How to have a better life in 216 pages

Is this you? "Your alarm goes off. You slam the snooze button. 'If only I had more time to sleep,' you think. You feel a heaviness, but it's hard to pinpoint where it's coming from. Your head? Your heart? Your body. You can't decide, so you grab your phone and escape into social media and incoming emails. Your day hasn't started, and you're already behind. 

"At lunch, you catch up on the day's news, which only manages to make you feel even more depressed. By the end of the workday, your eight (or more) hours feel like a waste. You gravitate again to social media, browsing the photos other people are posting of their 'perfect' lives. By the time you stumble to bed, it's way later than you intended. . . ."

If that's you, then Redefining Possible: Proven Strategies to Break Belief Barriers and Create Your New Normal by Dustin Hillis and Ron Alford is the book for you.

Before we go any further, let me say as clearly as I can that Redefining Possible is filled with solid, practical, useful information and suggestion. Readers who (and this is the small print) actually embrace the advice and follows the authors' suggestions will accomplish more than they would otherwise and be more considerate husbands, fathers, employees, and managers.

Hillis is the CEO of Southwestern Family of Companies; Alford is vice president of recruiting for Southwestern Coaching. Southwestern, says Wikipedia, is a diversified, international, employee-owned family of companies. The original, a publishing company, was founded in 1855 in Nashville, TN; it now has fourteen companies in consulting, sales training, executive search, travel, tax services, and more.

Both Hillis and Alford had road-to-Damascus moments that led them to where they are now. Hillis during a high school wrestling match when "I snapped inside . . . I heard a voice in my head say, 'If you give up now, you're going to keep giving up for the rest of your life.'" He decided, "No!" pinned his rival, and had redefined the possible for himself.

Alford had his during a rough patch during his marriage when "an unexpected divorce had turned my entire world upside down." He realized, "I could stop whining and wallowing and accept the potential for growth in the pain . . . I finally realized that I had the power to choose which path I would take."

Their process can be reduced to three formulas: (1) Focus + Ownership = Vision; (2) Belief + Confidence = Faith; (3) Vision + Faith + Impact = Redefining Possible. 

You sharpen you focus by eliminating mental clutter, choosing your targets (write down goals and plans), guarding you momentum, and speaking your new reality aloud ("I am calm and focused in all that I do." "I'm present with every person I talk to.")

Ownership means "accepting personal responsibility for your actions—whether the results are negative or positive." It means not lying to yourself or others by rationalizing that "Everybody does it," "It's not my job," "I'm only human," "It's not important," or making an excuse.

Vision they say is "seeing a future that hasn't happened yet." With it, you are able to do everything with more energy, more motivation, and more excitement. Make a poster of what you want: a big house, foreign travel, expensive car, ocean-going sailboat . . . whatever will get you out of bed in the morning. 

Belief incorporates "the principles and values that are hardwired into who you are. You may have devout spiritual beliefs such as an unwavering belief in God or belief in a higher power, or you might believe in love, family, or helping those in need."

Confidence is "the authentic expression of having certainty and belief in what you are doing and how you are moving toward your goals." They do warn against—and define—false confidence and conditional confidence; they encourage unconditional confidence. I suspect it's tricky to always tell one from the other.

Faith is more than belief. It's "acting on an internal conviction. Trusting in the unknown and the unseen and being willing to step out and act even though you don't know what is going to happen."

To help readers understand and incorporate these elements into their lives, Hillis and Alford provide examples, brief illustrative case histories of remarkable successes, personal stories, and exercises. And if that's not enough, the book tells you how to reach one of the company's "life-changing coaches" to buy their services.

Although both authors have strong Christian beliefs, the techniques in Redefining Possible do not depend on a belief in a Christian God for their effect; it helps, but it's not required. They do believe in the power of verbal affirmations and power statements, the idea that if you tell yourself "I can do this," you will be able to do it. (It may also get you killed if you confuse it with false confidence.) 

I believe Hillis and Alford have found and codified a system that has worked for them, for the company's coaches, and for many, if not all, of their clients. If you feel the grind of life is wearing you down, try the book's techniques; it's an easy read. If that doesn't work, sign up for the coaching. If that doesn't work, maybe you're just one of those people who can't redefine what's possible.