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It’s often true that the old stuff is still the good stuff. As we careen into cyberspace, at break neck speed, we will leave some of that old but good stuff behind. However, don’t be too quick to toss all of it. There are some valuable nuggets – some ideas that when first presented, caused people to sit up and take notice then and still can today. Fourteen years ago, one such nugget burst forth into the self development/self –esteem arena: The Aladdin Factor, by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. It was one of those books that was roundly applauded when it first came out. I might have skimmed through it while standing in the aisle of a bookstore when it first came out. I do remember hearing it get talked about in book review articles and on talk shows. That was in 1995. Not three nights ago (this is now February, 2009), I was listening to one of Doug Firebough’s recent CDs. As he was making one point, he mentioned the title of this book – very quickly – before moving on. What caught my attention was his comment that for the past ten years, he has continued to recommend this book to distributors in his organization. That made me sit up and take notice. If this book was holding its own over that long of a time period, I wanted to know what was in it. The next day, I scoured the shelves of my town library, in search of this book. It wasn’t there and I had to request that another library send it to mine. After impatiently waiting for three days, I finally got my hands on it. The 1995 copyright date made me pause. In certain fields, an older copyright date means that the content is already obsolete. Think about how technology has taken us from tape decks to audio cassettes, to MP3 players. Techno-geeks don’t usually look backwards for new ideas, they’re looking forward to the next best thing. The Aladdin Factor could be like that – better left in the past- despite Firebough’s recent endorsement. I opened the book and quickly scanned the table of contents and read the back cover. This book claimed to teach people how to get over major stumbling blocks to asking for what they wanted. “Anything Is Possible…If you dare to ask!” - Here was the eye-catching phrase on the back cover. The hook, or the catch, if you will, was what the authors called “The Aladdin Factor”. They wrote that once someone grasped the significance of this, that everything someone wanted could be had simply for the asking. The predicament for many people was in not knowing how to ask. Many of us don’t know what to ask for. Either we don’t know what is available to us because we have never been exposed to it, or, we are so out of touch with ourselves that we no longer are able to perceive our real needs and wants. Some of us have become so numbed out that we are simply unaware of our natural yearnings and desires. We no longer know what we really want. (pg 7) When I was much younger, I was terrified to ask. The third sister, I followed my two eldest sisters all the way through school. They were both gifted – so it seemed to me then – when it came to math. Answers to the most complex equations just floated out of their mouths. I was in agony coming up behind them, sitting in algebra and geometry classes not understanding, not getting it, and feeling terrified to voice my confusion out loud. Looking back from where I am now, I honestly don’t know where those terrified feelings came from. I do know that I didn’t want other kids in the class to think I was dumb, and, those feelings drowned me in a sea of inertia. There was no way I was going to open my mouth and talk. Somehow, I got through that adolescent period. Years later, standing at the front of my classroom, I recognized those looks of terrified ignorance in the faces of my students. I’d stop whatever it was we were talking about, and, gathering their silence, I’d tell them that we weren’t going forward until everyone in that room “got it”. And then I’d ask them, “What needs to happen so that all of you get this?” We’d come to a group consensus – we’d dig in our heels and figure out a way for 30 adolescent minds to wrap their brains around an idea. Their reluctance to ask, for whatever reasons, was the same reluctance I’d had when I was their age sitting in math classes. What I wasn’t going to do, as their teacher, was let their reluctance get in their way of learning. And so, I asked the question that I thought they needed to answer; the question that allowed us to recognize their fear and then to get past it. The Aladdin Factor is a book that examines this kind of dilemma from many perspectives and uses stories and humor to drive home all of the authors points. Before getting to the nitty gritty (or the nuggets of practical, “how to” information that I always look for), the authors take you through what they believe are the five barriers to asking: the main reasons we don’t ask for what we want. (pgs 7 – 33). Start here to lay the groundwork for what comes next. There’s a wealth of practical material covering how to ask at home, at school, at work, how to ask yourself and how to ask for spiritual help. These five areas are timeless and what gives this book its relevancy for 2009 and beyond despite the fact that it was written in 1995. Imagine how your life might be different if you knew with a certainty that anything you wanted could be had simply by knowing how to ask for it! Knowing the right questions and then how to ask them can be found inside this book. Taking the next step and putting all that you read into practice comes next. How easy is that to do? Check back here often for more insights, more stories, and more books to read. |
