Brief about the author
For more than 15 years, Randy Gage has been helping people transform self-limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling breakthroughs to achieve their dreams. Randy’s story of rising from a jail cell as a teen, to a self-made millionaire, has inspired millions around the world. This compelling journey of triumph over fear, self-doubt and addiction, uniquely qualifies him as an undisputed expert in the arena of peak performance and extraordinary human achievement. His story and the way he shares it, demonstrates the true power of the mind over outside circumstances.
Randy Gage is a modern day explorer in the field of body-mind development and personal growth. He is the author of many bestselling albums including, “Dynamic development and prosperity and is the director of www.BreakthroughU.com
Thought and Circumstances
The author starts with the presupposition ofthe importance of the connection between thought and circumstance- and the circumstances that will shape one’s life.
This book addresses the brilliant insights on health, happiness and abundance in one’s life and the way to achieve it through the process of programming the subconscious mind. In a world of uncertainty and unprecedented changes people are driven to the wall, eventually leading to the three D’s – despondency, despair and depression. The thoughts are suicidal in nature and many times have led to tragic circumstances.
This book captures the essence of POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY what Seligman had propounded long ago. Randy says “Our minds are like a garden, which can be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.If you plant and tend your garden it will produce flowers or fruits. If you don’t take care of your garden weeds and wild vegetation is likely to choke out useful plants.
He says “one thing is certain. Something will grow in your garden. Just as gardeners must tend his or her plot, keeping out the weeds you must tend the garden of your mind, weeding out the thoughts of limitations and negativity. You must nurture and tend the thoughts of happiness, success and purpose.”
One is responsible for things that happen in one’s life
The book consists of six chapters. In the first chapter the talk revolves around –
· Choosing thoughts that create circumstance
· The effect of thought on circumstance
According to the author the outer circumstances and environment of one’s life are directly connected to one’s inner state. Hence building a reservoir of good thoughts and nurturing hope and faith will certainly create favorable circumstances.
Chapter two and three describes the most powerful belief that one is responsible for everything that has happened in one’s life, both good and the unspeakable ‘horribles’. Here he emphasizes on:
· Using the power of purpose
· Having an overriding purpose helps one to direct one’s thoughts.
· Those thoughts determine the mind set
· Finally the mindset determines how successful one will really be.
The author refers to “Self sabotage” which means many people are sick, depressed and broke because on a subconscious level-they don’t believe they are worthy. He also gives lot of techniques to deal with the negativity and thus prods the reader to programme his or her mind.
Programming the subconscious mind
In chapter three and four he picks idea from Napolean Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and talks about the ten ways to stimulate the mind.
· The desire for sexual alchemy
· Love
· A burning desire for fame, power or financial gain
· Music
· Friendship
· A master mind alliance
· Mutual suffering
· Autosuggestion
· Fear
· Narcotics and alcohol
The chapter five and six is all about programming the subconscious mind. Randy emphasizes on the following tips to create a prosperity mind and reap positivity in life:
· Reading a positive message before retiring to the bed
· Believing in affirmation and having the goal cards and positive statement in the planner
· Building a dream board which consists of things one wants in life
· Powerful programming technique of manifesting things into life
· Alpha state of deep relaxation
· Having an obsession about something in order to succeed at it.
Conclusion
To sum it up, the following five pointers gives the gist of the book:
1. How to identify self-limiting beliefs that holds one back
2. The five common expressions which we use every day, which programs for a failure on a subconscious level.
3. How to practice the “Vacuum law” of prosperity to attract good in life: the Vacuum law leads to the practice of law of attraction which is defined at the end of the article
4. Imagining techniques to manifest things one wants; and
5. How can an individual program the subconscious mind for riches
The book is all about the magic of the mind and its unlimited power to harness great things. Randy has used simple language and demonstrated hoards of illustrations to depict the programming of the mind to shift from lack consciousness to prosperity thought.
Book Review Compiled by Preeja Sreedhar
Connecting dots:
Here is an attempt, made to build coherence between the management theory and the content of the book.In fact this book captures some of the great theories related to the Organizational Behavioral context. It is a forerunner of various OB concepts like:
· Self-fulfilling Theory/Self Expectancy theory
· Pygmalion Effect/Golem Theory
· Placebo Effect
· Observer’s expectancy Theory
· Thomas Theorem
· Expectations models
· Oedipus effect
· Law of attraction
· Hawthorne’s effect
· Stereotype threat
Merten’s concept of self- fulfilling theory/ Self Expectancy/ Observers expectancy theory and Thomas theorem captures the same idea, it states that “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
Any positive or negative expectation about circumstances, events, or people that may affect a person’s behavior toward them in a manner that causes those expectations to be fulfilled.
An employer who, for example, expects the employees to be disloyal and shirkers will likely treat them in a way that will elicit the very response he or she expects.
Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people better they perform. The word PYGMALION is a play by George Bernard Shaw
PLACEBO effect is defined as a procedure that is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated
EXPECTATION’S MODEL refers to people’s expectation of future inflation leading to spend more today and demand higher nominal interest rates for any savings, since they expect that prices will be rising.
Philosopher Karl pepper coined the term OEDIPUS effect which refers to the prophecy of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his own mother.
The LAW OF ATTRACTION is the name given to the belief that like attracts like and that by focusing on positive and negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative consequences.
HAWTHORNE effect put forth by Elton Mayo is the changes in participant’s behavior during the famous Relay assembly experiments at the western Electric Company.
Lastly the STEREOTYPE THREAT is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group.
These above said concepts/tools and techniques are described with an objective of building productive individuals in the organizations. When these interventions are applied for integrating positive change, it results in yet another branch called OD (organizational development. Thus, this book acts as an enabler of POSITIVISM and can go in a long way of building better individuals, better groups/teams and thus co-creating better organizations. Hence the acronym I GO, meaning better individuals lead to better groups and better organizations.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/self-fulfilling-prophecy.html#ixzz28Crv9fZ4
