The Success Principles

I have been reading and re-reading this book of late. The subtitle is "How to get from where you are to where you want to be". It's written by Jack Canfield (co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul phenomenon).

It starts with taking complete responsibility for your life. (This, incidentally, is the theme for all personal growth books.) Then it goes into how to figure out what you want and how to go about getting it. There is a whole section on creating a support structure (which I am looking to build for myself), and another on attracting money. All in all the book gets high recommendation from me.

Now let's look at the whole philosophy behind the book from a different angle. The core of it is: find out what you want (your dreams, goals, ambitions), set up a system (coaching, mentors, support groups) and make it happen. It also presupposes that this is an abundant universe, and that it is not a zero-sum game. To my ears the whole thing sounds suspiciously like our unschooling philosophy!

I have written about our philosophy on this blog before. We humans discover our goals, ambitions, purpose - indeed our selves - through trial-and-error and experimenting and lots and lots of playing. This is the part that tells you the "whats" and the "whys". One of my big criticisms of the school system (public or private) is that the kids get no chance to ask these fundamental questions. The book has many good ideas on how to discover these as well. Once we get glimmers of these paths, the bigger part of the book comes in that tells the "how" (as it says right there in the subtitle). The book and its worldview is a perfect fit for unschooling. As the kids grow older I am going to use ideas from the book (such as getting a mentor and setting goals). Indeed I think of the book as a "unschooling curriculum"!