Life Coach Magazine

Book Review: Beyond Willpower by Alexander Loyd, PhD, ND

By Debi Lantzer @debiL1611

Book Review: Beyond Willpower by Alexander Loyd, PhD, NDBeyond Willpower by Alexander Loyd
Published by Crown Publishing Group on February 10th 2015
Genres: Family & Relationships, Happiness, Love & Romance, Personal Growth, Self-Help, Success
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads

Did you know that most self-help programs that follow the standard success blueprint have a 97% failure rate? The truth is that the typical personal improvement mantra of tapping into your willpower and activating the power of positive thinking is actually a recipe for failure. In Beyond Willpower, bestselling author and psychological counselor Alexander Loyd, PhD, ND, reveals a unique, highly effective program to help you finally achieve the life you want and the success you deserve.

Dr. Loyd's book, Beyond Willpower, sets forth that science has proven that stress, or internal fear, is the primary source of virtually any problem we encounter - physical, spiritual, emotional, and even circumstantial. He goes on to state that new research has shown that fear is literally programmed into us at the cellular level, which is why most of us are unable to turn off our stress response by willpower alone. Beyond Willpower teaches you how to change your cellular programming from fear to love, triggering a natural chemical chain reaction that fuels you for your best success.

Book Review: Beyond Willpower by Alexander Loyd, PhD, ND

Rooted in science, ancient wisdom, and proven therapeutic techniques to remove personal obstacles that sabotage us, Beyond Willpower offers a revolutionary 40-day holistic program based on more than 25 years of clinical experience. With this program, Dr. Loyd believes you will identify and clarify what fundamentally defines success for you. Then he states that you will receive the three simple tools you need to internally shift from fear to love physically (using the Energy Medicine tool), mentally (using the Reprogramming Statements tool), and spiritually (using the Heart Screen tool). No matter how each person defines success - as wealth, career satisfaction, healing of health issues, or resolution of relationship problems - Dr. Loyd believes that this book will help you achieve it once and for all, quickly and for the long term.

Dr. Loyd believes that this book sets out to help the reader change their internal programming from stress (fear) to success (love) using tools scientifically proven to remove the obstacles that sabotage our success. It is based on more than 25 years of clinical experience. Dr. Loyd states that the self-help programs have a 97% failure rate and that readers can use Dr. Loyd's research-driven program to finally achieve success, no matter how that success is defined by the reader.

These types of books are often pretty tough for me to muddle through for several reasons. Primarily, I have a very strong faith in God and I truly believe with all my heart that problematic issues such as fear and stress can be resolved by turning it over to God and allowing Him to be in control. In Beyond Willpower, Dr. Loyd talks about living in grace, but unfortunately he doesn't give us the course of this grace. I personally believe that the source of grace in our lives is God through His love for us.

As someone with over 22 years of sobriety by way of Alcoholics Anonymous, I personally believe Dr. Loyd's statistics and opinions regarding AA/NA are slanted or possibly even inaccurate. He states that AA/NA has a 92-99% relapse rate due to the fact that he believes the program is based on willpower. This is not the truth at all - at least from the 12 step program I learned through Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, if anyone does an internet search on the 12 steps of the program, they will see that "willpower" is discouraged and surrendering to a "Higher Power" is the only way to succeed. Failure in AA/NA is due to participants not working the program as it is set forth in the 12 steps and the guide book called the "Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous".

As far as Dr. Loyd's statistic goes, in the forward section of the "Big Book", it points out that 50% of the people who really work the program as it is prescribed will stay sober for good right away. They also state that 25% will sober up after a few relapses and the remainder can show improvement. Maybe I am ultra-sensitive on this topic since I firmly believe that AA saved my life, but I really don't think that Beyond Willpower would save a hardcore drug addict in the same way the 12 step program does. Perhaps the the answer would be to use this book as a supplement to your 12 step program if you are an addict or alcoholic, but certainly abandon the "Higher Power" that saved you at the start of your recovery journey.

Overall, while it is a good book for some, it wouldn't be the life-changing book that would work for my life.

I was provided this book by Blogging For Books in exchange for this review.

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