One of the “in” things to do in the U.S. is to engage in extreme sports.

Snowboarding, mountain hiking, skateboarding, scuba diving, paragliding, etc., have involved more deaths and injuries than most other sports. But some Americans seem simply to enjoy seeking and taking risks. Snowboarding, for instance, has grown 113 percent in five years and now boasts nearly 5.5 million participants.

It was when he was learning to do paragliding that Dr. Phil picked up one of the most important lessons of life from his trainer, who told him that he had successfully completed his training but that a glider had always to be prepared to deal with an unexpected, dangerous situation. Sure enough, not long afterwards, when he was gliding by himself, a highly dangerous situation appeared. He was high in the air, and the parachute went wrong. He could have easily been killed if he had failed to do the right thing at the critical moment. But he was prepared, and prepared well, and he survived.

Looking back, Dr. Phil considered the gliding trainer to be one of the best teachers he had ever had. “Be prepared” has become a sort of motto for him. And that’s probably why he wrote the current book. He wants to help people to survive crises that might hit anyone and everyone at an unexpected time. Not just that, he wants to help them flourish on crises. As the host of one of the most popular TV programs in the US, Dr. Phil has come across all sorts of people caught in a wide variety of crises in real life. He categorizes the cases into seven groups, using “the 7 days of life” to describe them – a language even the least educated will be able to follow. It is precisely for this that I regard his book as an encyclopedia on how to deal with crises in life.

No one probably can tell exactly how many people suffer from mental illness, but there is one thing we can be sure of, namely, that even in the United States, a large number of people are not aware of, or simply refuse to recognize, the fact that they are not quite healthy mentally. The wonderful thing about Dr. Phil’s book in this regard is that he wants “to demystify” the examples of mental illness and maladjustments by “discussing them in plain language rather than professional lingo,” which can often be intimidating and misunderstood. This way, one doesn’t have to always associate the term “mental illness” with the other “C” word (crazy). Proceeding from there, one will be able to cope with one’s own mental illness or that of one’s loved ones in an appropriate manner.

One message that is repeated time and again in Dr. Phil’s book is that while a person cannot control all the things that happen to him, he is able to control what he does when something highly undesirable happens to him. It’s all a matter of attitude or approach. Dr. Phil so emphasizes the importance of attitude or approach that he says that there is no good news or bad news. It is just news, depending on how you look at it! That is fairly true, indeed. Equipped with the right attitude or approach, one that is positive and creative, you can turn something very bad to good account, or vice versa. That’s how a disaster is turned into a blessing, and a negative into a plus.

Another message Dr. Phil repeats is to build a team for dealing with a crisis. Suppose one is diagnosed to suffer from cancer. He doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, take on the disease all by himself. His spouse and family members will most probably help and support him in fighting the disease. So will his doctor and nurses. And these days, with easy access to the Internet, he can easily find people online who suffered or are suffering from the same disease. Dr. Phil advises him to enlist the help and advice of those who have beaten the disease. He is sure to benefit from their partnership. More important, he advises him to avoid anyone who he knows is likely to take a negative attitude. In this way, he builds a team of people that are armed with determination, knowledge, and skills. As a result, he’s more likely to win the battle.

Dr. Huang Zuozeng (黄作祯医生), a famous surgeon from Guangzhou, China, told me that about half of cancer patients were literally scared to death. When you have a team on your side, your odds to beat cancer are enhanced enormously.

A third message Dr. Phil delivers is to focus on now, not the past. “Even God cannot change the past,” he asserted. So why should we make ourselves prisoners of the past? Focusing on the present and living in the moment will enable us to be efficient in executing whatever responsibilities we face because we can make the best of all available resources, human and material, inside and outside, and because you take ownership of your status quo and move forward unflinchingly.

Talking about God reminds me of something interesting about Dr. Phil. In the first part of his book, he talks about how important it is to prioritize in one’s life. There’s so much to do, yet there is so little time. Even if you are healthy and energetic, there a limit to what you can accomplish. Setting the priorities in life is of utter importance: it will help you better to focus the task at hand. As to his own priorities, Dr. Phil lists these: my personal relationship with God, my responsibilities toward my family, and my contribution to society. And so, Dr. Phil is a religious person, a Christian, to be more specific.