Review: Sacred Success: A Course in Financial Miracles by Barbara Stanny

Sacred Success: A Course of Financial Miracles by Barbara Stanny

Link to buy Sacred Success: A Course in Financial Miracles

Story Rating: 5 out of 5

Review:

On its surface, Sacred Success appears to be designed to help women achieve financial security. It starts with author Barbara Stanny's story of how she spent years wearing figurative financial blinders while her husband threw away her money. When things eventually got so bad that she couldn't ignore the situation any longer, Stanny had to make some difficult changes. When the reader delves deeper, though, it becomes clear that this book is much more than just a primer on managing money.

Stanny says that girls aren’t taught to seek financial success, so by the time they're grown up, few women have a plan to achieve that goal. It’s not just about money, either. Certainly women need to have financial security just like men do, but Stanny points out that wealth isn’t usually the primary goal of most women. Instead if they took time to think about it, they would realize that their soul wants to achieve greatness in some way – often by helping others and improving their corner of the world. That revelation shifts the focus from simply earning money to identifying the pursuit that will fulfill a woman’s desire for greatness.

This book was a pleasant surprise. It was inspiring and well written and offered a clear step-by-step program to help readers reinvigorate their lives and find their purpose. Its title nearly prevented me from picking it up for fear of a heavy handed religious message, but that didn’t exist at all. Yes, it’s spiritual, but not religious. It’s nondenominational in its approach to the notion that God or the universe or whatever you believe in has a plan for you and it’s your job to figure that out. You won’t be happy or fulfilled until you are nourishing your soul by pursuing your purpose.

Another surprise here was that it didn’t really focus on money for a substantial portion of the book. That came later – after the more important work of figuring out a purpose, clarifying values, and determining how to avoid letting anything get in the way of that pursuit.

My only real complaint was that the book is marketed to women, while it can help anyone. Hopefully the focus won’t deter men from picking it up. We can all use a few miracles in our lives - whether they're financial or not - and Barbara Stanny has good ideas for helping readers manifest them.  

Reviewed by Peter