This afternoon, I managed to borrow the book above. The book is fiction, so it wasn't derived from real story. But I love to read it since it depicts the story or experience from a wise old man in his 70s, who suffered from cancer. His name was Cal.
He believed that in this world, when most people lived on the outside, he lived within. Where people run away from their fears, he ran toward them. And what he saw within the deepest parts of him was incredible. Meaning that, we all have to do our own interior work. It's our highest responsibility, to examine ourselves, get to know the real us - our own true selves.
To begin with the interior work, people can start from thinking about death. Because when we think about the death, we will think of the fact that our lives are short and our hours are limited, so that we can live fully and give every bit of ourselves to our waking moments. Neither of us knows how many tomorrows we have left, so live now.
"Live like a sharp pencil, make a fine line; design and build an extraordinary experience of life for yourself - sharpen your focus and live to the point. Focus on the things that truly count in your life." He continued, "Lots of time what we believed to be big things in life are actually the little things. And those that we believed to be little, insignificant thing early on have turned out to be the big things - the things that actually matter the most."
In the story, Cal also said, people have been brought together for a reason. That's just the way the world works. Everyone who enters your life comes to you at precisely the time that you most need to learn the lesson they've come to teach.
"You were born to present your gifts to the world. But the way it's set up is that before you can shine as a person. You must get to know yourself; you must look at your limiting beliefs and recreate them. And you must analyze the false assumptions you have about what you can be, have, and do as a person and then set about correcting them. You need to become aware of your historical patterns of reacting in the different scenarios of your life and re-create them. And you must tackle your fears and move through them. Then you can open up your heart and be more concerned about the happiness of other people than about the happiness of yourself. And once you do, ironically, you'll become happy."
"Once you align yourself with these laws, you'll access your authentic power. You'll become a force of nature, and your life will move from a place of struggle into one of ease and flow. All that you've ever dreamed of being you will become. You'll naturally draw into your life all that your heart has ever desired without effort. Your life will begin, to work, almost as if guided by magic."
"Trust that ache feelings. When you go into the feelings and the longings that most of us run away from, will we find our greatest answers. Our feelings grant us immense wisdom and carry the knowledge of our subconscious minds. And our subconscious minds are our link to the wisdom of the universe. Our conscious thinking is limited, but our subconscious thinking is infinite."
"Most of us deny our feelings. Society has taught us to do that. From a young age, we divorce ourselves from the way we feel. We're told not to cry, we're told not to laugh too loud, and we're told that it's wrong to feel sad or even to experience our anger. But our feelings are neither right nor wrong - they're simply our feelings, and an essential part of the human experience. Deny them and you begin to shut down parts of yourself. Keep doing that and you'll lose the connection to who you truly are. You'll begin living completely in your head, and you'll stop feeling." - I love these sentences. Express your feeling!! After all, we are just a human being!!! Cry when you feel you wanna cry and laugh out loud when you think it's funny!:)
"There is just too much cynicism in the world today. We don't believe in the great dreams we had as kids anymore. We don't believe we have the power to create the lives we want. We don't think we can really make a difference by the things we do."Cal responded, "And that's exactly why so many of us are stuck. We have phenomenal power within us; we've just lost our connection to it. Part of the reason for this is fear. The possibilities available to us in our lives are truly miraculous. The wonders we have the potential to create in our lives, once we align with the force of nature, are astounding - they really are. But all this potential also brings with it certain responsibilities... and this frighten us. So we don't believe in ourselves. We deny our power and set up blocks to the achievement of the extraordinary lives that we're meant to lead."
"That's exactly what we do. We pretend we don't matter, and we act as if we're not special. We close our eyes to the way the world really operates, so we don't trust in these natural laws that govern it. And these laws only come alive in your life once you invest every bit of the trust you have as a human being in them. They don't work if you don't believe they will work. To access our best lives, each and every one of us must make some fundamental shifts of the mind. Maybe even more important, we each must make some fundamental shifts of the heart. And that begins by trusting these laws of nature I've been telling you about. Most people don't trust - they have no faith in the brilliance of the universe and their lovely role within it. That's why there's no magic in their lives. It's because they fail to understand the way the world operates, and it's also because they're no longer leaders."
"The leadership here is far more than something businesspeople do at work. It is all about personal responsibility, self-discovery, and creating value in the world by the people we become. Too many people spending their time blaming others for all that isn't working in their lives. But it's nothing more than excusing yourself. It is a sad way to live."
"The only way to lift your life to the next level is to act like a leader and assume real leadership over your life. The moment you look in the mirror and say to yourself, from the deepest place within you., 'For my life to change, I must change'- that's the moment you'll grow up and walk through a doorway that will lead you to your best life. Because that's when you'll take your life into your own hands. You'll assume responsibility for the destiny that has been presented to you. You'll stop resisting your life and accept what it s. You 'll align yourself with those immutable laws of nature, laws that have always governed the way the life works, from the beginning of time. You'll get your power back."
And to end the first chapter of this book, Cal ask him to point the index finger into him. Cal explained, "Reflection is the mother of wisdom. You have one finger pointing at me, but who are the other three fingers pointing toward?" So, stop blaming others for everything you dislike about your life. Look in the mirror and regain some accountability over your life. That's how personal change and life leadership begins.
There are so many truths in what the author had written. It was just the first chapter and it had taught and reminded us many things about life.
How many of us continuing our childhood's dreams??? Remember what you said when people asked you, "What do you wanna be when you grow up???" Only few have made it come true or are working on it. I'm really glad that they have the determination to make it come true or to make it working in their lives.
As for me, my wish was to become a housewife when I was a child as I loved to play with children's cookery toys. I also loved to build my house on the mattress and set the chair and tables using the pillows and bolsters, not forgetting a space for kitchen where I could put the cookery's toys on it. I used to ask my niece and nephew pretending to be the guests who came to my 'imaginary' house and served them tea and some snacks. Hahaha..... I'd a very low expectation of dream in life.
I've never dreamed of becoming someone who works in the office, some more my job is related to finance. In fact, I tried to avoid anything related to finance or accounting when I was a teenager. But in reality, housewife is not my passion. And staying unemployed in Singapore is not a wise thing to do as we need some bread and butter, or even some bacon for our daily lives. Haha... So, my job was not a dream job that I had since I was young. It's more forced by the need and environment that I live in and there is nothing exceptional happening to me. I live a usual life as a normal people. That's my belief. Haha... Again, I restrain and put a limit into my life. However, I feel happy and contented. Some people are born to be this way.
However, the wisdom above was not just about realizing our dreams, but how we want to live our lives happily, not only for ourselves, but also to other being so when we're on our deathbed, we can answers the Final Questions, as the book stated, with a peace of mind, which are: 1. Did I live wisely? 2. Did I love well? 3. Did I serve greatly?
Read my latest review here.
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