IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY ACADEMY

READING & WRITING SKILLS

Mr. Eryel L. Comania - Teacher

Kim Eula M. Torrefiel

XI-Courage
Critique paper: Winning Your Inner Struggles by Dr. Harold J. Sala

Dr. Harold J. Sala, the author of the book entitled “Winning Your Inner Struggles” is a
Doctor of Philosophy that is why his works are full of morals and all about life. Winning your
inner struggles is such a very good book because it is all about how to overcome fear, worry,
anger, boredom, burn-out, inferiority, and even weaknesses, it is all about how to overcome the
threat of ourselves that the author is emphasizing that those are our real enemies as a human
being. 
The book talks about what we should avoid situations which can cause us stress, we
should have self-acceptance, self-forgiveness, self-love, we should learn to discipline our
emotions, keep our tempers under control, and we should take care of our physical and mental
health through taking rest. It is because those are the things that can make us happy. The book is
good enough to help people, those who are a negative type of person who is suffering or dealing
with depression, those who have low self-esteem and lacks spiritual knowledge and relationship
with God. The book can also make a person realize the purpose of our existence and who really
God is, that He is the source of love in the world among people, that we should give thanks or we
should show our gratitude towards Him through sharing His love to other people, that we should
not worry because He is always there to save us because God Himself is ethical. The book will
help us to empower ourselves and make us understand that sometimes we can be our own most
dangerous enemies and that it is only ourselves who can defeat it. It can help an individual to be
his or her best version of him/herself, to be a better person.
The author of the book, Dr. Harold J. Sala is such an excellent person. It is because the
piece he made is comprehensible due to the words he used, even an elementary student can
understand the idea he wants to convey to his readers, it uses simple words. The book also
contains lines from the bible which can be considered as evidence. The author also used
examples like situations or stories and also poems so that the person who is reading will really
comprehend more deeply and he also included his personal experiences that will make the reader
understand more his opinion towards a specific topic. He does not use difficult font styles to read
and the font sizes of the words were also readable. Also, the combination of the color used to the
cover of the book is just simple but a beautiful one.
 The bad side only of Winning Your Inner Struggles book is that not all people can relate
and apply the moral or ethics stated in the book, because of their different experiences but it will
somehow help them to heal or to overcome his or her inner struggles. There are also some
sentences or statements said in the book that needs further explanation so that the readers can
correlate with the author’s opinion or idea, just like the statement in chapter 1 “Understanding
yourself is a step towards inner peace.”, our efforts and time in trying to understand ourselves
and the pressures which result to our actions are all worth it because it can make us a better
person, but once we already understand ourselves, we will have expectations in ourselves that
can disappoint us and perhaps will disturb the tranquility of our heart and mind. There is also a
statement stated in the book also found in chapter one, “When you are not happy with yourself,
you won’t be happy with others.”,  our faults and imperfections that we resent in ourselves can be
able to dislike other people, but no, we can find our happiness to others even though we are not
happy with ourselves because in fact the source of our happiness is with other people like our
family and it can lead to self-love and be able to love other people. The book of Dr. Harold J.
Sala is an amazing one, there are still some negative or bad sides inside it, but all in the entire
author’s work is beautiful and meaningful. In chapter 2, there is a statement that says, “Jesus
never lost sight of the importance of a single person no matter how lowly his position was in
life.”,  Jesus loves us even though we are just no one for other people who are around us, but if
He really loves us and if we are really important for Him, why are we still experiencing or
suffering from pain and difficulties in life, why can’t He just let us be happy and give us what we
want and what needs? Life would be easier and happier if there are no struggles in our lives.
Many people can change their bad personalities into a good one because the book can
make a person realize his or her worth and it can make a person be happy by conquering their
own inner struggles. It is definitely one of the greatest books that a person should really read
because many people now days are committing suicide due to the inner struggles they are
experiencing and many of them cannot surpass those struggles that is why they want to end their
lives, but there is no book that is perfect; the author should have included more of his ideas, not
only to win inner struggles of a person but also about a person who encounters different kind of
people that has difficulties or struggles in interacting or socializing towards them, the society.
Just by reading a book, one’s personality can be improved or developed, that is why the author
should make more books like the book entitled “Winning Your Inner Struggles” because I
became myself, it also changed my perceptions in life and made me stronger, accept and love
myself, that it might change others lives too.