13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success

I managed to slog through to #8 before the chapter title '[Mentally Strong People] Don't Make The Same Mistakes Over and Over' finally brought me to a stop. If you suffer from mental illness, PTSD from childhood abuse, and/or systemic oppression, this book will trigger you. The author makes vague statements about getting therapy and cutting contact with abusers, but spends the rest of the time victim-blaming and telling questionable anecdotes about parents and children. There are valuable tidbits, but they're not worth excavation from a book that makes everyday human mistakes (especially stemming from disability and illness) feel like capitulation to mental 'weakness'.As others have said, the ideas here are very basic but definitely not presented well for a beginner in self-help, especially a depressed one. Check out the sites 'Out of the FOG' and 'The Body is not an Apology' for a better start.

The book is insightful to a degree. It tries to bridge the gap between being a well citationed text book and being written as a "popular" reading book and for me fails at both. There is not enough technical information to be really useful and I personally don't find the anecdotes shared to be amusing or illustrative enough. I normally take my kids to play at a popular fast food restaurant with a play area on a weekend morning and read while they play. When I thought I lost it I was rather ok with that.

Read the other 1 and 2 star reviews. They hit the nail on the head about the content within this book. Most of the book are stories about death and disease and how those people overcame those misfortunes. This is no joke. I'm usually an upbeat and positive person, reading this book actually put me in a state of depression. It just drones on and on with one horrible story after another. It does however make some good points about making yourself mentally strong. It just takes way too long to get to the point of it all with the stories.

Its a lovely book that mirrors the style of the book The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. And if you love The Obstacle is the Way, The Power of Habit, and The Motivation Manifesto...then you'll love Amy Morin's 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do. It contains 13 powerful lessons filled with great wisdom and astounding stories from many amazing leaders and entrepreneurs . The book teaches you how to perceive your problems and people from a different angle and from a more expansive perspective. The book also allows for empowerment on how we perceive and tackle obstacles in a more practical and creative light and allows us to question our fears. Most of us make life harder for ourselves through false perceptions and limited beliefs based on irrational fears and veils of illusions. The book truly does empower a person to really look past beyond our internal conflicts to pursue our dreams and happiness from a different approach. I've reread this book many times as much as Marcus Aurelius Meditations. The book teaches that through change of mentality, change of perception, through perseverance, patience, embrace failures as if they were accolades of achievement, and strong determination we can carry out an amazing successful life. We live in a world where everything is measured and dogmatism and ego is highly valued over true happiness and humility. Our wealth, our appearances, our job performance, our skills, our wallets, our possessions, our lives....everything is a competition within our society and as so it goes...people rush into life to achieve the perfect spouse, the pressure to thrive through unethical purposes in the work environments, and others live life aimlessly pursuing mediocre activities like gossip and trivial matters and in the end you feel lost, miserable, but unhappy. This book teaches a person to embrace their mistakes, to never give your anger away to senseless people or matters, and how other powerful and influential figures have bounced back from setbacks and afflictions in life. The author herself shares an amazing story regarding her own struggles in life. Its a book that I never get tired of rereading and you'd have to read it to understand why.

This book wasn’t really for me. DNF at 34% and skimmed the rest.First, I tried to do this in the audio format, however the author is also the narrator and while she isn’t horrible if you are going to have an audiobook spend a little money and get a professional to do it unless you also double as a voice actor. I’m finicky with audio and gave up on that format after Ch 3 or 4.Second, this did have some personal family trauma in it suffered by the author about some severe losses in her adult life. I found myself feeling really sorry for the death of her first husband at such a young age and the struggles with that lose. But it was like a resume, this is what happened to me and why I’m qualified to help you. I don’t know everyone has trauma or struggles in their lives, they are just different kinds. Some lose a loved one, others have health issues, other mental issues and some financial. Sure, she had some very big loses but it didn’t qualify her in my mind to be an expert for everyone.Finally, I just skimmed through the chapter heading to see that they were1. They don't waste time feeling sorry for themselves.2. They don't give away their power.3. They don't shy away from change.4. They don't focus on things they can't control.5. They don't worry about pleasing everyone.6. They don't fear taking calculated risks.7. They don't dwell on the past.8. They don't make the same mistakes over and over.9. They don't resent other people's success.10. They don't give up after the first failure.11. They don't fear alone time.12. They don't feel the world owes them anything.13. They don't expect immediate results.So the title is a little catchy but overall this list didn’t really help me. I’m really looking for more things with my general life and job change that might be helpful tools. I’m not even sure that if I was in a state of mental trauma or loss that she would get through to me. There was nothing that I skimmed in this that had an Ah-Ha moment to it.