Business

Saturday August 8, 2009

Basic steps to actually achieving your dreams

Review by YVONNE TAN


The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness

Author: Noah St. John

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

SUCCESS books are addictive. You read one and want another and another because let’s face it, we all like that dreamy, I-can-do-it feeling we get when we read one – all those dreams to chase, all that money to make!

But most times, it all just ends there ... right at those dreamy feelings. We find the steps we read about so enthusiastically too difficult to follow, the theories not practical in application.

Then comes along this book by founder and CEO of international training company SuccessClinic.com Noah St John who claims that his book offers something fresh and different from the rest.

“This is not your father’s success book. In this book, we’re going to break some rules,” he writes in his introduction.

St John’s book was born out of his own life’s sheer frustrations. Claiming to be “the most highly educated underachiever you ever saw”, the college-educated author started out in life in a series of dead-end jobs, he writes.

During those long, lean years, two questions burned inside of him – “How could someone with so much education have achieved so little?” and “Why are people who are dumber than I am so much richer than I am?”

From his journey to discover what separates the “top 3% of the world” from those who just “don’t get it”, St John unearths seven steps, “hidden” all these time ...

First is Afformations. Yes, afformations, not affirmations. Herein lies St John’s concept of getting your brains to work with your questions.

“Rather than making a statement you don’t believe, why not ask a question that can transform your life?” he asks.

So, rather than saying “I am happy,” ask yourself why are you happy – your brain will naturally try and find an answer to that and in the process start creating evidence of that happiness, according to him.

Second, Loving Mirrors and Safe Havens. Here, St John encourages you to surround yourself with people and only people who realise your potential and capacity to succeed in life and provide unconditional support towards that end.

Third, is Systems of Support. This is an extension from the loving mirrors and safe havens concept where you are asked to create support systems with these special individuals who will push you onto your road of success and make sure you stay there.

In Goal-Free Zones and Goal Replacement Surgery, which is step Four, St John asks you first to let go, stop setting goals for a while and relax. Why is it so important to do so?

To avoid burn out, to reduce the effects of information overload and to reconnect with your “authentic self”!

Then, you need to reassess your goals. Are they really relevant anymore? Are they someone elses’ goals?

In steps Five and Six, the author urges you to ask yourself, who are you trying to protect, punish or please and is this stopping you from achieving your goals? If you’re a married woman, are you worried that if you were more successful than your husband, his ego may be bruised?

Learn to say no to things that do not benefit you (smoking and overspending), to people that drain you of your time and money and generally any activity that cause you to go off-track from your goals.

Lastly, Find Your Because, St John writes. “Head trash” aside now, what is your purpose in life? What can you do to be the best possible YOU?

St John’s book has exercises at the end of every chapter where you will find guided questions which will help you understand the concepts a little more clearly and perhaps, put them into practice.

In essence, there is no big secret about The Secret Code. St John just took what most people have known all along and gave it a new perspective.

Try the Afformations step and see how it changes your thinking toward that first step in achieving your dreams.

I think it’s workable.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story