It Works! is an old self-help pamphlet published nearly 100 years ago back in 1926. It claims millions of copies have sold and many readers had success with it. It has over 5,300 ratings on Amazon with an average of 4.5 out 5 stars.
I recommend reading the full thing because it’s dirt cheap and already short. But if you want a summary, here you go.
Make a list of everything you want. It should be positive things you want for yourself. The list should be about your wants and needs and not focused on others.
It’s okay to make frequent edits and changes. The things you want might change or they come true and no longer need to be on there.
Review this list every day three times. Morning, noon, and night. Think about what you want as often as possible.
Don’t talk about what’s on your list to anyone. Trust that a “greater power” will make them happen.
Be careful what you wish for. What you thought would make you happy can make you miserable. Don’t become King Midas.
I couldn’t find much info on the mysterious “RHJ” author other than he was a sales executive from Chicago.
So, does It Works! really work? I can’t personally attest to it at this point, but I don’t think it hurts to try. It doesn’t cost anything and takes a few minutes a day at most.
The author, RHJ, said his book could be 300 pages of theory but he just gets straight to the action and says a blind trust is good enough.
But still, why would a simple exercise like this produce results?
One theory is it might focus your mind to spot patterns and opportunities it could have missed otherwise.
Watch this video and carefully count the number of passes the players in the white t-shirts make.
The mind filters out a ton of noise using the “reticular activation system” (RAS). It’s how the brain reduces bandwidth and prevents you from getting sensory overload. How did your RAS react to that video?
Did you ever learn a new word or about a new topic and then you started to see it pop up more often than ever? That’s an effect of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, otherwise known as the frequency illusion or recency bias, is a situation where something you recently learned about suddenly seems to appear everywhere. There are two reasons for this phenomenon -- first, selective attention, which means your brain is subconsciously seeking out more information on the subject. Second, confirmation bias, which means every time you see something related to the subject, your brain tells you that it's proof the subject has gained popularity overnight.
Could making a dream list and constantly reviewing it be a way of training your RAS because of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon? In other words, does it train your mind to subconsciously seek more info which can lead to opportunities undiscovered before?
If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter you might be thinking, “Hey, didn’t I read something like this recently?”
Yes, you’re right! The advice here is not that different from Trevor Blake’s third step where he teaches about making Intentions. Blake didn’t mention It Works! specifically, but the technique and advice are similar. You can read the full synopsis here: