Throughout the book, the author shares a fable about fulfilling one’s dreams and reaching their destiny. Out of all the non-fiction books I’ve read so far, he is one of the few authors who conveys his message through a story with fictional characters.
Also, the story has been crafted with the help of some symbols for each of the seven virtues (mentioned below) like -
The magnificent garden
The towering lighthouse
The Sumo wrestler
The pink wire cable
The gold stopwatch
The fragrant rose
The path of diamonds
...making it easy for readers to reconnect to the respective lesson. The book is about the seven Virtues for a life overflowing with inner peace and in the author’s words ‘The 7 timeless virtues of enlightened living!’ - mentioned below:
Mastering the Mind
Following Our Purpose
Practicing Kaizen – self-mastery through continuous self-improvement
Living with Discipline - Building one’s will power
Respecting Our Time
Selflessly Serving Others
Embracing the Present - Happiness is the journey and not the destination.
What I liked in the book:
This book is a great collection of quotes (some by the author himself and others by renowned people in the self-help industry).
A couple of my favourite quotes from the book are 'Your I Can is more important than your IQ' & 'Purpose of life is to have a life of purpose'.
My two big takeaways from the book are the concepts of positive pressure & momentum.
Positive Pressure: Halfway through the book, while going deep into the topic of goal setting in pursuit of purposeful living – the author suggests a few simple yet powerful strategies to create & achieve the right goals. One of which is the power of positive pressure. He explains that the main reason most of us don’t follow through on our resolutions is because it is TOO EASY to slip back into our old ways. The way he sees it is that pressure is not always a bad thing when it comes to setting goals. A couple of ways we can create positive pressure around our goals could be by public pledge (telling people around us about our aspirations) and by committing to a negative consequence (punishment) on failing to achieve the same.
Momentum - the secret ingredient to building Self-Discipline: The author dedicates an entire chapter for Self-Discipline and explains in detail everything from the meaning of self-control and personal mastery to the ways and tools using which one can increase their will power. Through the chapter he uses strong terminology like 'lack of willpower is a mental disease & if one is suffering from it, they should make it a priority to stamp it out quickly’ & ‘self-control is mind-control & when you master your mind, you master your life’. According to him, one of the ways to build will power is to simply start doing things that we don’t like to do. And by getting into the habit of exerting our will, we cease to be a slave of our weaker impulses. Repeating the same tasks over time and focusing on small wins consistently (before diving deep) releases a magical quality of momentum that will motivate us to keep exploring deeper into our infinite potential.
insightful review