Reaching Unlimited Knowledge: The Secrets to an Empowered Life

By Benoit Fabreguettes

"Reaching Unlimited Knowledge" explores the fields of creativity, decision-making, entrepreneurship, finance, health, interpersonal relations, mindfulness, parapsychology, science, and more! This is a must-read guide that will help readers live an empowered life. This book is filled with valuable material that is masterfully written in one concise volume to help readers build integrative knowledge both quickly and efficiently.

Through relevant and practical tips and tricks, you will learn:
 How to get what you want from people
 How to learn anything and everything
 How to develop an empowering lifestyle
 How to get rid of toxic beliefs or biases
 How to sustain peak performance
 How to maximize your brain potential
 How to master the art of critique
 How to optimize the digestion process
 How to breathe, run, and swim properly
 How to create a powerful routine
 How to define a business strategy
 How to foster a creative environment
 How to identify financial opportunities
 How to make better decisions
 How to trust your intuition
 How to tailor mindfulness
 How to find meaning in life
 How to unlock your psychic skill

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781098381844

Benoit Fabreguettes

Benoit Fabreguettes is an entrepreneur, wellness expert, and an authority on personal development. He has used his professional career and personal experiences to build the five pillars of the Reaching Impossible Limits method. His slogan is, "Never ask whether you can do it but how you will do it."

Book preview

Section 1:

Interpersonal

Intelligence

Chapter 1.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

There are only a few books that all generations read. How to Win Friends and Influence People, published in 1937, is part of this short list. It is unbelievable to see its impact on today’s trendy self-development area. Reading this book can help develop our most critical asset in life: dealing with people to get what we want. Let’s summarize how the author’s rules and principles can work like magic to revolutionize our life.

How to Win Friends and Influence People develops the foundations for handling people, making people like us, and influencing people. These foundations rely on principles that successful people and self-development coaches continuously use.

The first fundamental principles are never to criticize and blame others, to give honest and sincere appreciation, and to arouse in the other person an eager want. People care about their own problems, not ours. That is why we first need to understand others’ points of view and focus on their wants to achieve our desired outcomes. Barbara Anderson’s letter to find a job in Phoenix, cited in the book, is the perfect example of what a job hunter should do.

The next step is to influence people to become like us. We start by showing a sincere interest in others. For example, if we travel to South America, learning a couple of Spanish or Portuguese words shows respect and appreciation for those who live there. Other techniques are listening instead of talking, remembering our friends’ birthdays, and saying nice things. When we meet others, we can ask ourselves, What is there about them that I can honestly admire? Then, we can simply say, for example, I like the color of your hair to show appreciation.

I use some of Dale Carnegie’s principles (e.g., being friendly, avoiding arguments, acknowledging a person’s business constraints, and analyzing them) to skip lines, avoid paying fees, and get a table in overbooked restaurants. They are highly powerful methods to achieve the desired outcome.

Even if we believe these principles are straightforward, we tend to forget them. That is why, as a reminder, we should read How to Win Friends and Influence People at least once a year. Getting a rent decrease from landlords, retaining top employees, and doubling our network are great tests to evaluate if we have mastered Dale Carnegie’s principles.

Best of Quotes

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability […] than for any other under the sun. [John D. Rockefeller]

Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean. [Confucius]

What matters is not what I think of him, but what he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime. [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

Best of Extracts

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their hearts is to let realize in some subtle way that you recognize their importance, and recognize it sincerely.

Reaching Unlimited Knowledge rating

How to Win Friends and Influence People can solve our daily problems in human relationships. A must-read.

Chapter 2.

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz

We do business with people we know and like. From this simple statement, the author develops an analysis on how to be a great networker. It starts with the concept of real networking, which is finding ways to make other people more successful by giving them more than we get. Keith Ferrazzi’s own examples can help us to develop our networking skills and thus our business.

Real networking is all about generosity first and not personal interest. That is why we need to build a network before needing it. In the very word networking is work. Building a network starts by knowing ourselves and writing a mission document that includes our own goals, skills, and limitations. Then, we put it into practice by getting involved, becoming trained, and being proactive.

The networking pre-work time is the most valuable investment since it will significantly increase the probability of getting in touch with whomever we want. Social media sites are the perfect tools for finding common relationships and interests (e.g., sports) to generate kinship.

It is critical to be aware of our limited network, which mostly includes people from work, school, and personal interests. We need to learn and make an effort to reach people who live in a different world. Sharing information with everyone is today’s power.

As a personal example, when I arrived in Toronto, Ontario, I decided to use my French-language skills to get involved in French-speaking organizations to develop my network without any expectations. After more than five years of volunteering, the results have been astonishing, such as developing friendships with teachers, journalists, politicians, and businesspeople—all of whom helped me in my journey to write Reaching Impossible Limits.

Tom Peters’s quote is a fitting conclusion to Never Eat Alone: "Our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." If you are unsure of how to create and develop your brand, consider taking a retreat to get the time and space to determine who you are and what you really want.

Reaching Unlimited Knowledge rating

It is essential to understand how to build and use a network. A recommended-read.

Chapter 3.

The Art of Saying NO: How To Stand

Your Ground, Reclaim Your Time And Energy, And Refuse To Be Taken For Granted

(Without Feeling Guilty!) by Damon Zahariades

We constantly face requests from friends and acquaintances to help and volunteer. Because we have been raised to do so, we tend to accept these requests even when we do not have the time to care for ourselves. Prioritizing others’ needs over our own leads to many negative consequences, from an increase in stress to a decrease in productivity.

Damon Zahariades, a corporate refugee, provides techniques to say no with confidence, thoughtfulness, respect, and grace. Saying no is a skill and therefore can be learned. Practicing this skill can help us free up time for our own interests while not being perceived as selfish or rude.

The author starts by analyzing the root causes of why we struggle to say no. They are all linked to our beliefs, from avoiding offending people and avoiding conflict to appearing valuable. For example, when I started my career, I accepted all work requests for fear of missing out on opportunities. I did not notice that my lack of time slowly led me to lose my freedom to work on rewarding and potential future opportunities, such as networking and acquiring new valuable skills.

After working on our beliefs, it is time to develop strategies for saying no without offending. Zahariades provides ten strategies that we can apply to different situations. They are practical and share common elements, such as being honest, being direct, and offering no excuses. They are a great start to improve the skill of saying no.

We must accept that we cannot say yes to almost everything as time is a scarce resource. If we really want to help others, we first need to prioritize our own needs and wellness.

Best of Extracts

When you give in to temptations, you become a slave to your impulses. This resulting short-term gratification often comes at the expense of long-term fulfillment. When you resist temptations with declarative statements that begin with I don’t… you become the architect of a life built upon healthy intentions.

Reaching Unlimited Knowledge rating

The Art of Saying NO is a useful and short instructional manual to say no with grace. A recommended-read.

Chapter 4.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know

about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers is a fascinating book that asks a simple question: What do we really know about other people? Malcolm Gladwell combines research, history, and famous case studies (e.g., the spy Ana Montes, the investor Bernie Madoff, Sandra Bland’s death) to transform the way we see others.

People tend to believe that the information gathered from a personal interaction is uniquely valuable, as Gladwell states. However, real-life cases show how difficult it is for people to identify when they are deceived. The British Prime Minister Chamberlain’s misjudgment of Hitler, CIA officers working for the enemy, and judges possibly being fooled by defendants are the perfect examples of our inabilities to judge other people’s behavior correctly.

The reason deception happens is that we believe people because [we] do not have enough doubts about them. We tend to default to truth unless we have enough red flags warning us to disbelieve. Human nature relies on the need to trust people around us and believe that they are telling the truth.

Gladwell complements his default to truth analysis with the transparency bias. We use it to make sense of strangers based on their behavior and demeanor. However, as explained by anthropologists, behaviors are culture-based and not universal at all. Therefore, our interpretation of people’s behavior is entirely subjective and does not provide an objective view of their internal feelings. Amanda Knox’s case, in which an American woman was convicted and then acquitted of murder in Italy, is an excellent example of how judges were deceived by interpreting her behaviors as evidence of guilt.

The last part of Talking to Strangers stresses how environmental factors influence our attitude and behavior. For example, people who wanted to commit suicide in San Francisco used to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. When the authority installed net protection, the number of suicides decreased in the city. The reason is simple, according to Gladwell: Overwhelmingly, the people who want to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge at a given moment want to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge only at that given moment. Thus, suicide is coupled with environmental factors. That is why it is critical to understand the context in which the stranger is operating.

We must be aware of our inability to assume and interpret strangers’ behaviors. Caution and humility are the characteristics we need to talk to strangers.

Best of Extracts

Alcohol isn’t an agent of revelation. It is an agent of transformation.

If every coach is assumed to be a pedophile, then no parent would ever let their child leave the house, and no sane person would ever volunteer to be a coach. We default to truth – even when that decision carries terrible risks – because we have no choice. Society cannot function otherwise. And in rare instances where trust ends in betrayal, those victimised by default to truth deserve our sympathy, not our censure.

But the harder we work at getting strangers to reveal themselves, the more elusive they become.

Reaching Unlimited Knowledge rating

Talking to Strangers reminds us how our behavioral analysis of strangers is likely to be incorrect. A recommended-read.

Chapter 5.

The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over by Jack Schafer and Marvin Karlins

Jack Schafer uses his professional experience as an FBI behavioral analysis agent to provide tools on how to read and influence people quickly. Throughout The Like Switch, the author highlights powerful techniques for getting others to trust without the need to talk. Such invaluable tools are worthy of exploration by anyone, from salespeople to parents.

The interest in this book is how and why the FBI uses certain techniques in their investigations. It opens new perspectives on how to get what we want. However, always remember that knowledge without action is knowledge wasted. Even if we are aware of these techniques, most of us do not use them because we are afraid of trying them for fear of rejection, embarrassment, or causing hurt feelings.

Jack Schafer convinced foreign operatives to work for the FBI simply by using the friendships formula: Friendship = Proximity + Frequency + Duration + Intensity. Mastering these four variables leads us to create friendships with anyone.

Nonverbal signs are the basis of our day-to-day successes. If others perceive us as a threat, they will avoid us. A person’s mind interprets another as a friend or foe before a word is said. Through a series of pictures, the author explains how to change our nonverbal behaviors to be viewed as friendly. For example, the movement of a head tilt transmits a perception of trust and attractiveness.

The Like Switch provides behavioral psychology concepts that we can apply right away to get things done. From a personal example, I used to go for coffee a couple of times per month with colleagues, stakeholders, and job applicants. I always tried to pay because of the principle of reciprocity. That is a worthwhile investment because if I do something for them, then they will feel the need to help me in return.

If you want people to like you, make them feel good about themselves. This golden rule of friendships encompasses four steps, which can be remembered with the acronym LOVE (Listen, Observe, Vocalize, and Empathize). For example, we can start to apply this rule by fully focusing our attention on our conversation partners or making errors to credit them for correcting us and being knowledgeable. Furthermore, the FBI agent stresses the importance of using statements like So you … instead of I understand how you feel.

To conclude this review, I was interested in how to obtain confidential information easily and legally. Presumptive questions are a simple solution. Let’s say we want to buy a car, and we need to know the vendor’s cost margin. We only need to make a bold, declarative statement, such as Selling this car is a great deal for you because your margin is 21 percent. There is a high probability the seller will provide more information about his margin rate in answer to our statement. Then, it is easier to negotiate a better deal.

Reaching Unlimited Knowledge rating

Even though The Like Switch is interesting and professionally written, I would advise first reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. A nice-to-read.

Section 2:

Social Psychology

Chapter 6.

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini

Yes! shows how to change and influence people’s minds by accessing fifty secrets to successful persuasion that have been validated in scientific studies. We discover that there is no secret or talent in persuasion. It is a skill that we need to develop. This book is the perfect tool to learn how to develop this limitless soft power.

Everyone can find a topic that applies to their day-to-day life. For example, if we receive ad-hoc requests, Yes! explains how we can value our time in [our] colleague’s eye. Another simple but powerful trick, which I regularly use at the airports, is the norm of reciprocity, in which I offer a kindness that a person then feels the need to pay back. When I need to change my flight without paying the fee, I first thank the customer agents for their service, kindness, and help. Next, I ask them if I could talk to their supervisor to give fantastic feedback. Then, as per the norm of reciprocity, they owe me a favor, and I make my complex request.

Research demonstrates that written and shared commitments lead to a higher successful outcome than non-written ones. That is why some corporations require individual written objectives and yearly career plans. Employees will even be more successful when their managers provide some evidence of how they’ve already made progress toward completing them. From personal use, the written technique has helped me implementing new habits and achieve goals.

A significant part of a server’s salary in North America depends on tips. According to studies, mirroring customers—just repeating back word for word the customer’s order—may increase the tip amount by