Beyond Success and Failure: Ways to self-reliance and maturity, Willard and Marguerite Beecher. Julian Press, Inc. 1966
Want to be a confident, self-reliant and independent man or
woman? A viable, mature and fear free adult? Then BEYOND SUCCESS AND
FAILURE, is a must read. But it won't be a breeze. BEYOND SUCCESS AND
FAILURE, offers perspective so deep, so powerful and so honest it can
be hard to swallow. Written in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner,
with few subtleties and no platitudes, this book will make even the
mature twinge with discomfort. This book defined "tough love," years
before the term was coined. That being said, rarely, if ever, have
truer and more loving words been set to paper and just as rarely have
they contained so much practical and self empowering wisdom.
If you can, try to read this book straight through. Don't worry about
"getting it," being prepared for it or doing anything about it at all.
If you can't "stomach" it's message all at once, put it aside and pick
it up when you are ready. For some of us it can take years of internal
work before we can even complete it. But don't give up, the work will
be worth it many times over. You will discover the function and effect
of habit as you move from old ineffective habits of fear and wanting,
into new habits of self-reliance and acceptance. This book will help
transform us from whining, frightened and dependent children, into
strong, viable and self-reliant persons; inside and out. BEYOND SUCCESS
AND FAILURE also grounds us in a solid understanding of what it means
to live free of fear and rich with intuition, love and real power.
From the dust jacket: In BEYOND SUCCESS AND FAILURE, the Beechers do
not offer any panaceas, nor do they provide you with elaborate programs
and disciplines! But they do help you find your own direction and your
own abilities to handle any and all confronting problems. Here is a
book that once and for all demolishes the "scapegoat theory" and
enables the reader to stop blaming others and any external conditions
for his failure to find fullness and meaning in life. Emotional
problems, regardless of their exact symptoms, are usually the results
of the abdication of personal initiative. The Beechers show how you can
find your own center of gravity, inside yourself and begin to know the
satisfaction that flows from using you own talents and living as a
responsible adult, free of the need to beg for attention and
understanding from others. The goal is how to win yourself - how to
discover yourself - how to be yourself. The goal of this book can not
be won by avoiding facts, but by facing them. One is not the helpless
victim of his conditioning. But it is simply not possible to alter
oneself - to go beyond old conditioning - without first destroying the
compulsive hold that habit has on us. There must first be a period of
unlearning so that a person can decondition himself to his old,
habitual responses, which chain him to his inadequate past.
PARTIAL CONTENTS: The Feeling of Deprivation; The Tragedy of
Suggestibility; After Games, What?; Competition; Sex Vs Love; Emotional
Self-Reliance; Alienation from the Here-and-Now; Death by Sweet Talk;
Need or Greed?; Life on the Grazing Principle; Aloneness is not
Loneliness; and Reconditioning Old Habits.