Getting What You Want: The 7 Principles of Rational Living

I must say I found this to be a wonderful book, but I may have found it more wonderful than you will, because I was literally pondering some of the questions in life that Ringer addresses in this book. I was frankly appalled at so many people shrugging off O.J. Simpson getting away with murder, and shrugging off the rape allegations of Juanita Broaddrick against Bill Clinton. And Ringer addresses this problem (using, incidentally, Clinton and Simpson as illustrations) with going through life seeing immoral people get away with murder. There is much much more in this book, also things I'd been thinking about. If you take what he says to heart, you'll make your life, and those around you, better.

Ringer's classics Looking Out For Number One and Winning Through Intimidation will be tough to surpass as philosophical treatises. Getting What You Want is a good read. Even when you completely disagree with Ringer, (his comments on Presley are from left field) you find you can't stop reading. This is a kinder and gentler Ringer but he still get's the basics across: He makes clear the value of being productive. It's time to quit whining and start doing. Clear yourself of the energy zappers from your life and develop self discipline so you don't blow it in life. This is an excellent read and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Kevin Hogan, ...

This is an interesting book, that gets a bit more metaphysical and philosophical than Ringer's other books. A lot of it is cannibalized from MILLION DOLLAR HABITS, so you'll be rereading a lot of what you read there (if you in fact read HABITS). But there is enough new in this book that I highly recommend it. (And, incidentally, I loved what he has to say about President Clinton.)

This is the best of Robert Ringer's books. In it, he gives you advicefor creating a life environment that will generate the most happinessfor you over the long term. The seven principles are:(1) Baseyour actions on truth, courage, honesty, and effort.(2) Focus onproviding value for others with urgency, rather than on entitlementsfor yourself.(3) Make choices with civility, dignity, honesty, andhumility. These approaches create the best reactions among others.(4) Avoid those who drain your personal resources.(5) Ridyourself of major encumbrances (like a lot of debt).(6) Develop theself-discipline to act on intellect, rather than emotional impulse.This gives you the potential to look for your long-term bestinterest.(7) Learn from bad breaks, and move on. The bookassumes that you know what makes you happy. "Each of us seekshappiness in our own way." So if you don't, you have some work todo before you can apply these lessons.I was surprised and pleasedto see the author emphasize getting what you want without "theuse of force or fraud against anyone else." He was become moremoral since his first books about intimidation.The most interestingpart of the book for me was the discussion of joy. He describes itbeautifully as "extreme happiness identifiable by a higher thansecular awareness." He thinks that joy has to be unplanned andcomes at infrequent intervals. Leading the examined spiritual life,if you are like me, so that you know what conditions bring out thegreatest happiness and joy can create predictable joy for you. I hopeMr. Ringer will have a chance to learn that lesson as he follows hisown advice. The book is full of relevant examples fromMr. Ringer's New Zealand health products company, and is enlivenedwith cartoons featuring his tortoise character from earlierbooks. After you have finished reading and thinking about theseprinciples, I suggest that you pick the area where you have the mostroom for improvement. Set goals for yourself for improvement, andkeep a daily journal for examining how you did. This process shouldaccelerate your development. If you are pleased with that progress,consider examining your spiritual life in the same way.Be happy andjoyful!