Reviews

S.U.M.O (Shut Up, Move On): The Straight-Talking Guide to Creating and Enjoying a Brilliant Life by Paul McGee

mollylooby's review against another edition

5.0

Life-changing. Brilliant.

ssinc119's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

sunzreads's review against another edition

4.0

Feeling stuck in life? Paul McGee offers steps to move forward following the six principles in his book, S.U.M.O (Shut Up, Move On). As an international speaker and performance coach, McGee is passionate about helping people change their mindset, choose to be more proactive, and create their own path to a better and more fulfilling life.

One surprising principle presented in this book is the Hippo Time, “ the bridge between Shutting Up and Moving On.” I thought wallowing in negativity after a failure is a bad practice but McGee encourages us to have a Hippo Time to experience “emotional lows and be honest about those feeling” which I think helps us to have clarity and insights that are essential in planning the next steps to take.

For me, this book is for those who have just started delving into self-growth. The principles are easy to follow and the author also provides questions that would make you think about your life.

brendanlambourne's review against another edition

5.0

Simple to understand premise with exercises to complete throughout - with web resources to backup practical understanding. Definite recommendation for anyone stuck in “a rut”. You will get out of this book what you put in.

jimbus's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

ntombizakhona's review against another edition

5.0

It has fun, exercises in it to help you shut up more, and move on faster.

venaisabella's review against another edition

informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

ellen_mellor's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

This is a book that claims to be ‘The Straight-Talking Guide to Succeeding in Life’. And it is, at least partly, very much that. The language it uses is clear and to the point, mixed with a certain amount of humour and anecdote to help McGee put his points across.

The book itself is divided into seven chapters, with each one focusing on a specific aspect of the S.U.M.O. principles. The principles have ‘fun’ names, such as ‘Hippo Time’ and ‘Fruity Thinking’ that are, presumably, meant to be the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine of what he is actually saying go down. (Hippo Time is allowing yourself time to grieve – or ‘wallow’ in your emotions – before moving on. ‘Fruity Thinking’ is the opposite of ‘faulty thinking’, such as being a self-critic and ‘broken record’ repetitive thinking.) Chapter 6 (‘Learn Latin’) specifically focuses on dealing with procrastination – the latin he refers to being the phrase ‘Carpe Diem’ – Seize the Day.

The basis of McGee’s theory is that the things do and how we deal with them should be based on an understanding that a final outcome is a product of both the causal event and how we react to that event and, rather than falling back on our ingrained habits, we should examine those habits (the ‘Shut Up’ part of the acronym – which is also described as ‘Stop, Understand’) and then look at whether those habits help or hinder us, changing them in order to be more productive, better organised and more successful (‘Move On’). 

While a lot of what McGee says is sensible and would work to a certain extent, I feel that a lot of it is overly simplified in an effort to be ‘straight-talking’. It is a short book (fewer than 200 pages) and there is no attempt at nuance or any understanding of subtlety. There are times when he says that yes, wearing the ‘Victim t-shirt’ may be appropriate, but there is far more focus on ‘just’ stopping being a victim and those who do are blaming someone else (BSE) for their ills and are BMWs – people who spend their lives Bitching, Moaning and Whinging. McGee seems to have spent a lot of time coming up with clever acronyms for things.

The real failure of the book, however, is that it is centred on a very white, middle-class, cisnormative, heteronormative, neurotypical and male experience. There is no recognition of the issues that those who exist outside those areas experience and how those experiences might impact on being able to shut up and move on. It would be nice to be able to deal with your issues by applying a few questions but, if someone whose intersectional identity is such that those issues are fundamental to the way they are allowed or able to live then it’s not going to help. For example, in the chapter procrastination, his first suggestion for getting over it is ‘just start it’, followed by ‘Picture what success looks like and how it feels’ and so on. They aren’t especially helpful for neuro-diverse people who are literally unable to ‘just start’ or think ahead in that way. (There is one suggestion that does help – that of ‘Make a date with a mate’ which is similar to the concept of the body doubling technique for dealing with ADHD where someone else works alongside the person with ADHD to help keep them focused and on task.)

Ultimately, while this book and the entire concept of S.U.M.O. is an interesting starting point, it is, for me, too flimsy a concept which fails to address the actual difficulties that some people will have in putting those concepts into practice, essentially labelling them as victims and failures.

timboooooo's review against another edition

1.0

I was made to read this at the request of a previous employer, admittedly I've never found self help books useful but this one in particular was the death knell to me for the whole genre. I'm not the target audience and if you have a proclivity for these sorts of things then maybe your life will be changed forever, mine was but only for the worse. I wouldn't even bother pirating the free eBook let alone paying actual money for it.

mickymac's review against another edition

5.0

normally I avoid the psychobabble of self-help books but after seeing a video of Paul McGee I bought his book. Extremely easy to read, full of sound advice, this is a fantastic motivator.