Customer Reviews

Taming Your Gremlin (Revised Edition): A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have enjoyed this book for over ten years, ever since a counselor at the student support centre at my university back then recommended it. I have never sat down and read it straight through, but have digested it chapter by chapter over the years.

I appreciated being tasked with drawing my gremlin, as this brought out some of the hidden details of the self-doubt and anxiety that I lived with. Giving it a character of sorts, separate from me, helped me to be less often overwhelmed by my feelings during phases of depression and anxiety. And, the humour of the gremlin metaphor also helped me take myself less seriously and feel more joy.

The gremlin metaphor has been a valuable tool for me over the years--an effective technique for getting my head above water when I have felt anxious or filled with self-doubt. And, also an effective technique for de-stressing and ... being happy.

Rick Carson writes this simple to follow, wisdom filled and practical book as if he was talking to you one on one over a cup of coffee. One sentence he wrote about you using his process said, "Either way, I'm here for you for the long haul" just cracked me up!

Simply stated in Carson's word, "Your Gremlin is the narrator in your head that diverts you from finding simple pleasures inside." He also reminded me how my own Gremlin hypnotizes me to what is really true.

The process is presented at its simplest and includes excercises to deepen the readers experience.

All of this is very valuable AND I would recommend this book AND I think there is something missing because I hardly see my life as having ONE Gremlin... perhaps it is a HEAD Gremlin... to me the Narrator Gremlin wears different costumes.

Nonetheless, overall both the book and the process will have incredible value for you, especially if you take action and integrate what you learn AND take it even deeper as it works in your life.

I heard Rick Carson on NPR some time ago and was impressed with that he had to say. I had never heard of his book until then and I immediately wrote down the title so that I could buy it at a later date.

Now that I've read the book I'm trying to figure out why what I heard him say is so different than what I'm reading.

My problem with this book started right at the beginning with his "trademarked" Gremlin-Training Method (all caps, just as he does in the book). This seemed contrived to me, absolutely false. It was like reading a book talk about the author's patented passive solar windows as their own trademarked "Sun Energy Capture Device." In other words, like an infomercial. This intial reaction was confirmed as I continued to read. The tactics and topics Carson raises are extremely simplistic. Practical perhaps, but hardly worthy of a "trademark."

The other problem I had with the book is that Carson uses his metaphor to excess. This is a danger he should have been aware of. A Gremlin is a workable metaphor for most people as long as you make it abstract. That is, that voice in your head which puts you down. As soon as you start describing its supposed physical nature (the minister, the coach, the monster, etc.) the metaphor starts losing its audience. Not everyone wants or needs to describe that nasty voice in such terms.

I wished Carson had backed off the metaphor somewhat, backed off from from the hard sell on his "trademarked" method, and just gave an in-depth analysis of people's internal negative voices, where they come from, how to control them, etc. I don't want to read something that makes me feel like I'm buying a used car or the next TV control clapper.

This book, based on many previous glowing reviews, works for many people. No doubt that is true. Criticizing this book is rather subjective - if it works for you, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't. You can't debate it. My recommendation is to really look at the text before buying and THEN decide if you want to purchase. You might find that you like it, or you might not.

There are only a few books that have the capacity to change one's life forever. The Road Less Travelled, M. Scott Peck; Be Here Now, Ram Dass; Think On These Things, J. Krishnamurti; and now Taming Your Gremlin. The techniques are so simple and obvious that they often seem counterintuitive; we expect the solutions to require much more strife than they actually do. In a style akin to a contemporary Lao-Tse, Carson lucidly communicates his message with humor and accesibility. Did I mention that it works?

A very easy to understand read! Lots of exercises to use. His work is very much like Eckhart Tolle's - but in everyday language.

I have found it to be so practical.

Like a lot of self-help books, the author has a few simple ideas but winds up padding those simple ideas in hundreds and hundreds of extra words. Some of those extra words seem helpful. The rest make you wonder if the author was ordered to "bulk it up" or something. So, if you are like me, you get bored of waiting to tease out all of the main ideas and stop reading about half-way through.

In any case, the stuff I read in the first half was interesting but I did not find it that it was life-altering. Whether there is better stuff in the second half, I'll never know.

On a side note, the illustrations in the book are generally unpleasant to look at. I'm not sure what the point of employing such illustrations was but it definitely made reading the book a less pleasant experience than it would have been without any illustrations.

You may like this book. I can't recommend it, though. See if your public library has it and skim through it first.

A little book on a big topic, Taming Your Gremlin, by Richard Carson, is a practical guide to overcoming barriers to your success. The gremlin is used as a metaphor for that voice of doubt we so often encounter when facing a new challenge. Carson takes readers through the steps they can follow to pursue their dreams in spite of their fears.

His formula of simply noticing, choosing and playing with options, and being in process, is reinforced throughout the book. Carson relates common scenarios encountered through his many years of counseling practice with his patients. The scenarios are oh so familiar!

This book is a quick read on a topic that can change how you relate to the fears associated with taking risks. Each chapter builds on the earlier ones. In the end, the reader knows more about themselves and has tools to tame their voice of doubt.

Taming your Gremlin is a great book because it helps us to confront our own demons and overcome them. This book will help people who have self-destructive patterns of behavior. I suggest you read another book, Optimal Thinking: How to Be your Best Self which shows you how to make the best choices in every situation. There is also a chapter that shows you how to identify the core beliefs that stop you from being your best and realistic simple strategies to overcome them. I absolutely recommend each of these books.

I wish I would have listened to my gremlin before ordering this book. I thought the cover of the book was pretty neat and that it would prove to be an amusing interesting book based on that and the sample pages. My gremlin tried to warn me that it was probably going to be just another book I'd end up being sorry I bought, but I wouldn't listen to him! Well, it turns out he was right! The best and only thing about this book that I liked was the cute cover; it was all downhill from there. I give it two stars because it you can wade through the poor writing, and the gross examples he sometimes provides (like his teenage ... while looking up a cheerleader's skirt) then you might find some things that will help you; like deep breathing, mindfulness (living in the moment) etc. But there are plenty of better written books about these things and there is nothing new or dramatic in this book to make it worth the hype it gets by so many other reviewers here.

In 1983, Carson gave a name to the voice that others have only recently began discover. In this new edition, he has expanded on the Gremlin Taming method that really works.