Review: Kevin B. Burk - Anger Mastery

Kevin B. Burk - Anger Mastery

• Pub Date: July 11, 2011
• Publisher: Seredipity Press
• Format: Paperback 130 pages
• Age Range: Adult (non-fiction)

Good morning. This is your wake-up call. Your life is a constant struggle. No matter how hard you work, things aren't improving. You're not happy. You haven't been happy for so long that you don't know what happy is anymore. And worst of all, you don't have enough energy to do anything about it, because other people are stealing it from you. This energy is more vital and more useful than gas or electricity: it's anger. When you learn how to master your anger, you can avoid ever being a victim again. Your anger can help you to get everything you want. Ultimately, your anger can help you to become truly happy. But first, you have to learn to master your anger. If you don't master your anger, it will master you, and you will continue to be victimized and manipulated. You will waste more energy, and feel less happy. In other words, your life will continue exactly as it is now. But it doesn't have to be that way. Follow the three-step Anger Mastery Process to: Take control of your life and stop being a victim. Reclaim your energy and use it to create the life you deserve. Protect yourself from the pain of loss by becoming truly Safe. Stop wasting your time on distractions and focus on what really matters to you. Become completely happy.

I received a copy of this book from the author. Here is my honest review:

I'm not going to lie - I kind of hoped this book would be life-changing. I don't know why I expected that (and according to this book, I shouldn't expect unreasonable things like that), but I did want to find a good way to help manage my anger. I'm a generally angry person. I wish I wasn't, but I am. This book didn't enlighten me, but it did give me some helpful tips.

Kevin B. Burk spends a lot of time trying to be hilarious. It works sometimes, and it helps readers forget that they're reading a self-help book. He also reminds readers that they gave him money for this book. A lot. So if you're up for that while trying to stay not angry, good luck. Plus, a good chunk of this is the author repeating what others have said in other places. He uses other people's ideas to seemingly create his own idea. I guess that is the technique he uses to show that his process should work, but the idea of kingdoms of consciousness and his meditation work to feel 'safe' just do not mesh with me.

Okay.. this isn't a review of the process. This is just a review of the book. Maybe this will flip the switch for other people. I can take away a lot of good stuff from this book, but it's mostly about staying aware and choosing how to react instead of letting the anger get the best of you and turning into The Hulk. It's definitely a process and not an overnight change - on that, the author and I agree!

Where we might disagree is in the fact that this book needs some editing. I have a problem with always editing as I read, and the commas in this book are overwhelmingly unnecessary. The organization of the book makes sense for the most part, as it flows nicely from one idea to the next. It's just a little wordy. But it's funny as it tries to explain the whole concept of anger mastery. I just wasn't expecting all the new vocab and concepts. 

Bottom line: It's short so go ahead and try it out. But don't expect life-changing results.

Rating:

3/5 book sharks