Good Intentions: The Nine Unconscious Mistakes of Nice People

With the poignant honesty of Robert Fulghum and the good sense of "Dear Abby", this practical guide shows effective ways to avoid being "too" nice and reclaim a satisfying and fulfilling life.

Most people are raised to be "nice". But some just overdo it. They want to be perfect: always helpful, always available, never distinguishing between their own needs and those of others. Inside they're frustrated and unhappy. By analyzing the nine most common pitfalls, "Good Intentions" shows how the afflicted can liberate themselves from this damaging behavior, assert their own needs, and still remain the "good person" they've always wanted to be.

Time Warner published Duke Robinson's award-winning paperback in November 2000, under the title Too Nice for Your Own Good: How to Stop Making 9 Self-Sabotaging Mistakes. It appeared in twelve languages. It also comes in a Kindle version. You can find both of them here at Amazon.com. Over the years he has written occasional op-ed pieces and columns for newspapers.

Robinson was born and reared in suburban Philadelphia. In 1958, he graduated from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and has lived since 1960 in the East Bay of Northern California. For twenty-eight years, he served as pastor of the progressive Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, 1968-96. For several years during that ministry, he also served as an adjunct professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, from which he received an earned doctorate in 1979. Prior to retiring in 1996, he also was known widely as a speaker and appeared frequently on television in Northern California.

Since 2000, Robinson has lived in Rossmoor, an active retirement community of nearly ten thousand residents, in Walnut Creek, California. He enjoys four children, nine grandchildren and, since October of 2012, when he published his novel, SAVIOR, a great--really great--grandson.