The  9 Dimensions of Conscious Success

The 9 Dimensions of Conscious Success by David Nielson is a quick read and lays out a plan for getting others to see “your uniqueness.” Nielson says it’s not about vanity or pride, but about necessity. Getting noticed requires you to be proactive, deliberate, and consciously aware. Nielson stresses that you want to be noticed for the right reasons and his book focuses on the positive differentiators that can make it happen.

As with many leadership/management development books, Nielson proposes successful people know their purpose, are self-aware, and are socially aware. Those are the foundational skills for success and are covered in Section One of the book.

In Section Two, he outlines six differentiators that promote success. The six differentiators are:

• Authenticity – You have to be true to your image and your image must be true to who you are. If you aren’t authentic, the other differentiators won’t matter.
• Work Ethic and Personal Responsibility – You take 100% responsibility for producing desired results and when things go wrong you avoid blaming and justifying.
• Listening – You need to connect consciously with people. It’s not about hearing the words; it’s about understanding what’s behind the words.
• Articulation – You need to be able to get your message across in a concise way and in ways people can understand. Each person decodes messages differently and you need to know how to encode your messages for the other person’s style.
• Humor – Laughter makes us feel better and humor can diffuse difficult situations. The key is knowing the right time, place and context to interject humor.
• Gratitude – Gratitude makes us feel happier and produces positive outcomes. You need to choose to be thankful.

Finally, in Section Three, Nielsen calls readers to take action.

There are exercises throughout the book and many introspective questions to help you deliberately consider how well you’re exercising the foundational and differentiating skills.

While I wouldn’t say there is anything new in the book, The 9 Dimensions of Conscious Success does offer a different way to look at the attributes successful people seem to share. And sometimes, we need a fresh perspective to improve in the areas that make success possible.