PRACTICAL BOOK REVIEW
HEY
Cloud, Henry. 2004. 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Dr. Henry Cloud is a psychologist who addresses the differences between those who win at love and life, and those who fail. He investigated the lives of people that were getting from life what they had decided they wanted; success. The success he is talking about is defined by each of the successful people that he investigated. In the book, he referred to them “déjà vu people (p.7).” These déjà vu people tended to “accomplish success in love and life in the ways that they defined success (p.3).” They moved forward. They did not stay stuck, repeating the same mistakes over and over again. They reached their goals and found what they were looking for in life.”
As he probed, Cloud realized that he “was not looking at a person; [he] was looking at a pattern. A way of behaving. Now that I recognized the pattern, [he] decided to look for it even more. A path that successful people took, given a certain set of choices (p. 4).”
Dr. Henry Cloud concluded that “people who found what they were looking for in life seemed to do a certain set of things in common (p.5).” There were a common set of principles that these successful déjà vu people practiced. In the book, Cloud identifies the nine principles that he found to be commonly practiced amongst successful people. They are:
1. “Dig It Up”
“Life comes from the inside out. What lies deep inside is where the real life is. And this déjà vu person spent some time listening to it, looking for it, digging it up, and putting it into practice. He found what lay deep in his heart, below the surface, and invested it in life (p.25).”
2. “Pull The Tooth”
“Déjà vu people get rid of bad stuff. Period. Sometimes quickly and sometimes through a process, but they get rid of it. They have little tolerance for nagging pains that are unresolved (p.45).”
3. “Play The Movie”...