The Power of No: Because One Little Word Can Bring Health, Abundance, and Happiness Paperback – July 15, 2014

Good book

The "Altucher Experience" as I call it has elevated to "Altucher Squared," with the addition of Claudia bleeding her life experience into words that make The Power of No an impactful read. As I took it in, highlighting, writing notes, I wondered how I would be affected this time. How would my life change, improve again based on Altucher Squared? I wasn't disappointed. Once I began saying no to what was unhealthy to me, new worlds revealed themselves.Frankly, I think this concept of "NO" is just a natural culmination of all the work and writings by Altucher and Altucher Squared. They've both, perhaps subtlety been working up to the lessons here. This book is a natural adjunct to "Choose Yourself", it's the next iteration. Sort of like Godfather 2 answers the questions you had from The Godfather. Once you choose, the word NO should be a regular part of your vocabulary. James and Claudia help readers understand how it's fine, no, more than fine, to draw the line, set boundaries, walk away, cut loose, never look back. I've used it. It works. I will continue. As a matter of fact, it's more than fine. It's necessary for you to live the life you seek.The book opens strong - I created a set of "Your No Bill of Rights" index cards to keep me focused, based on the lessons. You have the RIGHT to defend your life, to healthy relationships, love, to assert what you want, take your time, to be honest with all and yourself. You have the right to practice silence and connect with the higher part of you. Stillness.Here are some of the lessons I learned: Beware the gatekeepers who's job it is to prevent you from doing something you want to do (on occasion it's the person in the mirror), you are entitled to choose which stories you believe in. Owning a house, marriage. Don't believe in those stories? Fine. Use your inner voice to build your outer "no," with conviction, say no to protect your own.The Altuchers don't know it yet but I also created the concept of "double zero" from this book - Learn scorched earth. Use no to burn bridges. 00 is using the light and warmth from a burning bridge to shine bright on what you must remove from your inner boundaries. It's the existential version of "you're dead to me."Using "NO" wisely allowed me to find my true self.It will help you too.This book is another small investment in huge self discovery.

We see a tip of the cap to Eckhart Tolle and his best selling book, The Power of Now, right in this book’s title. So, it’s no surprise to find references to his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Buddha, Thich Nhat Hahn, being “still,” meditation, etc.The book starts with a NO Bill of Rights. Here we find 11 rights such as, our right to take OUR time, the right to healthy relationships and real love, the right to have an abundant and fulfilled life, etc.Next, our authors, James and his wife Claudia, alternate back and forth, providing stories of the power of the word NO.We start with some of the more obvious things where we should say NO. We should say NO to negative chatter, gossip, toxic people, etc.As we progress through the book, we get into a bit more of the new age kind of thinking such as how saying NO to certain things helps with “mindset, abundance, gratitude, vibration” and all the familiar terms bandied about in the personal development space.Some chapters offer practice exercises at the end. One that I found of value was Claudia’s tips for “being still.” I continue to practice meditation, but my mind races like the Energizer Bunny, so I’m still a work in progress. Claudia offers a couple of new suggestions that I’ll likely give a whirl.This is a simple book and you might have 2-3 hours in total to get front to back. It’s extremely helpful information but most of it I’ve come across from prior reading. I desperately could have used the insight on the power of saying NO about 10 years ago, but seeing as this was only written in 2014, that was impossible!Amazon gives this one 4.5 stars after 280 reviews. Goodreads is less generous with 3.55 stars after 952 ratings and 88 reviews.This is my first Altucher experience and I read that Choose Yourself is a good one from James. I really enjoyed this one, especially the authenticity of authors, their willingness to share their vulnerabilities, and some of their darker days.I give it 4 stars and I highly recommend it for anyone who needs to learn to say NO!#FridaysFind #MIAGD #ThePowerOfNO #Altucher