Are You Ready to Succeed?

[Zukin]

The book Are You Ready to Succeed is a really good read.

I was surprised when I read it, because while the author is a professor at Columbia Business School, a lot of the material reminded me of Abraham-Hicks and The Secret. Another interesting thing is at the end of the book, he includes a recommended reading list with new age books like Creative Visualization, The Power of Intention, and The Science of Getting Rich and says "Do not look down your nose and scoff at them. I know chief executive officers of New York Stock Exchange companies who swear by some of these books and the exercises they suggest."

Here's some excerpts:
Think of a situation in your life you don't like. Create a new reality with a better situation. Pick an alternate reality that is better than the one you are experiencing right now and is one that you can plausibly accept. Then, live "as if" the alternate reality you have selected were true. Behave in accordance with it. Jettison your earlier views and adopt this one. As you live in this alternate reality, immediately acknowledge and dwell upon every scrap of evidence that it is working. Resolutely ignore the mountain of evidence that you are kidding yourself.

Try this mental model: The Universe is a conscious entity that is intimately intertwined with you and not separate from you. It wants to give you what you desire, and you can influence it. The way in which you influence the Universe is simple and is summed up in the Law of Increase: whatever you are truly grateful for and appreciate will increase in your life.

Pay attention to synchronicities and play around with the possibility that these were not "coincidences." That, somehow, a conscious Universe was trying to make itself known to you. Help it do so by paying close attention! Gently, very, very, gently, try to make more such events happen. Try it in small ways at first. When you go shopping, expect to find that the item you want will be on sale. When you go bowling, expect that a particular ball - say the tenth - will be a strike. If you play tennis, expect that when the ad is against you, you will serve an ace. Do this all the time. At least forty or fifty times a day. There will be times when you don't get the results you desire. Ignore them. Don't dwell on your disappointment. Acknowledge your mental chatter but simply let it pass. It is the equivalent of the forehands that you flub when learning to play tennis. There will be a few occasions when you "succeed." Celebrate these. Jot them down. Allow the joy to envelop you when it happens. Allow the joy to come back and wash over you when you read about it in your notes and remember it. Remember, you are consciously using the Law of Increase. By celebrating these occasions, you are permitting more of them to appear in your life. Gradually there will be a change in your thinking. As the number of instances multiplies, you will begin to wonder if they were really all "coincidences." You will begin to feel comfortable with the notion that maybe the Universe does work in the manner described. The moment this happens, you will notice that the number of such instances increases exponentially. This is the signal for you to start to make bigger and more important things happen. They will indeed start happening and you will struggle with "Omigosh! It really does work!" type feelings. Eventually these will dissipate and you will become comfortable with functioning in this manner as a regular part of your life. Persist until this happens.

When you change, so does the Universe, and in conformity with your change. It is as if you and the Universe are locked in an intimate dance, and when you lead in a different direction, it follows in lockstep. It cannot help but follow. This means that in many cases you will be far more efficient in achieving something by doing "internal" work rather than by rushing around doing "external" work. Don't get me wrong. I am NOT saying that you don't need to do the external stuff. I am saying that there is much less of that needed than you think.
So if you would like a job, you need to free your mind from thoughts based on desperate want and instead concentrate on becoming crystal clear about what you would like. Enumerate what values are part of you and that your dream job would allow you to express. Become explicit about how it would benefit the larger society, and so on. When you are truly clear about this, the job flows into your life effortlessly, with very little action on your part.

Here is the paradox: When you are not emotionally involved in a particular result, you are far more effective in bringing it about. There are countless examples from the world of sports. Tennis players have their service broken when they are serving for the match and think about how important it is to win. Golfers shoot double bogeys on the eighteenth hole when they let thoughts of winning grab them. Great players have an uncanny ability to focus on one point at a time, on one stroke at a time. They exult after the competition is over.
It really does work that way. You are bound by the things you own as long as you need them emotionally. The moment you sever this psychological link, you will experience a marvelous freedom, a sense of liberation that cannot be described. There is a story about Thomas Edison watching as his laboratory was engulfed in flames, his life's work disappearing in the blaze. He sent his son to summon his wife, because he did not think it likely that she would ever see so glorious a spectacle. And the next day he began to reconstruct it. Be like that and the world will be your oyster!

[cylon]

That's exactly what it feels like. Thanks for posting that.

[gbgeorge]

Hi, Zukin!

Thanks for posting this.

Have you bought the ebook version?

I wanted to read the book for like two months now... However due to circumstances I have not obtained a copy, nor the downloadable PDF.


However I did find this PDF which seem like it has all the included exercises of the book itself "ARE YOU READY TO SUCCEED"

Here it is: http://www.frumi.com/images/uploads/...ucceed2009.pdf

Are these exercises mentioned on the book?

I would appreciate your response.

Thanks!