The Secret Door to Success - Book Review

My journey through Life
Friends I wanted to share few of my thoughts with you as I was reading a good book gifted by my friend. I felt so happy that these books are of immense use to look inside and take immense courage and spirit to do the impossible. I can’t but share my own experiences of life as I journeyed through, while reading. I feel each ones (yours and mine) experiences are invaluable to know about and take inspiration from each other.

Currently I’m reading a great book –The Secret Door to Success by Florence Scovel Shinn , which is a real life illustration of embracing success through our day to day life activities and beliefs. How each tenet of us builds the tempo for success and happiness.

Our Words resonate… can you hear the echo?

Life takes a beautiful turn in myriad ways. Wonder how? It is in ways unexpected and unimaginable. But the catch is to open our eyes to look around, and the child-like enthusiasm and curiosity to follow our heart.
I was traveling back home in a train with my wife along with my son who was at that time 6-7 months old. I saw a young man who was reading a book in hand and I asked him what that book was and asked him what he does for a living. He politely said he was a reader at CIEFL, Hyderabad, and he was traveling to Vizag to meet his wife who was a consultant with corporates teaching them English language and soft skills. (We suppress our instincts when we feel like talking to someone but keep quiet; we might miss great personal anecdotes or a good useful advice)

He said another thing that his wife’s earning more than him with two to three sessions of seminars a month. That gave me an idea of how different careers can be. I only know about govt. jobs and private jobs of 9am-5pm kinds.

Excited I asked him if there are there any opportunities for a science post-graduate like me who was so interested and passionate about English. He replied ‘you can try Medical Transcription which is going well in the current scenario’. I asked him what it was and he explained that it was all about the dictates of the doctors in US which needs to be carefully typed. Determined I would give it a try, I thanked him.
The first chapter of the book –Secret Door has a quote from the book of Joshua:
"So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets; and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city." -Joshua 6:20
When the people shouted with great force the walls of Jericho were broken. This quote from the bible must have been heard many times; but did it make any difference to us earlier? If laced with a real life story where a life has been transformed by acting on this principal makes us more convinced and inspired.
Here the author illustrated with beautiful real life incidences where and how one’s words have impacted life. The author particularly made effort to tell the person whom she encounters and tells him/her how significant it is to change our attitude towards what we speak.

In the first chapter where the walls of Jericho were broken, they symbolically represent to the walls we built around us through our bad experiences and unpleasant circumstances; or the way we sucked up through our natural human viles like greed, envy in a very clear way with practical examples how taking the right action, one is transformed and the walls broken. She literally changed lives through some kind words of encouragement and actions –by giving few good books to them to take inspiration.

This proactive spirit to come to the rescue of people is very important. Mere knowledge unfortunately isn’t enough to thwart the dogged notions - the Jericho walls we built around us (I’m overwhelmed to know the impossible things happened in lives!). But acts of love and concern through kind gestures and words change the person, indeed, as we witness in the book.

Here Joshua too exhorted the people who’re tormented of oppression and helplessness; God took pity on them and sent Joshua to resurrect them. Similarly, we too should be ready to act on a good advice through a good book, a good human beings’ sharing, and sometimes through a good drubbing (baring the facts before him/her alone with them) by our parents and friends, on the wrongs we commit. Thinking that as a message from God himself.

The words what we speak does matter. Even if the world is harsh to us, we shouldn’t talk about it bad. I mean keep brooding about it. As we speak ill about others we are drawing a sense of negativity into us. Rather we concentrate on the good in the world and choose to speak about it a lot and we sure attract the good from the world around. This fact is slowly seeping into my being and started taking little, little roots…

As I write this post, I feel it’s a message to me to break the walls of Jericho within me which were formidable hindrances to my happiness in life and the cynical feelings I harboured about some bad experiences in life. Yes, true it works and I’m seeing a positive change in me: I smile more, more at problems; and the sulks getting lesser.

Go... see how many lives are transformed and how they embraced success in their life through change of attitude in the book which is world famous since the early 20th until now. You can find this book in library and bookstore .Pls. check it up for yourself.
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