Get Off Your "But"

Get Off Your “But”, by Sean Stephenson
Published by Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 978-0-470-39993-4
Rating: Must read

If you want to be inspired to ‘get off your but’ and make positive changes to your life, then reading, Get Off Your “But”, by Sean Stephenson is a must read. Suffering from birth with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a brittle bones disorder, Sean Stephenson shares with us his thirty year journey of his life. He has us realize our full potential in spite of any adversities we endure. Sean makes us realize there are no excuses to why we sit on our ‘buts’.
Sean shares his daily endurance to his physical disabilities to teach his readers we can overcome our fears and insecurities and learn more about ourselves. He gives us practical skills to help us to get off out ‘buts’ and live our life to the fullest. Sean lives his life in a wheelchair with his disease with ‘pain’ as his middle name. When asked if he gets used to the pain Sean replies, “No, at best I understand how to control it.” This is Sean’s message to his readers in his realistic guidebook, Get Off Your “But”. He shows us how we control our own life. We can feel sorry for ourselves, or we can Get off our ‘buts’ to make positive changes in our lives. Today Sean is a psychotherapist and a world renowned professional speaker.
What makes Sean so special? He learned how to displace his daily pain through self-discovery, “Pain was my teacher and I became its good little student.” Sean eliminated all his ‘buts’ and he encourages his readers to eliminate our ‘buts’. For example: Sure, I’d like to change, BUT….. I’m too old/too young. I’m too short/too tall. I’m too fat/too skinny. I’m not pretty /handsome enough. I’m not smart enough. I have a learning disability. Sound familiar? It sure did to me.
I had an unexpected life change at age 55 due to a chronic illness and have been sitting on my ‘but’ for nine months, ‘but’ I am disabled’. After reading Sean’s six lessons in his book, I am now off my ‘but’! Never before has a book gone beyond words on a page to real life behavior changes like Sean Stephenson’s book. Sean’s encouragements in his words and lifelong lessons have his readers participate in activities such as writing responses in a journal. This activity gives us true insights and helps us to get off our ‘but.’ Sean makes us realize we all have challenges and opportunities, and we can choose to sit on our ‘buts’ and make excuses or Get off our ‘buts’ and be successful in life. I chose to get off my ‘but’ after reading Sean Stephenson’s book, Get off Your “But” and I am looking forward to a sequel to keep me inspired to stay off my ‘but’.

Book Review by Mary Crocco