Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Have you ever had something really good happen to you followed by something really terrible? According to Gay Hendricks, this is the Upper Limit Problem. We hold ourselves back, either because we think we are terrible people, because we are afraid of leaving others behind, because we don't want to outshine others, and because we feel like we're a burden. If we can leave all this behind, we would jump into our "Zone of Genius", where we live in bliss and success, we always have enough time for everything, and we don't get sick for 13+ years. How do we do this? Basically, by repeating a mantra of "I will live my life to the fullest and inspire others to do so". And there, I've saved you 200+ pages and 7 bucks of your hard earned cash. I'm not saying that this book has zero merits. I do believe I've experienced this "Upper Limit Problem"; I've had moments of great success, namely weight loss, followed by drastic falls (weight gain). But I've also had moments of failure (losing out on an exclusive project) followed by more failure (having a tree fall on our house). So no, bad doesn't always follow good, and getting sick is not a sign of something good happening. Then there's the fact this is Hendricks version of the Prosperity Gospel/The Secret/Toxic Positivity, where it doesn't have space for people with, say, chronic pain or born into institutionalized racism. What did people born in poverty or to undocumented immigrants or to the "wrong color" or in the "wrong body" do wrong? They didn't think the right thoughts so this is what they got?? No, this book is tailored to the white middle class, the ones who get stars in their eyes when they see all these glittery examples of various CEOs, stockbrokers, executives and business owners whom Hendricks consults with and suddenly become even MORE rich and successful than ever! Hendricks' clients are almost exclusively of the 1% that none of us will ever reach in our lifetimes - but one we all imagine we are a hair's breadth away from. The advice is only really applicable to a small, teeny tiny portion of the population who are wealthy enough to buy this book and afford to be concerned about this topic, who envision themselves as the next Bill Gates. The NEXT big beef is the entirety of the "Einstein Time" chapter. At the beginning of the chapter, Hendricks says "it’s based on solid science inspired by Einstein’s physics." I want to enunciate "INSPIRED BY" because nowhere is anything Hendricks says about Einstein or Newtonian Time even remotely grounded in actual science. The Theory of General Relativity (Einstein) says that at the speed of light or approximately light, time is not constant, while Newton made time a constant. Numerous website stated that at our speeds, we cannot tell that time is not a constant. There is no such thing as "generating more time" when you are out of time. If the author meant "Stop worrying about time" or "Be honest with yourself and others that you don't really want to do something", fine. But this isn't what you find in the book! Hendricks flings around Einstein and Newton like many hucksters fling around quantum and other physics terms - you don't know what they mean and neither do your audience, but you act like you do, so it impresses your audience. But I ain't impressed. The final nail in the coffin is the sheer amount of repetition in this book. This is best shown in the following example: You’ll either have too little of it or too much. You’ll either have “no time at all” or be sitting around with “time on your hands.” You’ll be rushing to catch up or bored out of your wits. In the Newtonian world, we’re either “running out of time” or watching the seconds creep by. This was one portion of a paragraph; the entire paragraph could have been summed up in the first sentence. Most of the examples (if they were even true - with most of these types of books, I am skeptical of this many examples of how so-and-so's miracle method worked with every single person they met) were basically the same story - this CEO/executive/business owner had a minor setback and after a quick talk with Hendricks, they were set on the right path. And then you have the sales pitch - before Hendricks will tell you what his method is, he must convince you it's the best method ever and will totally change your life. I get it already - tell me what it is! If this entire book had been trimmed for a blog post or Huff Post article (even more with the exclusion of Einstein time), it would have been greatly improved. As it stands, despite the good nugget of being proud of your successes and embracing them, I cannot recommend this book or rate it higher than 1-star. There is absolutely no citation whatsoever in the book; the writing is atrocious (the worst of this pop self-help schlock); the book excludes anyone outside a narrow subset. I cannot in my good conscience recommend this to anyone.