malfunction of the rocket seals due to the freezing temperature. Although engineers of the rock booster anticipated a possible seal problem, the NASA seal-management team denied the engineers’ warnings and agreed with the executive order to launch the challenger. Examples like these are extremely important–they make us aware of these dangers and can prevent them from happening again.
Dr. Geller also used instructive and memorable quotations to help explain a life lesson, as for “Life Lesson 24: Don’t Blame People for Problems Caused by the System.” This quotation from W. Edwards Deming reminds us to focus our effort on optimizing the system.
I also thought the book was very insightful and informative about Actively Caring for People (AC4P) behavior. “Life Lesson 28: The Power of Reciprocity” really enlightened me on AC4P behavior. I learned that system thinkers consider the benefits of vicarious reciprocity when an observer of AC4P behavior is inspired through observational learning to perform prosocial AC4P behavior. I learned that when system thinkers receive a “Thank you” for their AC4P behavior they do not demean the favor by saying something like, “No problem,” or “It was really nothing.” This can make the AC4P behavior appear trivial and reduce the impetus for follow-up reciprocity or pay-it-forward behavior. They instead react to a “Thank you” and something like, “You are very welcome, but you’d do the same for me.”
These were concepts that made me realize what AC4P is really about and what it actually means. I also learned new information pertaining to other life improvement. In “Life Lesson 30” I learned how the seminal research by Carol Dweck directs us to use effort or behavioral-related labels for a desirable characteristic, because labels that imply a fixed ability rather than growth potential can stifle motivation to take on challenges.
I also learned a completely new topic in “Life Lesson 42: The Good and Bad of Type A.” This topic was new to me and I learned a lot of information here. I learned that Type A-behavior individuals are likely goal-driven and self-motivated to get things done. On the negative side, they are more likely to experience a Type-A emotion like frustration, and this person-state can activate hostility and aggressive behavior.
I really enjoyed this book because it elaborated on topics I had learned in previous psychology courses. Just a short list of examples: the self-fulfilling prophecy, response efficacy, outcome expectancy, the self-serving bias, attributional bias, the facial-feedback technique, the just-world hypothesis, classical conditioning, operant condition, and observational learning.
Overall, I thought the LifeCOACH Guide was very informative and I really could relate to a lot of the scenarios presented. Plus, I learned new terms and information about the AC4P Movement–a worldwide attempt to improve human well-being with practical applications of psychological science.” Lauren Hoffman