When struggling through a difficult time in our lives – where, for some of us, this seems to be an endless and seemingly impossible task – we focus on recovering: on getting back to how we were before our troubles started. In the process, we ignore the fact that more often than not, we – our patterns of behavior, reactions, and perception – are at the root of the problem.
Terrance McMahon, best-selling author of SuperHero Self, has dedicated his life’s work to motivating us to do more than that: to not only recovering, but to reinventing ourselves to become the people we’ve always wanted to be.
McMahon’s innovative approach starts with the individual, and the idea that who we are is who we make ourselves – rather than being the product of the outside environment and the context of our lives. If, then, we have the power to change who we are – as McMahon proposes – then we can be anything we want.
McMahon’s own life story, discussed by him at length in his recent TEDx talk, is possibly the best proof of this statement being true. Having suffered from liver failure and survived a transplant, he chose to reinvent himself as the person he’s always wanted to be, rather than falling back into the old habits of self-medicating his anxiety and stress with alcohol.
Having worked as a business strategist for most of his career and built a multi-million-dollar insurance company, McMahon is an expert in developing organized approaches, results-focused plans, and executing them step by step. He used this experience of systems and algorithms and applied it to the concept of happiness and personal satisfaction.
As a result, his ‘algorithm for happiness’, contained within the SuperHero Self book and discussed at length during his Your Voice to the World podcast and TEDx talk, follows a refreshingly organized, step-based system. One of the common issues ailing the self-help category of content is the lack of concrete, measurable statements and concepts. Many of those who could benefit from self-help books and talks are therefore turned-off by the overly vague, wishy-washy style of the speakers and writers.
Thanks to McMahon’s work, his meticulous attention to detail, and thoroughly systematic approach, even the most practical-minded of us will find his advice accessible and, most importantly, believable. The widespread success of his self-help work speaks for itself: his book instantly became a #1 bestseller, and in answer to popular demand, he has travelled to dozens of countries to spread his theory and teach people to find a ‘superhero’ within themselves and find happiness.
At the heart of it, McMahon’s theory is brutally simple: we create our own reality, we create ourselves, and we choose who we want to be. By getting us to realize these statements are true, and allowing us to believe ourselves in charge of ourselves and our fate, McMahon teaches us that, essentially, nothing is impossible if we put our considerably powerful minds to it.
McMahon’s self-help book, podcast, and talks are here to change us – and change the world into a better place, filled with more satisfied, happy people who enjoy being alive.