Lessons for Living

What Only Adversity Can Teach You

By: Phil Stutz

Narrated by: JC Mackenzie

Profound essays that cut through the messiness of life to help you get the good from the bad—by famed therapist Phil Stutz, the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Tools and star of the Netflix documentary Stutz

“Is there another way? Can you live life with its conflicts, uncertainties, and disappointments and somehow feel good about yourself? You can. But it requires a completely new orientation. . .”

There are issues, and there are issues—love, loss, success, failure, hope, regret, life, death. How can we even begin to think clearly about dilemmas so universally confounding? Phil Stutz has spent his life pondering the big challenges that we all face, and this profound book puts the conclusions he’s reached at your fingertips.

Stutz has been writing these remarkably insightful short essays since the late 1990s, which are collected here for the first time, along with new insights specific to the unique challenges of today. Each one will change the way you think, but taken all together, this book becomes something far more than the sum of its parts: a compendium of human experience and knowledge that will reframe your worldview. There are hard truths here—the acknowledgment that life is full of pain and not a single one of us is special enough to escape it—but we need to understand and accept them in order to realize our full potential.

While The Tools explains the general concepts and five specific practices that Stutz employs in treatment, Lessons for Living addresses real-world circumstances, such as the needs of children, rising above envy, defeating your bad habits, the positive side of anger, and facing insecurities, offering a new way to think about life itself.

©2023 Phil Stutz (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Stutz lays a clear path to self-acceptance and self-love. . . . makes for compelling reading.”—Booklist

Great information but not narrated by Stutz & Michaels

That about covers it but I need to pad this review out to fifteen words minimum

Super useful insights!

I really liked the way Phil sets up the helpful insights with real examples. So much in this short book that is helpful for moving you from stuck to unstuck.

Great for personal growth

This book has helped me look within myself to become stronger. I highly recommend for your own journey.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Really mind opening. Five years ago I would not have felt this book the way that I did now.
I have already started my second journey through it.
Phil's other books The Tools and Coming Alive seem to be the text books for this book.
The Wisdom and life perspectives in this book are treasury's.
Thank You Phil, I loved it. All the best to you.

Wisdom for life

Easy to understand practical teachings for life . Helpful for anyone who wants to truly become a better person.

The best wisdom for living in todays world

Wonderful concrete tools for not just surviving but thriving in todays broken, disorienting and unbalanced world.

Real life talk, actionable advice and life impacting read

Real life talk, actionable advice and life impacting read. Listen and learn-your future life will thank you.

Not another psycho babble

This is a very practical book for everyday living. Now that I am a lot older I am finding a second wind in my life because of these practical tools. I am looking forward to passing these on to my children in ACTIONs.

get the book!

I've read everything this man has written or co-written, and I wasn't going to miss this one. This one is a reflection on how his life's work came to be, and how he came to develop the methods he uses.

Phil Stutz's teachings are no-nonsense in that he doesn't bypass the truth that life will include pain and require work. Having said that, he also developed an active method of therapy by which you can manage your inner workings, and so that you can "get out of your own way" and create a life you want. I suggest reading everything he's written, including this book.

Short, concise, powerful

Great short read/listen. Takeaways were plenty. Valuable information.
Worth the time to read/listen.