Kiss That Frog
12 Great Ways to Turn Negatives into Positives in Your Life and Work
Brian Tracy and Christina Tracy Stein

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
March 2012 /ISBN: 1609942809
Nonfiction Business/Personal Growth
Amazon

Reviewed by Leslie Halpern

Best-selling business author Brian Tracy and his therapist daughter, Christina Tracy Stein, have written a short 12-chapter collection of strategies for living a more positive life. Although the subtitle indicates that life and work can benefit from these changes, the book's emphasis is on general everyday life practices that might eventually spill over into the business world. The frivolous title Kiss That Frog! does not refer to princesses finding true love, but rather to anyone who needs to "kiss" the negative "frogs" in their lives that keep them from achieving their dreams. It's a loose metaphor at best, and the authors often strain to keep the title relevant to the material.

Avid readers of self-help, pop psychology, spiritual, and metaphysical books won't find anything new here. Although ideas such as redirecting one's thoughts, focusing on the positive, and accepting personal responsibility are great suggestions for finding happiness, they are covered in far more detail elsewhere.

Each chapter - with titles such as Drain the Swamp and Change the Water in Your Pond - includes "Now Do This" sections (offset with a drawing of a frog, naturally) that offer general and specific advice about putting these ideas into practice. Quotes about personal happiness (ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Norman Vincent Peale, and also denoted with a frog drawing) highlight each chapter. For recent college graduates and novices to the world of self-help, this could be a useful guide to living a more positive life. For readers already on a path to a more enlightened way of thinking, Kiss That Frog! is a quick refresher course.