Here on ye olde blog I think a new feature will be the "bargain book bin" featuring a review of a older book normally available for 1 dollar or less, but has content that merits mentioning.
This installment will highlight a work from the year 2000, Michael Janke's " Take Control Master The Art of Self Discipline and Change your life forever"
Found at the local Goodwill for the sum of $1.00, Janke was a one time motivational speaker who authored several other books along with a series of videotapes (it is from the Dot.com era).
Janke's work is small, 231 pages, and is mainly focused on increasing self discipline and productivity via a series of self assesing questions as well as worksheets that one designs that are a kind of Get Things Done system with absolutely no flab to be found.
And that is the heart of the book and one of the most positive features of the work, Janke' is an ex SEAL and intersperses vignettes from his time in the military that, in my view, are written for the .com era new gen computer techie types, the stories don't add much to the overall message of the book, Efficiency via Time Discipline.
If the reader can put aside the SEAL references, and focus on the self assessment and goal setting portions, Janke's book can be very effective at turning dead time into productive time as well as focusing effort into finishing projects from the most mundane tasks to the longer term goals that must be completed.
The simple system of a ledger and a box next to each task as well as Substitute Thinking is effective, and if followed, works surprisingly well. Results being the ultimate "proof test" Author Janke's should be given credit for writing a implementable system that actually works.
Janke' s Future Orientation is out of the norm for such a motivational work and makes for a interesting purpose in following his prescribed plan of Self Discipline. Actions now, ones that take concrete and positve steps in a parent's life do trickle down to the children, such a view is worth considering paying the $1.00 this book currently commands.
