Tag: Books

When I earned my private pilot’s license in 1972, I learned the value of a checklist. No pilot then or today is allowed to take off from the airport without going through the checklist. It’s a simple but essential tool to ensure safety. Since flight problems were often due to pilot error, or in not knowing how to handle a problem that surfaced in flight, having the pilot use a checklist virtually guarantees nothing gets overlooked.

According to a new book by Atul Gawande, called The Checklist Manifesto, some hospitals are starting to use checklists. Given the chaotic nature of emergency rooms and numerous medical situations, creating a checklist for every scenario is a long, tedious process. But once it’s completed, it saves lives and reduces complications. Ever since 1972 I wanted to write a book on checklists, or many even create a checklist for every industry or profession. For example, I’ve used checklists for writing advertisements, sales letters and websites. (Most are in my out-of-print book, The AMA Complete Guide to Small Business Advertising, written for the American Marketing Association in 1995.) Assuming you don’t need a checklist is the ego trap that causes errors. We all need them.

The pizza parlor needs one. So does the CPA, speaker, web site designer, SEO expert, blogger, baby sitter, luthier, and everyone else.

I suggest you sit down and write out all the steps you take to accomplish what you do for a living. For example, if you are a consultant or therapist, what are the steps you take to help your client reach success? I’m aware that there is often a need for space to allow intuition, but the basic steps should be mapped out so you don’t forget them.

When you consider that pilots with thousands of hours of flight time still have to use a checklist before they take off, you should create and use one for what you take for granted. It’ll increase your success rate and keep your ego in check.

I don’t think you need to read Gawande’s book to get his message. But if you want to read about the history of the checklist, and the adventure of creating one for hospitals, his book is riveting.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Check this: Read my latest book for free by clicking on the below banner:

I attracted a Kindle for Christmas. It’s the wildly popular device from Amazon for reading books, magazines, newspapers, select blogs, and more without actually carrying anything more than the thin, light device itself.

I’m such a bookaholic that I wasn’t sure I wanted one. But I’m also a gadget nut and curious enough to try it. So I told Santa and he delivered.

The Kindle is light, intuitive, easy to use, and fast.  Mine is the 6″ display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation, which I prefer for all the travel I do, but there is a US only version with a bigger screen (9.7″), called the Kindle DX.

After charging the battery, I turned it on and started using it within minutes. I synced it to my existing Amazon account and wondered what book I should buy first.

Since I had been reading Bruce Lee’s philosophy of living, called Striking Thoughts, I thought it might be cool to have it on my Kindle. I could look at it every day, chew on some Kung Fu (actually Jeet Kune Do) wisdom, and not have to lug the actual book around.

That’s when I discovered not all books are on Kindle. Striking Thoughts wasn’t listed. But a few other books by or about Lee were. I ended up choosing Bruce Lee’s Strength Training Secrets, a booklet by Justin Frost. I’ve always been interested in martial arts (Aikido, Chi Kung) and strength training (Steve Reeves/Hercules), so this would be a good first Kindle download for me.

It cost less than a dollar. I selected it and within a minute it was on my device. While the look and feel of the text on the Kindle was more like a poor quality newspaper, or even an old mimeograph, and the pictures are more like x-rays, the instant gratification couldn’t be beat.  The only thing better might be a direct download into my brain.

Side note: Bruce Lee sometimes trained with a Bullworker, an isometric exercise device I bought when I was sixteen years old — about forty years ago — and still sold today. I still have my original Bullworker, but doubt I’ve ever used it as much as Bruce Lee used his.

I wondered what book I would buy next. I have about $1,000 worth of books sitting in my shopping cart at Amazon. I picked a few of those titles and searched to see if they were available on Kindle. Most weren’t. That was a tad frustrating. But no matter, I was having fun shopping.

I searched again and found the complete works of James Allen (As A Man Thinketh, From Poverty to Power, etc) were ready for download. Called Mind Is the Master, I now have it on my Kindle.

The next book was Keith Cameron Smith’s The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class. This one has some great insights. As I was reading, I came across a line that was so good I re-read it three times:

“Middle-class people talk about things that came from a millionaire’s idea.”

Thanks to a feature on Kindle, I was able to hi-light that line and save it in my “My Clippings” folder. Way cool. I just wish there was a way to email the things in my clippings folder on Kindle to my Twitter, or blog, or email account. To share it with you here, I had to open the Kindle, open the clippings folder, and then re-type the line for you here. Not a tedious process but in this day I would think we could make it even easier.

Side note: Don’t underestimate the power of  Smith’s quote. I told it to Pat O’Bryan and master photographer Rodney Bursiel one evening and their heads reeled as they considered what it meant and I explored the implications out loud. In short, if you want to attract more money, create the products and services that make the middle class talk — and buy.

The next book was Facts Can’t Speak For Themselves: Reveal The Stories That Give Facts Their Meaning by Eric Oliver. This is a book on persuasion for trial attorneys.  It’s about how the mind creates stories out of facts, but often without the ending story actually being faithful to reality. To be sure you communicate what you intend, you have to be aware of how people frame information. If you’ve read my books, such as Hypnotic Writing and/or Buying Trances, you know how important it is to get your message across accurately. Oliver’s book is hefty and expensive (even for Kindle) but, so far, well worth the time it takes to absorb it.

Obviously, I’m enjoying my Kindle. It even seems to assist my focus. Instead of reading a dozen books all at once, jumping from book to book on my desk or night stand, Kindle gently leads me to pick one book and keep reading it until I’m done.

I also like that I have a special Kindle e-mail address that I can send e-books to, which then get downloaded direct to my Kindle.  Amazon mentions a “small fee” for this service, but I can’t find what that charge actually is.

To test it, I emailed the PDF version of my latest book, Attract Money Now, to my Kindle. It showed up just fine. I then went to Amazon, went into my account, looked up my Kindle charges, and saw the transfer cost was sixty cents. I’d prefer free. I later discovered I can put ebooks on my Kindle for free by plugging the USB port from my PC to my Kindle, and then just dragging the ebooks over. Easy.

On Christmas day, I showed the Kindle to a friend. She quickly figured it out, liked it, and even accidentally bought a book on it. She clicked on a book cover and before she knew it she had clicked on the buy-it-now button. She didn’t know the purchase or delivery would be so instantaneous. Fortunately it was a book on Reiki (The Original Reiki Handbook by Mikao Usui) which I wanted to read anyway.

I like my Kindle. It has some features I haven’t tried yet, such as reading books to you, but for what I’ve done with it so far, it’s cool. I’d like to see it have color, improve its screen, and make it less sterile. I still love printed books and still prefer paper, color, and all the other elements that make a book real.

For example, I received two copies of beautiful printed books, one signed by sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury and the other signed by comedian Jerry Lewis. Both came as gifts. Both are hardcovers. Both are collectibles. Kindle will never replace those.

But when it comes to traveling and convenience, the Kindle is great. I’ll be curious to see what the other devices are like, such as Barnes & Noble’s new e-reader, called Nook, which has color and over a million titles to choose from. And geniuses such as Ray Kurzweil are creating ways to read books in full color on any device, with programs such as his new Blio. Of course, I’ll also be waiting to see how Amazon upgrades Kindle over time.

For now, I’ll keep my Kindle. It’s where I can easily find such relevant Bruce Lee gems as this –

“To change with change is the changeless state.”

Right on, Bruce.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — You can’t yet read my new book Attract Money Now on Kindle (unless you already have the PDF and email it to your Kindle or transfer it over with a direct USB link, as mentioned above), but you can still get the PDF and read it for free by clicking the below banner:

Years ago I wrote a dissertation for my Doctorate in Metaphysical Science called “Got Spirit”? It was an in-depth study of the most popular metaphysical, new thought and new age movements and the marketing practices their founders used to establish them.

I wrote it because so many people seem to have a negative attitude toward money and marketing that I wanted to see for myself how the biggest and most famous spiritual movements got that way.

I suspected the greatest meta-physicians — from Jesus to Phineas Parker Quimby to Mary Baker Eddy to Ernest Holmes to Mother Teresa — were all comfortable with money and either did marketing or had someone do it for them.

It was an illuminating study. Turns out every one of these spiritual teachers and their movements knew the value of money and marketing. Each did everything from writing, speaking and advertising to publicity events to get attention and attract followers.

If that’s the case, then why do most metaphysical practitioners today — most people, period — dislike marketing and money?

The most obvious answer is they believe, “God will provide.”

That reminds me of the story of the man with a beautiful garden in his backyard.  One day a man walked by, saw it, and stopped to admire it.

“You have an amazing garden here,” the stranger said.

“Thank you,” said the owner.

“It’s really God’s garden, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” replied the owner. “But you should have seen it when God had it all by Himself.”

The point is, God (or the Divine or Nature) provides us with the basics, and we have to do something with what we’ve been given. If we just allow things to grow in the backyard, we’ll have a jungle, not a garden. Someone has to tend to the earth. Even if we’ve been given (or learned) the talent to heal, we have to let people know we have it for us to be able to use it. In other words, we have to spread the word.

That’s marketing.

It’s no different than what Jesus, Phineas Parker Quimby (pictured above), Mary Baker Eddy, or even Mother Teresa did. If someone hadn’t helped them spread the word, we wouldn’t know of them today.

The success of Unity Church is a case in point. Charles and Myrtle Fillmore managed to raise all the money they needed to build and expand their business. It wasn’t until 1942 that the real secret of their financial support was revealed. The Fillmores had created a now famous “Dedication and Covenant” on December 7, 1892, that read:

“We, Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, husband and wife, hereby dedicate our selves, our time, our money, all we have and all we expect to have, to the Spirit of Truth, and through it, to the Society of Silent Unity.

“It being understood and agreed that the said Spirit of Truth shall render unto us an equivalent for this dedication, in peace of mind, health of body, wisdom, understanding, love, life and an abundant supply of all things necessary to meet every want without our making any of these things the object of our existence.

“In the presence of the Conscious Mind of Christ Jesus, this 7^th day of December, 1892 A.D.”

Please note that while the Fillmores signed an agreement with Spirit, they also wrote, published and distributed materials to market their message and their offerings. In short, they had to do both: Implement marketing and work with Spirit. I call it the phrase I coined: Spiritual Marketing. It could have easily been called Spiritual Money.

The point here is that money and marketing are not separate from Spirit at all. They are in fact Spirit.

When someone says, “I don’t care about money, I just want to follow Spirit,” they are revealing their own limitations about the reality of the world.

Money is Spirit.

Saying you aren’t interested in money, or marketing, is a form of self-delusion. You don’t need to be in love with money to appreciate it and attract it. When you realize it’s a tool of Spirit, you are in a position to create miracles.

Dr. Hew Len, my coauthor for the book Zero Limits, is clear that money is of Spirit. He uses the ho’oponopono practice to clean on everything, including any negativity around money. As a result, our book is a bestseller and I send him huge checks for half of everything that I ever receive from anything related to Zero Limits products. He simply receives.

When you have Spirit, you can have money.

They aren’t separate.

Got Spirit?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Miracles Coaching can help you with all of this. Click here for more information.

In 1855 P.T. Barnum was attracting a world-wide name for himself. He turned a dying dime museum of New York City into the thriving Barnum’s American Museum, the Disneyland of the day. He wrote his autobiography and saw it become a bestseller. He created General Tom Thumb and entertained royalty with him. But not everyone loved Barnum’s success. In 1855 someone wrote an article titled, “How to Kill Off Barnum”. Here it is:

As you can see, the strategy of the unknown writer was to cut off Barnum’s success by keeping him out of the newspapers. The ironic thing is, the article appeared on the front page of a newspaper. Here it is:

Obviously, this “strategy” was poorly thought out. Not only did it assist Barnum in remaining and maybe becoming even more famous, but the young showman went on to become one of the wealthiest and most well known people in the world. The writer of the article, however, remains completely unknown.

I find this relevant today. Too many people are criticizing others who are achieving success. Instead of focusing on their own goals, they spend their time and energy writing negative posts and reviews. They don’t seem to see that (a) their work isn’t stopping anyone and (2) their work is a distraction from their own calling.

Reading Will Bowen’s new book, Complaint Free Relationships, is helpful. Listening to Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is also enlightening. Both show that complaining about others is a way to avoid doing your own work.

P.T. Barnum said, “We cannot all see alike, but we can all do good.”

Do something good today.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — My book on P.T. Barnum is There’s A Customer Born Every Minute. It’s at Amazon, in book stores, etc.

Will Bowen’s new book is coming out soon. It’s called Complaint Free Relationships. Will wrote the international bestseller, A Complaint Free World, in 2007, and I called it the best book of 2008. I think his new one will become the best book of 2010.

The premise of Will’s work is that complaining is a habit you can change. Why would you want to change it? Because complaining is causing (or attracting) the very thing you are complaining about. Complaining begets complaining.

Depending on what level of awakening you’re on, you’ll either think Will is a sad dreamer or you’ll think he’s an optimistic visionary. I consider him the latter. I love his message so much that I’m a volunteer adviser on the Board of Directors for A Complaint Free World.

Will’s new book focuses on relationships because that’s what virtually all the complaining is about. Think about it. Probably in every situation you can name, the complaint is about another person. And your complaining isn’t helping them, or you.

I just started reading Will’s new book — it’s not out yet, so I’m looking at a pre-pub galley proof — and I’m in awe at his insights and suggestions. He’s making me aware of how I think about other people. Will points out that your thinking leads to your speaking, and your speaking reveals what you’re going to attract into your life. In other words, short circuit the thinking, change the speaking, and you’ll attract a different result.

In terms of my book The Attractor Factor, Will is covering the first two steps in my five step formula: stop before you openly declare what you don’t want (the complaint) and instead speak what you do want (the intention).

In terms of the book I wrote with Dr. Hew Len, Zero Limits, Will is revealing how you are causing your relationships to work, or not. He’s also showing you what to do next.

This isn’t easy. The habit of complaining is so ingrained and so second nature that it feels natural to us. But it’s not natural; it’s just learned. It’s a bad habit that isn’t serving us. It’s time for a change.

As with Will’s earlier work, he challenges us to stop complaining altogether. He asks us to wear a purple band on the wrist and, when we catch ourselves voicing a complaint, change the band to the other arm. The goal is to go thirty days without speaking a complaint or moving that bracelet.

For most people, it takes about six months to go thirty days complaint free. Why? Because it’s that hard to stop complaining. You’ll start each day with the thirty day goal in mind but before long you’ll speak a complaint and need to start over. If you don’t believe me, try it.

Will’s new book is backed with current scientific research. For  those who think complaining feels good and gets them results, the documented research proves it doesn’t help at all. It’s a form of self-deception to think complaining changes anyone. It not only hurts others, it also hurts the complainer. It simply doesn’t work.

You’ll be able to get Will’s new book at book stores and of course online on December 29th (my birthday). If I were you, I’d go pre-order a copy right now. And since the holidays are upon us, get several copies for family and friends.

I’m pretty sure they won’t complain about the gift.

At least not after reading Will’s new book.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Will’s main site is A Complaint Free World.

PPS – Baby picture above is of me at eight months old. I look complaint free, don’t I?