It’s been awhile since I was able to sit down with a book and read it pretty much all the way through in just a few settings. This book was one of those rare ones, though. It could possibly have to do with the second half of the book just repeating again and again material in similar format, which gave rise to much skimming and note summarizing.

But, I have to say, when I found this book on the shelf, I was a little surprised I hadn’t found it before. I’m not kidding when I say I’ve read a lot of self-help books over the years. I’m a bit of a junky. But, I can’t say this one had ever crossed my path, but I did remember that name. Robert Tennyson Stevens.

Has a peculiar ring to it, doesn’t it?

One thing I caught right away was the abundant use of Scripture to support his claims. This caught me off guard, since most self-help books these days avoid the bible altogether, or, at most, toss in the occasional proof text to satisfy the more religious of the bunch. Not Stevens. He lays it on, and I mean thick.

At first glance, the content seemed rather refreshing. It was definitely akin to self-talky NLP stuff, if not just a re-hash of it. But Stevens had a little different angle, describing a definitive code you’re supposed to use when talking to your subconscious.

Things on the No-No list were:

“n’t” words, don’t use words like quit, never, not being, always, complete, I think, possibly, maybe, it’s your fault, love, support, starting to.

Instead, replace them with:

I choose, have, claim, empower, I AM, I deserve, enjoy, do, can, my, mine, our, etc.

Once I got about halfway through the book, and the repetition started to set in, I got that o’ so familiar feeling: this isn’t going to work. But, I pressed on, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

After I finished, I tried to implement, my laundry list of good and bad words in hand, then suddenly realized, I have no idea how to do this! I’m supposed to just go around in my daily life with this list? I’m supposed to do some kind of inventory? What? The book never really explained.

There had to be something I missed, right? So, I hopped onto Youtube and looked up the author, o’ Stevie boy. I found an interview of him and, after five minutes of watching, realized for the first time (yeah, I know, took me awhile), this guy was a wacko!

So, needless to say, I would not recommend this book to anyone. It is a complete and utter waste of time. Stick to Tony Robbins if you want some NLP.