REVIEW: “Energy of life. 10 Secrets to Activating Inner Powers, Brandon Burchard

The author is the famous American motivational coach Brandon Burchard. The story of his life, narrated on the pages of the book, is very dramatic. Brandon survived a serious car accident, serious illness and the death of his father. These events changed the life of the author and made him look at it in a new way.

Today Brandon Burchard is one of the best (and highest paid) business coaches and motivation experts. He appears on television, writes articles and books (Council for a Million, Life’s Golden Ticket), and lectures around the world (Brandon's most famous seminars: High Performance Academy and Partnership Seminar).

It is noteworthy that literally on the first pages, Burchard admits that he is not a doctor, not a psychologist, not an expert in finance or law. He is just a kind adviser who can help make life a little more interesting.

Brandon Burchard is a renowned motivation trainer

Lack of life strategy

So why are we unhappy? According to Brandon Burchard, human motivation has undergone significant evolutionary changes - in our life there is no clear strategy and, as a result, energy.

What made our parents feel good has become irrelevant for us, because public consciousness has changed. We work differently (freelance, coworking, etc.), live differently (fly to Thailand to hide from the Russian winter), communicate differently (Skype, Contact, ZhZheshechka).

As a result, many live either in a cage of other people's desires or in a comfort zone. The former are limited by the frames drawn by those around them - they do not have their own opinion or are simply afraid to express it and go the long beaten path. The latter have built a “comfortable life” for themselves and are afraid to part with it.

But there is a third way - energized life.

A life filled with energy is a specially organized way of being, which is accompanied by a constant active interest in the environment, energy and inspiration.

To start living this life, you need to activate 10 aspirations in yourself: for control, competence, congruence, attention, relationships (basic aspirations), as well as for change, solving difficult problems, creative expression, personal contribution and awareness (progressive aspirations).

Everyone develops basic aspirations in one way or another (at least, the readers of Lifehacker, a lot of materials of which are devoted to how to control your activities, be a real professional, live in peace with yourself and build harmonious relationships with others). Therefore, we will not consider them in detail in this article. Let's talk about progressive aspirations.

There are 10 aspirations, activating which your life will be filled with energy

Striving for change

Changing and changing is difficult. We are haunted by fears: “What if nothing comes of it? Or will it not work out as planned?"

You should know this: change is the only way to a dream, because you can only achieve a goal by changing the starting position.

To let change in your life, you need, first, to associate them with gains, not failures. Of course, you can think about the troubles that may lie in wait for you at your new job: an evil boss, a "rotten" team, an uncomfortable area. And someone will even call it a "realistic calculation", they say, it is better to immediately think over the force majeure. And you can look for pluses in the current situation: a new field of activity, meeting new people, career growth, etc.

Secondly, in order to change something, you need to be bold and ambitious enough. And finally, thirdly, you need to learn how to make real choices.

Such "needs" and "needs" are what Brandon Burchard calls "activators." Activators accompany each aspiration, but I will not talk about them in detail. If you are interested in a life filled with energy, it will be more interesting for you to learn about them from the mouth of the author.

Committed to solving difficult problems

The challenge is progress. Solving it, we become smarter, more experienced, proud of ourselves and grow in the eyes of our loved ones. But difficult tasks also cause fear (how much we are afraid!): "What if I give a swing, and everyone will laugh?" In addition, often we are simply too lazy to shoulder an overly heavy burden.

We are exposed to stress, but it is rarely caused by solving real, complex problems that expand the boundaries of our capabilities, make us develop and feel zest for life. The main causes of stress in the modern world are the inability to get together and postponement. In the era of information abundance and free access to the Internet, we spend too much time on useless activity, as a result, we feel an acute shortage of time.

Striving for creative self-expression

Any activity is creativity. And creativity is yourself. In other words, your unique, individual creative approach should be traced in any activity. Even washing dishes or painting a fence can be transformed from a chore into a fun one.

A global change with increased creativity in the work environment has important implications for your work life as well. The old maxim, “Work well, and you won't lose your job,” fell into oblivion in the early 1990s, when concepts such as downsizing, process optimization, and outsourcing became firmly established in business strategies. To keep a job, you need to not only "work well", be smart and pleasant to talk to. The ability to collect and process information and manage people is also not enough. You need to be an innovator, create added value and competitive advantages with your own creative work.

Commitment to personal contribution

People want to know that everything is not in vain: we do not live in vain, we do not work in vain, start a family, communicate with friends. Personal contribution is the meaning of life itself. However, often, giving, a person feels only disappointment. This is due to the fact that many people confuse the concepts of "giving" and "giving".

Our society unfairly believes that personal contribution is only what we give to a specific cause, and it has nothing to do with dedication. Therefore, many people do not realize that just being yourself is enough to leave a mark on this world. Perhaps it is enough just to live by your values, doing everything that you are capable of, and fully realize your talents and abilities in any business?

The purpose of the book is to help you understand the highest purpose of your existence

Striving for awareness

What is consciousness? What are its boundaries and capabilities? These questions still cause heated debate among psychologists and psychiatrists. From a common point of view, consciousness is control. A person seeks to control all spheres of life, but, unfortunately, this does not guarantee happiness.

So how can you make the most of your conscious ability to control your thoughts and your life? What to focus on to live a happy and exciting life? To this question I can give the following answer: it is necessary to shift the emphasis from how we are aware to what we should be aware of.

Summary

The book is hard to read. Up to 50 pages you catch yourself thinking: "Well, water!". But then you get involved in the story (although, I repeat, Burchard's language is too boring for my perception) and you begin to notice his wisdom.

The philosophizing of the author makes you think about a lot. "Energy of Life" is an excellent book for "self-digging". It will appeal to those who are focused on personal growth and think about the meaning of life.