To be honest, he's not the author of spiritual self-help style books, but he did write a superb satire called Happines TM, bout what would happen if one of these books actually did have the answers and everyone paid attention to it.
http://www.find-book.co.uk/1841953512.htm

was emblazoned over a previous HR Managers door. At first I thought it a little arrogant and negative but the more I consider it the more sense it makes.

The Eckhart Tolle stuff really got me thinking as he stresses time and again that there can only ever be the now. We waste time on what has gone or what is coming up, yet it only has a negative impact on us and is a complete waste of time.
Easier said than done - and I'm not bought in to the future stuff, as I feel we still massively influence that.

I have generally tried, in my life, to always treat others as I would want to be treated. I try to be fair and kind in my dealings with the world.

But I had a good five years where terrible, terrible things kept happening, both to me and people I loved. Every time I thought things couldn't get any worse, something even more horrendous would happen.

And I didn't really know how to cope with it. I couldn't understand how these awful things could happen to me... as I saw it, I'd done nothing to deserve it, how could life be so consistently unfair? I struggled through those years blindly and sadly.

And then someone said to me:
"Expecting life to treat you fairly because you're a good person is like expecting a bull not to charge because you're a vegetarian."

and the clouds lifted as I realised it was absolutely right. I'd simply forgotten that life just isn't fair. And remembering that makes everything a lot easier.

But I was mildly obsessed by IF as a nipper. My grandpa gave me a copy he'd made the frame for:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

always said "if you've got nowt good to say about folk then say nowt".

It's something I've always tried to follow but have usually failed miserably.

A very good friend, now sadly deceased, had this maxim. "Things are never as bad as they seem when you trying to get to sleep at 3am nor as good as they seem at the fun end of a bottle of wine".

... just reading the back-cover blurbs (or even the titles) of most self-help books will tell you all you need to know - I read all of "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff (And It's All Small Stuff)" but 95% of its message is all in the name.

The only real exception I've come across is Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People", which is twice as long as it needs to be, and I could do without the Christian angle, but it really makes you think about how you do everything, and genuinely helped me.

More philosophically, the one that stopped me in my tracks years ago, and which I go back to again and again, is the fable of the king who'd conquered everything he ever could, except his emotions, and held a contest for anyone who could make him feel happy when he was sad, and sad when he was happy. The prize remained unclaimed for years, until one day an old goldsmith presented him with a ring, on which was inscribed: This too shall pass.

"Most things don't matter very much, and some things don't matter at all" and
"It's the way it is", the latter being a flavour of Zen and Taoism. Have a look at the sayings of Chuang-Tzu.

Let it be.

He survived imprisonment in German concentration camps (including Auschwitz) and went on to work in psychotherapy. I am not a religious person but his work is profoundly moving. "... man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

work related, the best management book I read was "The one minute manager".

... found on a greetings card:

[front]: "The secret of Zen can be summed up in two simple words...
[inside]: "... NOT ALWAYS SO!"

Although I still don't buy into the whole reincarnation business, there's a lot in Buddhism that's helped me get a healthier take on life. It's probably the only "faith" that's nearly as useful to an atheist as to a, er, theist. The main benefit has been learning to accept that much of the misery of life comes from having unrealistic desires and ambitions, and from expecting the world to behave according to the way you think it "should" work. Once you accept that what is, is, and enjoy what you DO have rather than constantly looking ahead at the next thing you DON'T have, a certain relaxation ensues! Also the notions of "right" view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration, which make up the Eightfold Path are a useful blueprint for an ethical life. I used to agonise over how my money would be used when I gave to charity - almost as if I was looking for a reason not to give. In terms of the Eightfold Path, I give to charity because it's simply the "right" thing to do.

Not trying to sell any of this to any of you, of course. If it piques your interest, have a look - Google "Eightfold Path" for a start. If not, then fine - Buddhism's not evangelical!

...if it's good enough for the Tap's keyboardist, it's good enough for me.

It's Zen.