17. When The Law Of Attraction Doesn't Work, Cheat

What if you could create your dream life through the power of thought? Roxie Nafousi explains that this practice, called manifesting, is achievable for anyone. Many people see manifesting as simply picturing the thing you desire and receiving it. However, effective manifestation requires you to fundamentally alter your mindset—your thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. In Manifest, Nafousi presents her method for adopting the mindset necessary to manifest and achieve anything you want in life.

This guide will explore the manifestation method that took Nafousi from her darkest moments to her ideal life within a few short years. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Nafousi’s method with advice from other experts on finding success, such as Rhonda Byrne (The Secret), Brianna Wiest (The Mountain Is You), and Daniel Walter (The Power of Discipline). We’ll also examine some of the scientific discussion around manifestation.

In The 50th Law, rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) and author Robert Greene argue that the biggest factor holding us back in life is fear—of what others think of us, what we’ll lose, the future, and so on. This natural fearfulness developed to help us survive in ancient times, but in modern times, we rarely face life-threatening situations where it’s warranted. As a result, our fearfulness only holds us back from gaining power and success. Jackson and Greene argue that you must become fearless to truly thrive.

In this guide, we’ll start by explaining how Jackson’s fearlessness helped him overcome his hardships and achieve power and success. Next, we’ll discuss the rules Jackson and Greene say are necessary to follow to become fearless and principles that’ll help you follow each one. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Jackson and Greene’s advice with recommendations from other experts on success, like Daniel Walter (The Power of Discipline). We’ll also compare the ideas in this book to those in some of Greene’s previous works, including The 48 Laws of Power.

In Good Vibes, Good Life, Vex King argues that the key to living your dream life is to have good vibrations or “good vibes.” When you put out good vibes like gratitude and joy, you attract good vibes back; however, when you put out bad vibes like resentment, regret, or impatience, you’ll attract bad vibes and consequently experience more hardships. The key to minimizing bad vibes and maximizing good ones, King argues, is self-love and acceptance.

This guide will discuss King’s Law of Vibration, how you can raise your vibrations, the things that negatively impact your vibes, and how to use your good vibes to achieve your ideal life. Throughout the guide, we’ll also relate King's concepts to recent scientific research and the opinions and recommendations of psychologists, other spiritual guides, and life coaches such as Eckhart Tolle and Rhonda Byrne.

At times, most of us have felt unmotivated, discouraged, and as though things were falling apart. In this short parable, The Energy Bus, author and motivational speaker Jon Gordon explains how to turn things around when this happens. The allegory about a middle manager hitting rock bottom takes place on a bus, where the driver and passengers share with him 10 rules for reenergizing his life through positive thinking. Practicing these simple principles can help you build successful teams at work and improve your relationships. Like the story’s main character, George, you can learn to enjoy life’s ride.

In Personality Isn’t Permanent, organizational psychologist and entrepreneurial speaker Benjamin Hardy argues that, while most people see personality as fixed and essential to who they are, this is false and unhealthy. In reality, he explains, personality is highly changeable—and with the right approach, you can become whoever you want to be.

In this guide, we’ll explore Hardy’s arguments about commonly-held misconceptions about personality and what the truth about personality is. We’ll also discover how, with the right mindset and strategy, you can create the future you’d like to have and become who you want to be.

Along the way, our guide will explore both parallels and differences between Hardy’s ideas and those of other personal growth authors.

Alex Banayan writes that success is like a nightclub with three doors: The first is the main entrance, through which you enter by working hard and playing by the rules. The line to this door is crowded and moves slowly. The second door is reserved for billionaires and celebrities and is off-limits to ordinary people. In The Third Door, he focuses on the last option—the door that allows regular folk to skip the line, find hidden opportunities, and think outside the box. He argues it’s the best—and really, only—route to getting ahead of the crowd.

Banayan interviews successful people from a wide range of fields to discover what insights, tricks, and motivations helped them find their unique paths to success. In this guide, we’ll review major themes he came across in his interviews, and we’ll explore how the insights he gleaned compare to theories of success from other thinkers.

Although we live longer today and have more material wealth than ever, many people feel anxious rather than happy. In Flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi offers an antidote. People are happiest when they feel in control of their inner thoughts and feelings and experience a “flow state”: a sense of enjoyment, purpose, and meaning.

Csikszentmihalyi explains: how controlling and ordering your consciousness brings flow and enjoyment, which personality characteristics produce flow, and how to find flow in your work and relationships.

The Happiness Hypothesis explores the nature of human happiness, blending the philosophical and theological wisdom of ancient thinkers with insights from the field of positive psychology. Our satisfaction is driven by how our mental filters interpret the events in our lives, with the human brain perpetually divided against itself in the struggle between the desires created by our emotions and the attempts of reason to control them. The key to happiness is to use reason to focus the mind away from desires that will only bring fleeting happiness, while giving in to those desires that will bring lasting fulfillment.

Do you ever feel that there is a more authentic, primal self within you waiting to be free? Glennon Doyle has felt this way, too—like a wild animal in captivity who was conditioned not to feel, think, or trust herself. She tells her story in Untamed, part memoir—covering her personal story of addiction and rehab, falling in love with a woman, leaving her marriage, and rebuilding her life—and part call to action for any woman who feels held captive by society’s rules and expectations.

Through exploration of her story, she instructs readers to rebuild their lives using emotion, intuition, and imagination as guiding forces. In this guide, we’ll explore Doyle’s journey out of captivity and her lessons for other captive women. Along the way, we’ll explore complementary ideas from other feminist thinkers, psychological reasoning for aspects of captivity, and practical actionables to help you live Doyle’s principles.

Many people assume their ideal life will never be more than fantasy, but in reality, you have the power to create the life you dream about. In this book, life coach and self-help guru Tony Robbins provides insights and strategies to help you take control of every aspect of your life, from your emotions to your focus. In many cases, you can make transformational changes to your life through small adjustments, such as swapping out just one word in your vocabulary.

In this guide you’ll learn how your bad habits are wired in your brain, how to decode your negative emotions to find solutions to them, and how to create your destiny.

This guide compares and contrasts Robbins’s ideas with those of other popular self-help authors, as well as current scientific theories. This will provide you with background and a deeper understanding of the lessons in Awaken the Giant Within, as well as some alternative methods for taking control of your life.