then, later that morning, maybe while you’re on the subway or sipping your favorite Starbucks blend, something different happens.

Square Three is where things get brutally pragmatic. It’s the nuts-and-bolts phase of change, the time when you put your wonderful Square Two plan into action and find out that it doesn’t work. At least, mine never do—not on the first try, and usually not on the second, third, or fourth. This part of the change cycle is a long, often frustrating pe

Your essential self formed before you were born, and it will remain until you’ve shuffled off your mortal coil. It’s the personality you got from your genes: your characteristic desires, preferences, emotional reactions, and involuntary physiological responses, bound together by an overall sense of identity.

Think how differently time flowed for you when something wonderful was happening in your life.

“Come on, Piglet, let’s go home.” “But we’re lost,” said Piglet. “Yes,” said Pooh, “but there are twelve pots of honey in my cupboard at home, and they are calling to my tummy. I couldn’t hear them before, because Rabbit would talk.

Magic Question No. 4: “What’s the Most Effective Way to Get What I Want?”

I’ve learned to expect astonishing energy surges in clients who’ve had the courage to end miserable situations.

EXERCISE Go to a bookstore or library when you have at least fifteen minutes to spare. Wander through the shelves without any particular intention. Try to feel if some books or sections seem to “tug” at you. This “tug” is a wisp of the same kind of curiosity you used to feel when you were a little kid, whenever something really interesting passed y

This should reach a peak when you imagine facing the person you hate most and turning over all your power to change anything. Whatever you feel in that moment is the sensation of your essential self saying, “NO!” Don’t run away from this feeling just yet. Focus on and wallow around in it. Explore its particular shape, texture, and size. Notice how