Customer Reviews

Secrets of Personal Mastery

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Given his credentials and accolades from peers, I wanted to get Dr. Hall's latest insights. Other reviewers said it right - LABORIOUS to slug through. If I want to communicate with my "Executive Self" must I learn an entire lexicon of meta-jargon first?

When I finally unearth the exercises they seem to involve little more sophistication than the average well-written book on self-hypnosis. No huge revelations from the "secrets" of "mastery" via NLP.

I kept struggling through the interminable meta-meta-metas waiting for some awesome "secrets" to reveal "higher level" tools of self-programming. But I am left with the puzzle: is this the best that cutting edge NLP has to offer? If NLP has powerful tools to offer, if Dr. Hall breakthroughs in "meta-states" offers "significant and critical contributions," their successful transmission to the (even well-educated) public requires someone with mastery of pen and ink.
Dr. Hall: please hire a ghost writer - if your INTENTION is to grab and hold our ATTENTION (not to mention make it comprehensible).

If you believe in NLP for communicating with master parts of your self, do you not believe it fitting to find effective tools for communicating with your readers? Might not clear, efficient communication be worth considering?

Pearls of wisdom there may be, but they're buried within some of the most painfully poor writing I've ever seen. Here's a passage from page 62:

We can quickly and succinctly summarize the two private powers as our thoughts-and-feelings. In thinking and emoting we collect up all of our cognizing--i.e. thinking, information processing, valuing, believing, making decisions, understanding, etc. . . .

If you don't like seeing italics spilled carelessly on every page of a book, don't buy this one.

His ideas might be all right, but he needs more than an editor--he needs a ghostwriter.

Michael Hall`s books are for people who are interested in cutting edge ideas. You couldn`t honestly claim they`re well written but you won`t find this information elsewhere. I have read Secrets of Personal Mastery many times and I`m still learning about my thinking patterns, changing my meta-states, adapting my thinking, forgiving mistakes I make yet trying to improve over time. I think this book is one that you will need to return to, if you are to get a lot from it. Mastery does not come easily nor quickly.
If spelling mistakes or grammatical errors really put you off then this isn`t the book for you. He writes for an audience with at least a fair understanding of NLP and ideally Meta-states too. I still think you could benefit from this book without that knowledge but some parts of the book might be difficult.
To be honest, I really like this book - it is difficult but each time I return to it I feel I`m learning something and this is a very rare occurrence with NLP books nowadays. It is definitely one of my top 5 NLP related books. I use it a lot to assess how I`m doing, how I might improve etc.

It took me a while to figure out why this great communicator's books are panned for their writing - sometimes you have to read between reviewers' lines to understand comments like: "This book was written by Michael Hall... need I say more? Yet it is useful." Yet? Oh, I see.

Unfortunately, I learned the expensiv e-way on this item. "Hard" reading indeed! Perhaps the man knows how to communicate (since his Games Business Experts Play actually does)... it's just not his intent to demonstrate that ability in most titles. :(

There is a collection of a dozen or so reviewers who find themselves able to read almost any of Michael's titles and benefit. [?They are apparently skilled at going into trance and instantly comprehend Meta-Speak(TM)?] Only one brave, lonely soul has had the audacity to make such a claim for THIS title.

Save your money. Actually, there's a huge caveat emptor for ALL books from "Crown House" publishing: it's owned (and apparently edited) by Michael. "A Ph.D. does not an editor make." Once you have mastered (MASTERED!) Joseph O'Connor's Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming (one of the few NLP books where the goal seems to be reader comprehension rather than just seminar-promotion by an NLP trainer), THEN you might consider reading Dr. Hall (still NOT the present title of his). Whether or not business is your interest, you might then consider reading Hall's Games Business Experts Play. It one of few that makes sense - and it tells you where Hall is coming from, including the fact that he is playing the "Success Game" - a game that does not always include the "Give Your Customer Top Benefits" game.

If you have also thrown dollars after this book and are happy about it, please amaze me with details of what you actually comprehended by reading it... and sharing that in these reviews. [Offer not good for people trained (mesmerized?) by Michael's seminars or for cronies who have published with his company or where taxed or regulated.]

After reading 3 chapters, I don't want to contiue to read. It is very boring due to too many theories. I think many other NLP books are more simple and useful.

The book is good on theory. But weak in examples of real use. You can have sometimes a sensation of understand. But, don't know how to put it in practice. Next edition may be... five stars for theory and zero for none examples. Three stars is good.