Another Review The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder on Amazon

Another Review The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder on Amazon, this one from Tom Thompson, of Southern Pines, North Carolina. Tom gave it 5 stars and wrote:

"Great book! I enjoyed it very much. Not at all what I expected. Nice review of the self-improvement literature intermixed with a murder mystery complete with detectives, suspects, and Catholic priest. The author really goes into some depth with the whole Aristotelian model vs. wisdom/in- tuition. Highly recommended for those wishing to explore this area more deeply and from a new angle."

Thanks, Tom!

The Carnegie Secret

Excerpt From “The Science Of Success Achievement Course” By Rick Gettle
© 2008 all rights reserved By Rick Gettle

In his all time best selling book, Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill mentions in his firstchapter that throughout the book he will be referring many times to “The Carnegie Secret.”

He said he would not tell you what that secret is, but when you are ready, it will jump off the page and into your brain. He said, When the Student is ready – the master will appear. The doors will open. The lights will turn green. The ideas will come. The money will come. The people will be there to help you.

In 1908 when Napoleon Hill was 25 years old, Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world at that time, commissioned him to spend 20 years researching success achievement. From that day on, when Napoleon Hill accepted Mr. Carnegie’s proposal, Carnegie went to work teaching him everything he knew about achieving success. The most important lesson he taught Hill was eventually called “The Carnegie Secret.” That was, in 1908, and to this day, still is, one of the most important lesson ever taught on how to achieve your Definite Major Purpose in life.

The Universe Blesses Our Obsessions

May all yours be profitable.

The Reading List

These 12 books have helped me. They will help you too. Please buy one or all of the below books and actually READ IT/THEM!

If you can't afford to buy any of these books, send me an email with a request for one title along with your name and address, and I will submit your request (anonymously) to my list of 1,000 friends. No guarantees, but one of them will likely respond. At that point, I will email your name and address to that person, who will mail you a copy free of charge, no strings--just blessings--attached.

For a definitive list of Self-Improvement titles, including detailed summaries, please see my friend Tom Butler-Bowdon's website (and books): www.butler-bowdon.com

Happy reading!

You might also like: Is Eckhart Tolle a Seinfeld Fan?

The Three Flavors of Personal Finance Advice

This article was originally published by Technorati on 30 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

U.S. News offers some great money management advice in a recent article called 8 Questions for the Constantly Broke. Advice about money fits generally into three categories: practical, philosophical and spiritual. Most articles like this one focus on the practical without addressing the other two.

Practical Practical financial advice focuses on one question: how can I live within my means? Most, including the U.S. News article, recommend things like skipping daily latte's, buying used cars instead of new and reminding us that we're earning now not just for now but also for future rainy days and retirement. They preach that we should not be stupid with our money, in other words.

Counter-Intentions

It's interesting how things come together. I've always wanted to move from Naples up to Rome, but the challenges of such a move have always seemed daunting.

This morning, my friend who lives in Rome called to tell me he knew of an apartment that might be right for me. I agreed to come take a look at it this weekend, but at the same time, a pang of impossibility hit me right in the solar-plexus. It told me quite clearly, "Nice idea in theory, but it just can't be done."

This sort of thinking has always plagued me, I now realize. It sends conflicting messages to the universe, so to speak, as to exactly what it is that you want, so you stand no chance of bringing that idea into being. The initial creative thought--I'd like to move to Rome--is completely negated by the destructive thought--it's impossible.

This has always plagued me, but now this negativity has bubbled up to the surface. Unconscious thoughts have become conscious; their days of destroying what I would create are numbered (see Conscious Backgammon).

The Spiritual Implications of Fad Diets

This article was originally published by Technorati on 23 March 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Lot's of weight-loss diets out there promise to "beat the street," so to speak, in terms of taking off the weight. Shine from Yahoo! has identified five diets that don't perform as advertised.

Fads like grapefruit, maple syrup, apple vinegar, juice and cabbage soup diets will always be around so long as people seek to defy the conventional wisdom, that weight loss results from eating less and exercising more.

Application of this conventional wisdom will yield time-honored results, but when we find ourselves with unwanted pounds, why not take the opportunity to explore the spiritual implications of the situation? It might just aid us in our efforts to turn back the dial on the scale and change our lives for the better at the same time.

Some would even argue that spiritual awakening is our body's soul function. Indeed, there's no better example of a "come to Jesus" moment than the struggle to lose weight.

The Visualization of Success

What is Visualization?

Visualization is the process by and through which everything comes into being in our lives, both good and bad. Visualization is in our nature; it's simply a quality that all human beings possess. We are doing it all the time.

Therefore, we need not worry about the mechanics of visualization. They operate automatically. The more salient concern is the service to which this wonderful, creative faculty that we possess is put. On this question there are two options. We can either use this tool in service to our own egos or in service to The Good (see The Philosophy of Success for a discussion of this assumption).