I have been trying to fix myself and make myself better for years and years and years and over the course of those years, I have been given gifts from people I only know through books or other professional works. Here are ten people I have never met and the gifts I got from them.
- Philip Zimbardo
I was shy. (Actually I still am shy.) It is limiting. So I read Zimbardo's book on shyness called Shyness and I learned that, basically, you can fake it to make it. The revelation that Johnny Carson himself was a shy man was all I needed to have a blueprint on how to be the things I wanted to be.
- Leo Buscaglia
I saw him on a PBS special a long time ago urging people to love themselves, which at the time for me was a wild concept. His self-acceptance through love was fascinating, and he said something that has since proven itself true. He told someone "If you have fat thighs, celebrate those fat thighs and you’ll find a fat thigh lover." You can find someone who will love you for you. Trust me.
- Nathaniel Branden
He was the first rational psychologist / psychiatrist in my life and helped me make sense of romantic love. The fact that I ever found myself in any relationships has a lot to do with him.
- Napoleon Hill
How to comport yourself to succeed in America really hasn't changed all that much in the many years since he wrote this book. He taught me several key pieces in how to make it financially in this world. I am not yet independently wealthy, but the fact that I have as much as I do have goes in part to him.
- Phil Laut
Phil Laut is another of my success coaches, but with a unique twist. One of the things that hurt me in developing my financial success was my literal perception of money. Coming from a working class blue collar background, I had a limiting perception of money. Phil Laut's strange little book changed that for me forever. It's weird but it worked.
- Wendi Friesen
Wendi is the only person on the list with whom I have actually communicated, but I have not met her. Wendi is a hypnotherapist and several of her hypnotherapeutic recordings have helped me with habits, issues, and questions. The fact that Kathy finds me studly is due, in part, to her work. It doesn't hurt that I am studly, too.
- William Glasser
The second rational psychotherapist on this list, Dr. Glasser's Choice Theory of human relationships is fundamentally very similar to the way that the Serenity Prayer and ACA is supposed to work. We cannot control people. We can only improve ourselves and let the world see our improvement. If my relationship with Kathy is better than my previous, he will be to thank.
- J. Michael Straczynski
The creator of Babylon 5, back when he was struggling, wrote a column for Writer's Digest, teaching me many things about the craft of writing. I do not recall if he was the one who specifically told me how to get past writer's block, but I know I learned it in the magazine and I know he did teach me that you could write a screenplay in 24 hours. (I took 48 when I had to do it, but I did it).
- Claude Bristol
My third success coach on this list. Claude Bristol was an introduction into using belief to manifest results in your life. Without getting into particulars, I proved this to myself and it really works. Many things have come into my life from the Magic of Believing both the book and the concept.
- Melody Beattie
She wrote the book Co-Dependent No More. While the book was more for people actively involved with a substance abuser, it did lead me to ACA and without ACA my life would be considerably different right now.
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