❄️ Freezethawed: The Newsletter #035 - Seven virtues for love, peace and joy
Hello everyone!
Today’s newsletter is going to be a long one but I assure you it is worth your time.
This week I read, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma. I loved the book! However, there is a lot (A LOT!) to assimilate from it. In an effort to do just that, I have tried to summarize the key takeaways.
The story follows a fictional character, Julian Mantle, a successful lawyer in a highly demanding job who renounces all this worldly pleasures to search for the meaning and purpose of life in the Himalayas.
The following are the teaching bestowed upon him, and by extension, you and I:
1. Master your mind
Your mind is a magnificent garden. You are the gardener.
Sowing good seeds will eventually produce tasty fruits and beautiful flowers. Similarly, Improving the quality of your thoughts will improve the quality of your life. Negative thoughts are equivalent to under-watering your plants and leaving all your trash in your garden. However, you can decide to substitute them with positive thoughts as and when they arise.
Mistakes do not essentially exist. They are merely lessons to learn from. Gratitude for yourself and the world that you live in will allow you to learn from every experience, as you will be constantly using them as lessons.
The Rose
Obtain a fresh rose and sit in a silent place. Then, start staring at the center of the rose. Notice the color, texture, and design of the rose. Your mind may wander away at first, but this is just a sign of an untrained mind. Do not worry about your wandering mind, and simply return your attention to the rose. This is a form of meditation, to help you grow strong and stay disciplined.
2. Follow your purpose
“The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it. Once you do this, abundance flows into your life and all your desires are filled with ease and grace.”
Happiness comes from achievement. However, without goal setting, you will not achieve anything. Find the purpose of your life, make goals and write them down on a piece of paper. Unwritten goals are not actually goals.
The rationale? Humans have approximately 60,000 thoughts per day. Writing goals sends signals to the subconscious mind, suggesting this thought is more important than the other 59,999 daily thoughts. Then, the subconscious mind provides energy to carry out these goals.
Success begins within.
You don’t attract what you want; you attract who you are. This mantra is worth repeating and reflecting on many times. Enlightenment comes through the consistent cultivation of your mind, body and soul. Consistent cultivation means the development and an optimization of your mind.
3. Practice Kaizen
“Success cannot be pursued; success ensues. It flows as the unintended byproduct of efforts concentrated in the direction of a worthy cause.”
Kaizen is the Japanese method for improvement and optimization. The literal meaning is to ‘change for the better.’ It directly translates into continuous learning and constant betterment of oneself. The overall goal of kaizen is to make small changes over a period of time to create improvements with an overarching reach. That doesn’t mean alterations happen slowly; it simply recognizes that small changes now can have huge impacts in the future.
4. The power of discipline
The notion of discipline encourages you to consistently perform small acts of courage. It may be, as in the book be represented by a pink wire coil and is worn by the sumo wrestler to protect his modesty. Strengthen your willpower and develop self-discipline. Cords consist of tiny, smaller threads that form to create something far more robust. Similarly, each individual act of courage helps make you a stronger individual.
In this regard, Robin Sharma has a specific mantra that he suggests to repeat daily:
‘I am more than I appear to be, all the world’s strength and power rests inside me.’
On top of this, spend a long period or a full day in silence. If people around you ask direct questions during this period of silence, you can answer them. However, you should use this time as an opportunity to increase control over your body.
5. Respect your time
“Time slips through our hands like grains of sand, never to return again. Those who use time wisely from an early age are rewarded with rich, productive and satisfying lives.”
Time is your most precious commodity and resource. Time doesn’t segregate between the rich and poor, fat and thin, white or black. You can’t buy more of it, and you cannot get any of it back. All you can hope to do is make the most of the time you have. Time mastery leads to life mastery.
The Ancient Rule of 20
This ancient rule is like the 80/20 principle that says our 20% activities give 80% of the result. You must try to incorporate more 20% activities into your life to fully respect your time.
6. Selflessly serve others
“The noblest thing you can do is to give to others. Start focusing on your higher purpose.”
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your contributions to the world. To achieve wholeness, you should practice daily acts of kindness, give generously, and focus on your relationships with others. To cultivate the sacredness of each day, live to give. By elevating the lives of others, you elevate your own life.
A famous chinese saying goes like, “there is always a little fragrance remaining in the hand of those who give flowers to others.” The satisfaction of helping others is priceless.
7. Embrace the present
- Live in the “now.” Savor the gift of the present.
- Never sacrifice happiness for achievement.
- Savor the journey and live each day as your last.
We are all here for some special reason. The books ends with this:
Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.
Our human brains are designed so that we tend to get disturbed when thinking of our past and worry about the future. We rarely enjoy the small positive moments that we have in the present. These moments are the real diamonds in your life. Therefore, never sacrifice your happiness for achievement.
If you’ve read the book I would love to know you takeaways. If you haven’t I’d urge you to read this one.
Until next time,
Anujeet.
Anujeet’s book journey
This week I finished
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Robin Sharma
Currently I’m reading
The Courage To Be Happy – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
Aggregate, the weekly quote
"You’ve got to follow your passion. You’ve got to figure out what it is you love–who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams." - Oprah Winfrey
Harmony, the weekly song
Story of My Life – One Direction / Boyce Avenue
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