Olog

Let’s go back to our Three Percenters–the people who have what the rest of the world wants. Many of these Three Percenters realised that they could help people (and make alot of money) by teaching other people the so-called “secrets of success.” In other words, “how I got here.”

I am sure most of them do this because they really want to help people. There is only one problem…

When you are unconsciously competent at something, you often don’t know how you are really doing that thing.

For example, when I worked as a professional ballet dancer, I was good, but never the lead dancer. I sweated, worked my butt off, and tried harder than anyone else, but just wasn’t as proficient as the lead guys. Sometimes when I was having trouble with a particular step, I would notice who was doing it naturally and ask them to show me how to do it. And they would say something like, “Just do it…turn your head … just spin …” or something totally not helpful at all!

One day, I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere and asked one of the older members of the company to help me. He wasn’t tallest or strongest, but he was the best teacher, because he patiently showed me how to do the steps by breaking them down until I had mastered them. He was definitely not a Natural, and neither was I but while the Naturals were no help at all, this man helped me more than any of them, because he showed me step-by-step what I needed to do.

It is the same way with the phenomenon called Success. Almost all of the books, speeches and seminars you see on “how to succeed” are being given by Three Percenters–the Naturals at Success. I’m not suggesting that Naturals don’t work hard or haven’t made sacrifices to get where they are; Naturals have to work hard, just like the rest of us. But my point is this:

The true causes of success are often hidden and counter intuitive, even–specially!–to those who are Naturals at Success.

There is something the Naturals (the Three Percenters) are doing that they don’t know they are doing. And no matter how many times they tell you their “secrets of success,” they can’t tell you something they are not consciously aware of. It is like saying to a fish, “So, tell me about water!”

That is why it took a highly educated underachiever like me—and an unexpected twist of fate—to realise that the Three Percenters were living by a code they weren’t consciously aware of. If only the test of us could follow it…

From chapter 3, pg.40, The Secret Code of Success by Noah St. John.

MOST PEOPLE STRUGGLE IN LIFE AND BUSINESS (AND NO, IT’S NOT WHAT YOU’VE BEEN TOLD)

Why, with all this time, money, and energy being spent on self-help, are so few people living the life they really want? Another way to ask this is:

Why are millions of people who have spent so much time and money trying to improve themselves still going down the road of life with one foot on the break?

There actually is an answer to this seemingly unanswerable question. But like most vexing problems, to answer this question, we must first ask a deeper question. The deeper question we need to ask is:

WHAT CAUSE HUMAN BEHAVIOR?

While there may be many ways to answer that question, here’s what I have found to be at once the simplest and most accurate answer to that question. It is a simple answer, because I have found (and I am sure you have, too) that the simplest solutions tend to create the best and longest-lasting results.

From chapter 1, pg.10, The Secret Code of Success by Noah St. John.

I want to introduce you to a very special group of people. Actually, you’ve seen these people on TV or in the movies; and you’ve certainly seen them onstage, winning award after award at your company’s annual convention.

These are the world’s most successful people. They have most of the wealth, happiness, joy, peace, health and loving relationships — in other words, they have most of what we human beings want as we go through this journey called Life.

Please note: I am talking about fulfilled, wealthy people — what I call being happy and rich. There are lots of people with lots of money who are unhappy, and people who are broke but happy (although not many of those). But I’ve observed that while most people believe you can either be happy or rich, there’s a small percentage of people who realize you can be both.

I call these special people the Three Percenters. Why? Well, you’ve heard of the 80/20 Rule (also known as Pareto’s Principle) — that 80 percent of your results flow from 20 percent of your efforts. But in today’s society, we seem to have what I call the 97/3 Rule — that about 3 percent of the population holds most of the world’s great wealth, while most of the remaining 97 percent struggle just to get by.

While these may not be precise, hard and fast numbers, look around and you can verify them for yourself. Look around your company and you’ll see that the same one, two or five salespeople always, always win the top awards — while the rest never do. Look around your personal relationships and notice that a tiny minority of couples ever stays happily married; the rest stay married. Look around the mall and notice how many people are in shape and healthy … and how many are not. Look around the world and see that only a small percentage of the world’s population are Haves, and the rest are Have-Nots (or at least Have-Not-Much).

Well, you may say, it’s just not fair. Money, wealth, health, happiness — these should be given equally to all people. You’re right, they should — and indeed, they are. It is just that few people ever choose to take them and make correct use of them.

These “lucky” few are the Three Percenters. But here’s their big “secret”: You can be a Three Percenter, too… but only if you learn and follow their secret code.

From chapter 3, pg.37, The Secret Code of Success by Noah St. John.

Of course you need to be aware of the circumstances that surround you, you need to be knowledgeable about the world, you need to know history. But even more important, you need to know yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror and ask what drives you. If you can understand these things up front, you are more likely to be able to keep your head in a crisis. Also observe how you react to mistakes, so that you can respond more constructively the next time things go wrong.

Awesome view up from high altitude up in the sky overlooking the clouds like a mashmallow looks sweet enough to eat like candy.

That would be, men.

Where have men been taught their worth comes from? Men, since the beginning of human history, have been taught or told that their worth comes from their possessions, titles, job, net worth, holdings, size of bank account — what I call their material bodies (as opposed to their physical bodies).

While it is also completely politically incorrect to say this, the fact remains that men have been judged almost solely on what they possess or are capable of earning — bringing home the bacon. Of course, this is not where a man’s worth comes from.

So, what if you have a human being who has been told since the beginning of time that his worth comes from … not his physical body, but his material body (even though this isn’t true, it’s what he’s been taught). Let’s further assume that this person develop a really negative self-image. Now you have a person who’s been told that his worth comes from his material body and you add to that a very low sense of self-worth…

Doesn’t it make sense that he will punish that part of himself that he was told his worth comes from — namely, his material body? And if you are going to unconsciously punish your material body, doesn’t it make sense that you are going to starve yourself of success?

A man travels many miles to consult the wisest guru in the land. When he arrives, he asks the wise man: “Oh, wise guru, what is the secret of a happy life?”

“Good judgement,” said the guru

“But oh, wise guru,” says the man, “how do I achieve good judgement?”

“Bad judgment,” says the guru.

From – Chapter 8 – Mistakes were made (not by me)

Arrgghhh..

And another one..

My god!! Life must sucks. Haha.. Nothing out of the ordinary.

On the otherhand, I upload something general out of the blue just for fun by photoshop. *grins*

False memories allow us to forgive ourselves and justify our mistakes, but sometimes at a high price: an inability to take responsibility for our lives. An appreciation of the distortions of memory, a realization that even deeply felt memories might be wrong, might encourage people to hold their memories more lightly, to drop the certainty that their memories are always accurate and to let go of the appealing impulse to use the past to justify problems of the present. If we are to be careful about what we wish for because it might come true, we must also be careful which memories we select to justify our lives, because then we will have to live by them.

“normal human memory is highly error-prone”.

and I love this one..

“suggestible individuals can have memories elaborated within their minds because of poor therapeutic technique”.

lines taken off by Mistakes Were Made (not by me).

It was an interesting read and I love every moment of this book. It was something that people don’t usually read this kind everyday unless they wants to know what it is in store for them. My 2 cents. ;)

Would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read the inner minds of a psychologist who wrote this book. Actually at first I wasn’t interested in this till I read the whole book. Some of the chapter seems to be rewarding and has educate me in some ways much better than I never thought possible.