Definitely had the cheesy feel of a self help book, but I liked that the ideas are simple, common sense and backed up by his own experience. I actually really like his anecdotes, especially about his mother.
Here are the main ideas and things I highlighted:
1. Be positive. Thoughts are energy, which translate to matter. Seems easy but is very hard to put into practice. Use an invisible shield to block out people’s doubts and negative thoughts.
2. Take quiet time every day. Use your imagination. He is an entrepreneur and uses lots of examples from famous innovators, but this applies to everyone. I like this advice.
2a. Get into nature. I really like his intentionality on this and it has worked well for him since he was young. This premise ties with my own experience and several other things I am reading. Need to just keep it simple, it’s hard to do a real “back to nature” experience with the busyness of life - he just sat looking out the window from his three room flat earlier in life and it was positive, so I need to get on this.
3. Imagine the thing you want as having happened already (this one feels weird to me). He is fixated on travel and fancy cars, so spends time imagining he already has them (even going to dealerships) so it is just fulfilling an expectation when it happens. Whatever.
Highlights:
- We must change our thoughts from being against things we don’t want to being for things we do want
- Mapping your mind onto your tongue is a great way to visualize mentality control.
- Take a pause, and a deep breath, and think about your reaction. Map it out on your tongue with the same care as if you were drawing directions for someone. Say to yourself something like “I am debt-free, and celebrated my last credit card payment with a glass of my favorite wine, purchased with cash.”
- Even though that is not your current experience, by thinking and speaking about what you really want, what you are for, rather than what you are against, you create the possibility of a better outcome. Better thoughts go out into the universe. The words you used have triggered even better images of a happy family sharing in your success, and the emotional feeling of a weight lifting off your shoulders. All those new thoughts and images have no choice but to become your reality.
- In his book on neuroplasticity, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, Norman Doidge, M.D., states plainly that the brain has the capacity to rewire itself and/ or form new neural pathways—if we do the work. Just like exercise, the work requires repetition and activity to reinforce new learning. So complaining repetitively can become a wired thing in your brain, deep and harmful. We can all think of someone who seems incapable of speaking without complaining.
- was to imagine that a huge glass cloak descended from the sky and completely covered me as I walked. By the time I rejoined my siblings, I was fully protected inside this shield. I imagined all slurs and taunts bouncing off the glass or exploding on impact. The effect of this simple trick was astounding. I felt powerful and impervious to any insults.
- The insanity I prescribe is that taking quiet time needs to become a daily habit, and it requires you not to switch on the computer, radio, television, or cell phone first. It is contrary to how we have learned to behave in this time and place. Taking quiet time becomes the number one business growth tool in your arsenal, and the aim is to make it one of the first things you do every day.
- Another character trait that jumped out at me from the pages of the biographies of self-made men and women was their affiliations with nature. All of them turned to nature in times of stress or when big decisions needed to be made.
- Discipline and self-confidence were found to be more important than intelligence for achieving things. By far the most important factor, however, was a tendency to set goals.
- negotiation: He who mentions a number first loses. Always.