Success Book Reviews: Doug Newburg's "The Most Important Lesson..."

I’ve just finished reading Doug Newburg’s The Most Important Lesson No One Ever Taught Me , which is a story about his Resonance Performance Model. I have posted about RPM elsewhere on this blog (here, here, and here).

It is not exactly clear to me, but I am surmising that this book is a novelization of the kind of interaction Dr. Newburg engages in with his clients. Resonance, as I understand it, is a process that high performers engage in, and that we all have the potential to benefit from. The core of the process, repeated again and again in Newburg’s book is, “How I feel matters” . As a corollary, high performers are willing to answer the question “What will you work for?”. The main thing these performers work for is a feeling state, or resonance, that is, in essence, a form of peak experience: a connection of the inner and outer world, where time seems to stop, and we just “know” we are doing what we ought to be doing.

In the story, Newburg encounters Bob, who works at a large corporation, and has, to most outer observers, done “everything right”: he has a good job, a lovely home, a good family. But he is not “feeling the way he thought he would feel”. Newburg helps Bob to reconnect with the inner state as a goal, rather than the “trappings” of external goals, and uses as his examples, Olympic swimmer Jeff Rouse, and rock drummer John Molo, among many others. Interwoven with this part of the plot, is a subplot exploring Newburg’s own journey , from adopted child, to his current state, still a “life in progress”, but satisfyingly centered on his unique inner core.

There is an excellent summary of the Resonance Model over at Razoo Blog at this link. For the remainder of this post I am going to list a few of the methodologies I perceive as useful takeaways from my reading of the book. These points are far from comprehensive:

When you are at your best and fully engaged in your life, how do you like to feel and under what circumstances do you feel that way?

What core dream makes you feel like you are realizing your true purpose or potential?

What will you work for? (One interpretation of this key question might be “what inner states” are worth achieving as often as possible?)

What do you love both doing and learning about?

When you hit obstacles:

What inputs help return you to good efforts toward your aims? Music? Books? Activities? Helping others?

What other situations were there when you needed multiple attempts to reach success?

Who is unquestioningly supportive of you?

What is your process for recovery from failure?

What saps your energy and what increases it? People? Activities? Foods? Music? Places? Job components?

In my own life, as I begin to keep track of “resonance moments”, energy sources, energy drains, etc., I am finding longer intervals of the “low buzz” of constant energy that Newburg speaks about when he recalls encounters with peak performers.

Perhaps nothing sums up this remarkable book better than Newburg’s axiom: “How I feel matters”. Newburg’s insights are sure to percolate through the coming years as a doorway to higher levels of life satisfaction for all of us.

Here is a link to the Resonance site.

Techtags: Resonance Performance Model Doug Newburg John Molo Jeff Rouse