The Top Self-Improvement Experts

It’s difficult enough for most people to sort out the diet and exercise gurus, let alone all the “success gurus” that are out there today. A lot of people even wonder whether you need a success “guru” in the first place or if the whole self help and positive thinking movement is a bunch of baloney. Opinions are very polarized on the subject and range from “Transformed my life,” to “It’s just common sense,” to “A bunch of phonies”…

The word guru has its roots in spiritual traditions and the first definition you find in the dictionary reflects that: A teacher and guide in spiritual or philosophical matters.

The second definition is: A trusted counselor and advisor; a mentor

I like the word “mentor.” I like the word “coach” too.

Whatever you call it, I believe that if you want to achieve the highest level of success possible, as quickly as possible, in ANY area of your life, then you will will benefit from a mentor.

You cannot bypass the steps and the work that are necessary to be successful, but a mentor can help you accelerate your climb and stumble less often.

A coach or mentor sees the potential in you that you do not see in yourself yet.

A coach or mentor can light a desire fire under your butt and help you set your sights for bigger and better things when you were going to sell yourself short.

A coach or mentor provides you with accountability which helps you stay on track.

A coach or mentor also provides what Napoleon Hill said was a prerequisite for success - specialized knowledge.

But if having a coach or mentor is so important, then why do they sometimes get bad press and why do so many people say negative things about personal development gurus, books, tapes, seminars and so on?

Well, for sure, there is bad advice in the self improvement field just as there is bad advice in the diet and exercise field, in the Investment field and every other field.

But sometimes even the best advice is unjustly criticized… Criticism is often a way people attack others because it makes them feel better about their own lack of success and feelings of inferiority. Easier to knock someone else down than build yourself up, right?

Not long ago, a critic - who shall remain unnamed - wrote a book about how the entire personal development industry is one giant scam, preying on people who continue to buy the next big thing in “self help” just like dieters keep buying the next big thing in fat loss.

Well, as Teddy Roosevelt said in his famous and oft-quoted line, “It’s not the critic who counts…”

Ignore the critics and avoid the pessimists. If you listen to and hang out with losers, you will become one yoursef.

I can honestly tell you that studying personal success and improvement information - right alongside my studies of nutrition and exercise science - has transformed my life in ways I cannot even begin to descibe in a short blog entry.

The information I have learned - combined with the fact that I took what I learned and ACTED ON is a big part of why I am where I am today.

And thats an important point — ACTION trumps everything else.

There’s a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization and of course, positive thinking.

I believe in all those things. But I think theres a misconception that if you just “think positive” and then sit back and wait then success will be mysteriously “attracted” to you or to “manifest” out of thin air.

Success is achieved through action + attraction. There are two sides to the coin.

Affirmations are wonderful, but as Jim Rohn once said,”affirmation without action is the beginning of delusion,” or as the old Quaker saying goes, “Pray, but move your feet!”

Some people will listen to a few minutes of an audio or read the first few pages of a self-improvement book and theyre tempted to say, “I already know that.”

Other people will criticize personal improvement information by saying… “This is just common sense.”

To the former, I say GOOD! repetition is the mother of learning.

To the latter, I say, YES it is common sense. Are you taking action and applying this “common sense” wisdom in your own life today?

Have you read the book about fat loss and yet you refuse to change your eating habits? Have you bought the book about financial success and yet you spend more than you save and you don’t increase your value to your employer or customers?

If you are not as healthy, wealthy, or successful as you want to be yet, then I’d say that those “common sense” messages that you have “heard before” haven’t quite sunk in yet have they? If they had, your results would show it. As the proverb goes, “By their fruits you will know them.”

Maybe you need a mentor to help you with the application of things.

So get mentors! Keep studying… and keep applying, and taking action. Even after you’ve “made it,” don’t ever stop because your awareness of and ability to use and apply the laws of success will continue to expand.

Nothing beats a personal mentor or coaching program, but a place we can all get started is to seek mentors in self improvement books. That’s where I started.

Here’s a short list of some of the great ones.

Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Think and grow rich by napoleon hill
the Seven habits of highy effective people by Steven covery
As Man Thinketh By James Allen
Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
You’ll See it when you Believe it by Dr. Wayne Dyer
You were Born rich by Bob Proctor
The strangest secret by earl Nightingale
the Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy
The psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley
7 strategies for wealth and happiness by Jim Rohn
The magic Of Thinkig Big by david Schwartz
The Magic Of Believing by claude Bristol

My apologies go to all those I did not list because I could go on and on listing pages and pages of great books and then pages and pages more of audio and video programs.

I narrowed down my list specifically, because these are some of the classic books that fell into my hands and influenced me the most when I first started on this path.

My Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle Book, for example, was very influenced by many of these authors as I weaved principles of success psychology throughout its pages, and the entire first chapter of Burn Fat Fat is all about goals, self image, motivation and how to program your subconscious mind. I KNOW this has a lot to do with why the program has been so successful for so many thousands of people.

If you’re interested in seeing a much more exhaustive listing of success, motivation and personal improvement books, and especially if youre confused and not sure where to start, another book I recommend is David riklan’s Self Improvement: The Top 101 Experts.

101 experts is a reference manual that catalogs the top 101 self improvement experts and summarizes who they are, what they have to say, what books and products they have and how to contact them.

You could call it a “mentor-finder” because ithelps you to locate the mentors who are most appropriate for your personal desires, wants, and needs and what areas you want to improve the most. It also includes a copy of Think And Grow Rich…

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill by the way, is probably responsible for the increased success of more men and women over the last 100 years than any other book outside of the bible.

The website for the 101 experts book is:

www.self-improvement-101.com

One final thought: Some people say that they are not so concerned about their own personal success and that they would like to improve the world, serve others and contribute to society. Those are noble and admirable intentions, but hard to do if you haven’t started with yourself first.

Someone very wise said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It all starts with SELF-improvement.

Train Hard and Expect Success,

tom Venuto

PS Feel welcome to post your comments and opinions or list some of your own favorite self improvement books andhow they have influenced you.

29 July, 2006 posted in Food & Nutrition