Guy Finley's interview

Guy Finley, author of The Secret of Letting Go, and his newest work, Relationship Magic: Waking up together. For more information, and to receive a free weekly mediation, visit www.guyfinley.org 

Feel free to visit: relationshipmagicbook.com 

Interview

I saw that you had been successful in the music industry, and then after visiting India, and other countries in the Far East, you retuned home and helped create the “Success without Stress program.” Can you tell me how you got the idea?

Way back in 1971, my partner, Tony Martin Jr., and I were the first white soft-rock artists and song-writers to sign with Motown Records. It was an exciting time. We rubbed elbows the major recording stars of that time: Diana Ross, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and other great artists. But even with all of that going on, I could not shake the feeling that something was "missing" from my life, something that couldn't be answered by the continuous stimulation of being in the public eye. It wasn’t long afterwards that a few particular events made it even more clear to me that success alone would not be enough to fill my heart with what it wanted. That's when I started travelling, looking for someone...a guru, an awakened person of some sort, who could give me the answers I needed. Not long afterwards, I returned home realizing that even though I found no answers in others, I had found the answer I was looking for: if I wanted to learn the truth about myself, of success without stress, it was going to be up to me to do the interior work needed to realize it. That’s when I started writing, and that’s when I helped co-found the Success Without Stress program. That was nearly 30 years ago...

What was the most important thing you learned during this trip?

Among many lessons learned, there is a higher order of life that we’re intended to grow into and to know: it has many names, but "success without stress" covers the gamut; but, key here, is that this experience comes to us only as we realize that who and what we are cannot be defined by what we do and pursue. As long as we think about ourselves as being only as valuable as how others see us, then we are made victims of that same mentality. So, the real choice is “who” do we want to be?  Someone who walks through life, blindly pursuing the promise of a "time to come" when he will be free? Or, do we want to realize and live from the parts of us that already free, content, and whole. The choice is ours to make.

What is your best memory of meeting readers?

It’s always moving, rewarding to meet men and women who “hunger and thirst” for truth of themselves...who want to realize their innermost being; such individuals are, by their very nature, unique in this world, and it is always a unique experience to sit and share some time together discussing higher ideas.  

If you wanted to share one single idea, what would it be?

When you realize that no one else on this earth can be like you–that no other soul can know the beauty, sorrow, light, and darkness you alone are given to see–then you will no longer want to be like anyone else on this earth. You will, at last, be the fearless individual that your heart of hearts has called you to be. This, to me, is the one and only true success there is; everything else is conditional, and therefore temporary. 

Thank you so much Guy!