Product Description: This is a lively, light approach to a deadly serious subject - our lives. It combines humour, radical wisdom, and new culture spirituality to teach the mechanics and spirit of Non-violent Compassionate Communication to cure 'Niceitis', a hereditary disease. The author has shown that non-violent communication works wonders, in even the roughest of situations. He's used it with street gangs in San Diego, combined groups of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East, and among the Croats, Serbs, and Muslims of the Balkans during the Bosnian war. PTA meetings, business conflicts and marital custody battles call all be utterly transformed by these techniques. This book takes us from behind the wall of culturally conditioned incenses, providing us with the tools we need for self-responsible, non-judgemental, clear and conscious honesty.
Don't waste your Real money I don't have time to give this book a thorough review, but I just wanted to chime-in regarding my STRONG disappointment. I couldn't even finish it. There might be some nuggets in there somewhere, but I doubt it's worth the agony.
The author made up lots of lines just for "dramatic effect", and he coined some very annoying terms -- they're distracting. He doesn't distinguish between tough love and abuse and he doesn't articulate what being real, or authentic, truly is -- it's about being loving. If he intended to teach about being loving, he failed.
I started out enthusiastically underlining and drawing stars beside sentences, but shortly that gave way writing "B.S." in the margin over and over. I stopped reading about the time he wrote, "It never pays off to sacrifice," and two pages later I wrote in the margin, "Is this guy nuts? I want my money back." I was done!
The only concept of his I liked was that we should be "real" nice, not just nice.
advice your mom didn't give Wish i'd learned a lot of these skills early in life. A logical, reasonable approach to improving relationships.
Refreshing! I loved it and bought several copies. First, I need to say, if you haven't already read Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values (Nonviolent Communication Guides) be sure to read it also. After enjoying Being Genuine: Stop Being Nice, Start Being Real I discovered this book - and I found it so compelling that I've bought several copies to share and I've even contacted the author. I plan to bring Kelly to Rockford, IL, to do workshops. NVC helps people connect on a profound level, yet at times, it seems so sweet that my teeth hurt! Kelly has recovered from the "slavery of people pleasing" to a genuine honesty and deep compassion for self and others, with many insights that are helping me to integrate NVC into my life. And I love his fun twists of language: "A fight to the life!" and "Giraffe Nazi."
Assumes knowledge of Non-violent communications This book has some good advice, and interesting approaches, but can be a little frustrating because it assumes the reader is familiar with Marshall Rosenberg's Non-violent communications language. I found it a less than satisfying summary of the NVC materials, but that was not the purpose of this book.
The book was exactly what I was looking for This book fills in the gaps between all the other books I've read about communication. I'd never heard of "non-violent communication" before. After a recent reading journey through book after book about understanding the opposite gender, having difficult conversations, and learning to say "no", I found all the loose ends were neatly tied up for me in "Don't Be Nice, Be Real".
Bryson starts by giving the reader the tools (NVC), then he helps to hone the tools, then he gives examples of how to use them. In the end, he tells about his experiences using NVC, and finally leaves a few thoughts on how it could, over time, help us to create a better world for tomorrow.
I've read a lot of separate books on a lot of separate topics that were included into this book, but this is the one I'll remember. And when asked, this is the book I will recommend.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
