The Secret Code of Success

This lens is my review of this book.

-I will share with you a few of the basic ideas that Noah teaches.
-And give you my own opinion!

Enjoy.

In this book Noah talks about the phenomenon of "success anorexia".

What is "Success Anorexia"?

Basically it means that people are starving themselves of success; much like anorexics starves themselves of food.

But why would someone do this?

You see it everywhere... millions of capable people who are talented and have the full potential and desire to be happy and wealthy. But somehow they're stuck. Noah suggests that this is because of "success anorexia".

What this means is that they consciously want to succeed; but unconsciously they hold themselves back. Even self-sabotaging when they do see any sort of success that they desire.

My Opinion:

I am familiar with the eating disorder world, especially binge eating disorder, so I understood what he was talking about immediately.

The simplest way to understand this concept is to turn to what everyone is trying to do: lose weight.

Example:
Say Joanna weighs 200 lbs and her cholesterol worries her doctor: she is advised to lose the weight. Her ideal weight is 150 lbs. With hopes and doubts; she begins an aggressive diet and exercise plan. She begin to see results almost immediately! Joanna drops 20 lbs in the first month. In the second month her progress slows with a loss of 5 lbs. And in the third month she gains back 20 lbs that she had previously lost. Joanna feels frustrated and she tells herself, "I knew I couldn't do it!". She gave up all together and balloon up to 210 lbs. The heaviest she's ever been!
The reason she "failed" is because she had more reasons to fail than to succeed. Let me illustrate:

Reasons to lose weight (conscious):
1-doctors orders
2-lower cholesterol
3-look younger
4-have a sexy body
5-have trendy clothing

Reasons NOT to lose weight (unconscious):
1-takes time
2-takes patience
3-takes energy and persistence
4-can't eat what I want
5-what will I do when I'm thin (how will I hide my "fears")
6-being overweight is familiar
7-what if my family is jealous
8-what if my spouse is jealous
9-what if I gain it all back
10-will I have to diet and exercise all of my life

Joanna failed because...

She had more reasons to fail than she did to succeed. After she began to see some success; she actually began to sabotage herself.

This is the same thing that Noah is trying to get across with "success anorexia". Whether people are aware of it or not... they have more reasons to fail than to succeed (whatever they're definition of success is). Even if they consciously want it VERY badly.

"Now it's time that you allow yourself to succeed to your full potential. It's time to get your foot off the break in your life career, and relationships for good. And I'm going to show you exactly how to do that..." ("The Secret Code of Success" pg. 29)

Does Noah St. John deliver on that promise?

My Opinion:
Yes. I believe he does.

Noah isn't a "how to" guy; he is a "why to" guy. And the reason most of us fail at the things we want most in life isn't because we don't know HOW.... it's because our WHY isn't big enough. Or in other words: we have more "why" reasons to fail than we have "why" reasons to succeed. Just like Joanna did in the example above!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! I didn't realize how many answers I would find to things I'd always wondered about... answers that I had been looking for.

If there is ANY part of your life that you are not happy with.... I highly recommend this book.

"The Secret Code of Success" by Noah St. John.