Tag: Books

I saw Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the book Bright-Sided, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week. Her book reveals  “How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.” I love Jon Stewart’s interviews and was keenly curious about this author and her book.

As I watched Ehrenreich on television, I got the feeling she’s a wounded soul. She talked about being diagnosed with cancer and how people around her told her to just think positive. I know from having my own cancer scare a few years ago that her feelings were justified. When you’ve been diagnosed with the C word, you’ve been kicked in the gut. Smiling people don’t help.  I felt for her and agreed with her. Positive thinking in that dire situation isn’t welcome, at least not at first.

As I often do after seeing a Jon Stewart interview, I jumped on Amazon and ordered her book. I was so curious that I paid extra for next day delivery.

Well, it arrived.

It’s a well written historical overview of positive thinking. It mentions all the positive thinkers you might guess, from Napoleon Hill to Joel Olsteen , Jack Canfield, Will Bowen, Bob Doyle, Rhonda Byrne; to the teachers in the movie The Secret, including me.

Turns out Ehrenreich heard me speak a few years ago at the National Speakers Association annual convention. There were more than 6,000 people there, so I never met her. But I apparently left an impression. She says in her book –

“Vitale, who looks like a slightly elongated version of Danny DeVito, offers the theme of ‘inspired marketing,’ and also love. “

Inspired Marketing is the title of a book I wrote with Craig Perrine, and love is the core  of everything I do.

But Ehrenreich didn’t say either fact.

She mentions I’m a disciple of P.T. Barnum in her book, too, but doesn’t explain that’s because I wrote a popular business book on him, titled There’s A Customer Born Every Minute.

For a journalist, she cleverly left off statements that would justify what I, and others she mentions in her book, stand for and teach.

The message of her book seems to be to use critical thinking, not positive thinking, in order to make a difference in your life and world. For her, positive thinking can be delusional, while critical thinking can give you a well-rounded view of your choices.

I agree with her.

The thing is, most people who say they are critical thinkers are actually skeptical thinkers.  They quickly dismiss concepts without trying them, or demand scientific proof for concepts that are still being researched. That, to me, is delusional.

The most powerful books I’ve read on the subject of critical thinking are by Steve Siebold. His books are wake-up calls to your brain. Read his book 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class, or Die Fat or Get Tough, or read his forthcoming book on mental toughness secrets of the rich.

While I prefer positive thinking over negative thinking, I have to admit that positive thinkers can sometimes be blind to reality. When I had my cancer scare, I didn’t just think positive. I also took massive action. I searched for cures, I contacted all the healers and medical doctors I know, I tried every method offered to me, and I stayed persistent. The end result is a clean bill of health. But I didn’t get there by putting on a happy face and sitting in a corner.

Bright-Sided is a bestselling book and Ehrenreich is getting lots of publicity for it.  While she ends the book with a call to be more critical in our thinking, and to take action to get results, I suspect it will mislead many readers. Too many will jump to the conclusion that positive thinking doesn’t work at all. They’ll use the book to justify not being optimistic, or not choosing to feel good. They’ll just keep on complaining.

My reminder to you is that you always have a choice: When confronted with any moment, you can look at it cheerfully, unhappily, or objectively. I prefer the latter but with a positive expectancy.

When I got the heath scare, I at first was walloped with the news. But then I set an intention to find a cure. I expected one because, as I say in my book The Attractor Factor,  there’s always a way to handle any problem. My critical thinking — or maybe it’s better called objective thinking — included the possibility that positive action and positive expectation would be better than just unhappiness, happiness, or no action.

I appreciate critical thinking, but it’s subject to delusion, too. Most of the people I know who claim to be critical thinkers still have limiting beliefs and negative attitudes they aren’t even aware are in their own head. They are actually skeptical thinkers as a form of self-protection.

Combine all this with the Law of Attraction and you might see where critical/skeptical thinkers will find evidence for their beliefs, and positive thinkers will find evidence for their own beliefs. They’ll simply attract what they need to support their mindsets.

So how do you get out of this maze so you can have a clear-headed, productive life?

For me, the fastest thing that helps you get mentally clear is having the right coach. I know I’ve said it before but it needs said again: Every high achiever I know has a coach in their area of expertise. The coach can help them see their thinking patterns. The coach can help them stay accountable. The coach can help them achieve the results they want.

If having a coach is part of what Ehrenreich condemns as something that has “undermined America”, then I have to disagree with her. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest she get a coach to help her unravel her own thinking about “Bright-Sided” being  negative. It could also help her heal her psychic wounds.

But as she openly says, it’s “reckless optimism” that bothers her the most. With that in mind, I suggest she’s correct. You don’t want to be recklessly optimistic, but practically optimistic.

In other words, choose what you want, have an optimistic expectancy about the results, take action to attract it, and monitor your progress for feedback and course changes. That’s how you make practical use of the Law of Attraction.

That’s not being “Bright-Sided”, that’s being smart.

Finally, decades ago I had a landlord who made fun of me for reading success literature, such as positive thinking books.

I was struggling, broke and unknown at the time. I was paying him two hundred dollars a month to live in a dumpy little room in his house. I didn’t look like I was going anywhere in life.

He caught me reading a Norman Vincent Peale book (probably Enthusiasm Makes the Difference) and said, “You believe that shit?”

“I sure do, ” I said.

While at the time he questioned me I had no evidence for any future success, and any critical thinking person could have dismissed me as a dreamer, today I’m wealthy and well known.

Was it because I read positive thinking books?

Was it because I chose to be “bright-sided” about life?

Was it because I took massive action and kept a positive expectancy about my future?

What do you think?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Check out my Miracles Coaching program by clicking right here.

Note: The T-shirt I’m wearing in the photo of me and the book says “I Create My Reality.” It’s backward writing. When I look at my shirt in the mirror, I see it clearly. It’s a direct message to my unconscious, and a real conversation starter for others who see it. Call it “Bright-Sided” clothing.

You can watch a brief video of last Friday night’s grand opening of the Vitale Cigar Bar (upstairs in the new Black Forest restaurant in Wimberley, Texas) by clicking on the below image. You’ll also get to see the hardcover version of my latest book, Attract Money Now, which arrived the day of the opening. Excuse my tired look and puffy eyes. I’m still recovering from my harrowing adventure in and escape from Russia (which I’ll post about later this week). Enjoy.

I haven’t jogged in more than twenty years but I’m ready to put on barefoot running shoes and hit the hills.

Why? What’s got into me? Why am I now “born to run”? And why barefoot??

I’ve been reading the most riveting, stimulating, adventurous, outrageous, mind altering, fun, shocking and simply unbelievable book of 2009. I’m talking about Born to Run by Christoper McDougall.

The thing is, well, hypnotic.

It’s the true story of the Tarahumara, a peace-loving small group of mega-distance running people who live hidden in Mexico’s Copper Canyon. The author heard of them and went on a quest to find them. What a quest it was.

He didn’t just dodge drug dealers and dangerous mountains, but he climbed, walked, ran, and struggled though a maze of twists and turns that make this book the healthiest detective story of the year.

Only it’s all true.

Part of the secret to the Tarahumara’s ability to run forever — literally — is the fact that they don’t wear shoes. No Nikes. No New Balances. No spring-loaded computerized made-only-for-your-feet shoes.

If anything, they wear what some would call Jesus or gladiator sandals: just a slab of thin leather under the sole with a leather thong tied around the foot and ankle. That’s it.

Of course, these running savants love to run. They smile as they run. They are like kids at play — kids who smoke black tobacco and drink corn beer — but kids in spirit, even when they’re senior citizens dashing over mountain tops.

Go figure.

You’ve got to read the book. It’s a masterpiece. Read it for the writing style. Read it for the adventure story. Read it for the amazing characters. Read it for the inspiration. Read it to be shocked. But read it.

Off with the shoes and out the door to freedom I go.

Or not.

I’ve yet to get my head around running virtually barefoot over roads and rough terrain.

I think I’ll finish Born to Run first and then decide.

Ao Akua,

Joe
Dr. Joe Vitale

PS – Here are some resources for you:

Info on Tarahumara
http://www.mexonline.com/raramuri.htm

“White Horse” leads trips into Mexico’s Copper Canyon
http:/www.caballoblanco.com/

Details on Barefoot Running
http://barefootted.com/labels/tarahumara.html

Book site for Born to Run
http://www.borntorun.org/

Vibram Five Fingers are “shoes” that look like slippers a frog would wear. Yet people run in these “barefoot running shoes.”
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

Note: Remember to read Joe Vitale’s new book Attract Money Now FREE by clicking right here.

Optimism? How can anyone be an optimist during these times? What grounds are there for being optimistic, anyway? Is it at all realistic?

A few weeks ago a friend asked me how I learned to see the good in life and the good in people. The question stopped me. I had to think. It’s true I look for the good in people and in life. It’s true I learned to do it.

But how? When? Why?

I remember being very unhappy in college. One time I sat on the steps of the house I had a room in (back at Kent State University), feeling sad. A couple walking by looked at me. The woman said, “You look really unhappy.”

A close friend of mine in college even went as far as to say I was “naturally pessimistic.”

Decades ago, on the streets of Dallas, jobless and sleepless with worry, I stood at a bus stop. A man crossing the street looked at me and said, “You look terrible.”

That doesn’t happen today.

No one says I am pessimistic today.

Why not?

Why am I smiling in this recent photo of Lynne McTaggart (author of The Intention Experiment and The Field)?

Why do I smile more often than not these days?

Why am I now “naturally optimistic”?

What happened to the natural pessimist?

Here’s the secret: I’ve spent a fortune to work on myself over the last few decades – meaning I read books, listened to audios,  attended events, and got coaches.

All of this personal development helped me erase the beliefs causing my feelings and behavior.

All of this led to a transformation that today is so dramatically different than what I once was, I’m only the same person by name.

The point is this: Anything can be learned. Anyone can change.

The new science of neuro-plasticity is proving it. So is the new science of positive psychology. We live in an exciting world where even science is starting to point to the miraculous.

But back to me seeing the good in people and in life.

I learned from legendary psychologist William James that whatever I focus on will expand. It’s basic Law of Attraction but without the woo-woo. It’s fundamental psychology.

If you look for bad things, you’ll tend to find them, focus on them, and then see more of them. Your focus will “expand” them into your life.

Change your focus and you change your life.

This is why the work of Will Bowen (author of A Complaint-Free World) and his complaint-free world movement is so important. I’m on his board of directors because I know the power of not complaining but instead stating what you want.

In Law of Attraction terms (as explained in my book The Attractor Factor) it simply means don’t state what you don’t want (the complaint) but instead declare what you do want (your intention).

When it comes to other people, Goethe had something to say about this, too:

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”

I’ve also learned that when you find the good in people and situations, you feel better. You’re happier, healthier, and ultimately wealthier.

People around you feel better, too. They don’t have to defend themselves from your complaining about them or trying to change them.

You love them and they feel it.

This is the core of the Zero Limits ho’oponopono process, as well. You don’t try to change anyone. After all, they are mirror images of you, anyway. Whatever you don’t like in them is something you don’t like inside you.

Might as well love what you see.

It’s you.

In short, reality is what you see, and what you see is what you choose.

Whether the glass is half empty or half full is a choice of perception.

It may not feel like a choice when you start practicing this way of living, but only because of habit. As you continue to pause, decide on what you want to see in any moment, and choose the positive view, you soon learn that being an optimist is a very realistic thing to do. It will become your new nature.

I love that more and people are learning to be optimistic about life. There are a long line of books and people teaching us you have a choice about how you can view life. Whether actor Michael J. Fox (author, Always Looking Up) or Joe Vitale (author, Attract Money Now), the lesson is the same: focus on what you want and you’ll tend to bring it about.

Where is your focus?

Ao Akua,

Joe
Dr. Joe Vitale

PS — Nothing works faster to transform you than having your own coach. Please check out my famous Miracles Coaching program. If you want to be optimistic no matter what, and live the life of an optimist breathing optimism, coaching can be your ticket to freedom. Forget reality. It’s only what you perceive, and your perception is under your control.

My father just sent me this High School graduation picture of myself. This was Joe Vitale in 1972 in Ohio:

And here is Joe Vitale aka Mr Fire last week in Bermuda with Jack Canfield:

And here’s another recent photo of Joe Vitale:

What the – ?

That kid in 1972 had no idea of the roller-coaster he was about to step on as he left High School: homelessness and poverty, confusion and desperation, anger and hurt, yet on to the nickname “Mr Fire!” and world-wide success, happiness, wealth, and fame, with thirty books (such as The Attractor Factor),  eleven movies (such as The Secret), and his own Miracles Coaching program helping thousands worldwide.

You explain it.

When people ask me how I went from nothing to something, they are looking for the magic pill answer. They want me to name the one book, or one event, or one person, or one action, that changed it all forever.

Well, I did do one thing.

And it may surprise you.

The one thing I did to transform my life was this: everything.

I read all the books, attended all the events, struggled and squirmed, panted and prayed, worked on myself, took odd jobs (some I hated) and more — all as I pursued my passion: to write bestselling books that inspire people.

Today I do that for a living. My next book will be available any day now. It reveals my original seven step formula to help anyone attract money now.

It’s called Attract Money Now.

And I’m giving it away, free.

Register to get it by clicking right here.

And then go look at your High School picture.

Ao Akua,

Joe
Dr. Joe Vitale

PS – Where did Joe Vitale get the name “Mr Fire!”, anyway? Back in the early 1990s I met a woman who began calling me that whenever we met. When I asked her why, she said, “You set a fire under the butt of everyone you meet. You’re always inspiring people. You’re Mistah Fire!” The name stuck, though the woman moved on. And onwards we go.