This book, together with Eckhart Tolle's 'The Power of Now', has really made me feel as though I now have a complete understanding of where I fit in the grand scheme of things and how I can best live a happy life. That's one hell of a statement to make! And it's not to say that I will be terribly successful at so living, but these two authors have given me the knowledge needed; it's up to me to now put it into practice.
Charles F Haanel, writing in the early 1900s, was so utterly convinced of his message that his book is very inspiring. He tells us with complete conviction that we are not separate from the power and the creative energy that gave birth to all that is; we are a part of it. He implores us to recognize this so that we can realize that our lives are truly under our control by virtue of the thoughts we have and the feelings that they generate. This is exactly what Tolle says also, only Haanel is interested in using this knowledge to mould our lives to get what we want in a material sense. Tolle stops short of that, limiting his teaching to how we will achieve peace in life by fully accepting what is. Such total acceptance does, however, dovetail with Haanel's message because, if one is fighting and hating what is actually going on at any given time, you are sending out the energy for more of the same (the law of attraction). We are beings whose link with the creative energy that gave birth to the world is our thoughts. Haanel goes into great detail about how to train our minds so that we will think only constructive thoughts that lead to positive feelings that will lead to favorable outcomes in our lives. He uses the concepts of visualisations and affirmations, and here was I thinking that those were modern ideas! Haanel, who belonged to the American Scientic League, claims that his message is empirically proven and, certainly, his book is the most logical take on this subject that I have ever read. That is why I found it so encouraging. Highly recommended for anyone needing to go a little further in their search for answers to the meaning of life and all that stuff.
P.S. I stopped short of giving it 5 stars because Haanel does repeat himself a lot. I didn't mind that personally as I need all the encouragement I can get at this point in my life, but it can get tedious.