Dear daughter, today I want to introduce you to another great book: “The monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma”. This book has great insights for us to create a better life for ourselves. It has great importance nowadays considering all issues people face daily.
The author invites us to reflect on our lifestyle and what really matters to us, through the adventure of a man that didn’t know what was really important to him and ended up transforming his life.
The author talks about a wake-up call. The main character in the book, named Julian, was a very successful lawyer, he had everything one can want, money-related.
Suddenly, he got a heart attack. After that, he decided not to go back to work. So, the guy that was the star of the law firm, stopped working as a lawyer after the wake-up call: a heart attack.
After a certain time, Julian took a trip to India, in search of some answers. He sold his mansion, plane, and a private island. He also sold his beloved Ferrari.
Three years later, a man who used to work for Julian at the law firm, named John, received an unexpected visit.
Julian came back from his trip to India, but he was looking different. Here he was to teach his old friend all he learned.
Now, Julian starts to tell the story of his trip to India. He went there to find out how to have a richer, fuller life.
The first part of his trip was to find the monks that will teach him, and that will answer his questions about how to have a better life. These monks were known as the “Great Sages of Sivana” and they were living in a remote location where no one was in touch with them. Some locals only heard about them but didn’t know how to find them.
After a long and hard path, Julian found the monks and his learning experience towards enlightenment started.
From this moment in the story, Julian will explain to his friend the 7 virtues for an enlightened life.
Table of Contents
- 1- Master your mind
- 2- Follow your purpose
- 3- Practice Kaizen
- 4- Live with discipline
- 5- Respect your mind
- 6- Selflessly serve others
- 7- Embrace the present
1- Master your mind
This virtue is about taking control of your thoughts.
“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.”
What a great concept my daughter. You can also rephrase it as follows:
- If you improve the quality of your thoughts, the quality of your life will also improve.
As you can guess by my other letters to you, one way of improving the quality of your thoughts is reading books, by learning every day. Poor people are poor because of their mindset, in other words, how they think about finances. That is why poor people are in a rat race they cannot escape.
So, my daughter, we need to improve the quality of our thoughts to improve our lives.
Another idea given in the book, and many others, is that mistakes/failures teach us how to improve. When you make a mistake, you can decide to learn from it or to give up. If you learn from your mistakes, the quality of your thoughts will improve over time, and therefore, the quality of your life.
“Do not fear mistakes – fear only the absence of creative, constructive, and corrective responses to those mistakes.” W. Rolfe Kerr.
2- Follow your purpose
What is your purpose in life? Have you thought about it?
Finding the purpose of your life gives you guidance on how to live it.
Once you find the purpose of your life, you can define your goals. Once you have clarity on your goals, it will be easier to achieve them.
You probably will remember when you did your undergrad research project, your lecturer told you, that a problem well-defined is 50% solved.
This is a fact, and it applies to all areas of our life.
If we know exactly what we want, if we have enough clarity on what we want, then we are on the right path to achieving it.
As I always tell you, my daughter, write your goals on paper, read them every day, measure them, regularly assess how much you accomplish, and celebrate once you achieve them.
Remember that, as Earl Nightingale, said, success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.
So, write your worthy goals, track them, track your advances, and be successful.
3- Practice Kaizen
Kaizen means constant never-ending improvement.
This virtue is about improving yourself from the inside. When you improve yourself, you will improve everything that surrounds you.
As Jim Rohn says, you have to work harder on yourself than you work on your job.
As you can see, by having this virtue you will have the first two.
Always study and study and learn.
Some people get confused when they hear “you must study”. They think they have to go to school to study. They couldn’t be farther from the truth.
You can study with a neighbor or friend that has what you want to have or knows what you want to learn. An example is in the book The Richest Man in Babylon when one of the characters offers the rich man to work from him for free if he teaches him how to become rich.
So, my daughter, practice kaizen every day. I truly hope that all my letters can help you to practice this important virtue.
“The Universe favors the brave. When you resolve to lift your life to its highest level, the strength of your soul will guide you to a magical place with magnificent treasures.” The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.
4- Live with discipline
I think this one doesn’t need any comment.
As you already know, without discipline you won’t move forward, only backward
When you read the book, you will find many actionable tips to improve your discipline.
5- Respect your mind
This virtue is about your most precious commodity: time.
Sometimes, people only find out what they should be doing when they don’t have enough time left.
Have you heard the excuse “I’m too busy to do that”? Imagine that if you are too busy to learn something new, then you will never learn anything at all. What a sad way of living.
To be busy is not a problem, the problem is to be busy with things that don’t really matter.
How to know if you are busy with things that matter to you?
Every time you feel you are busy, ask yourself if what you are doing is the most important thing you should be doing to achieve your goals. Yes, goals again. They are of utmost importance in our lives. That’s the reason why I always ask you for your goals.
If what you are doing, is not the most important thing that will help you achieve your goals, then stop doing it.
This is closely related to learning how to say no. Sometimes you get an invitation to do something, and you stop what you are doing to do something else that is less relevant to you. So, learn to say no, you must stay focused. As Steve Jobs said, focusing is about saying no. People will get angry at you when you say no, but you shouldn’t care too much about it. In the end, only you can achieve your goals, no one else will do it for you.
“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.” The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.
6- Selflessly serve others
Some people think their work is about doing what they must do to get paid. But actually, we all do our work to serve other people.
The more people you serve, the richer will be your life. It is simple like that.
Serve and respect your mother, your grandparents, your sister, and everybody else that is within your reach.
The quality of how you serve others will influence the quality of your life.
Do a simple exercise, when you do something, do you think about how best you are serving others?
Do you help the old lady to cross the street? When someone goes to your office, do you ask how can I help you? Do you call your mom regularly and ask what you can do for her?
If your answer is no, give it a try, and then tell me how you felt.
7- Embrace the present
Some of the wisdom you get from the book is to not sacrifice happiness for achievement.
Remember you have goals, and those are worthy goals, at least for you.
If a goal is worthy, you won’t achieve it overnight, it will take time, patience, and discipline.
However, you mustn’t stop living until you achieve your goals. You must embrace and enjoy the present.
Every time you move a step closer to achieving your goal, celebrate. When you achieve one of your goals, also celebrate.
Thank people that are around you. Enjoy with them, celebrate with them.
As Jim Rohn will say, getting rich is not about the money you will have, is about who you become during the journey. In the end, the money you get doesn’t matter, what matter is what you learned, and the person you became.
Think about it, learning to achieve something, is learning a new skill. If you learn the skill of creating a business, and for some reason, that business ceases to exist, no problem, you create another one, you already have the skills.
Dear daughter, I cannot tell every detail of the story told in this book. The author did an outstanding work telling the story and giving a river of advice on how to enrich our lives. I encourage you to read the full book at least twice.
Love you, Dad.
I share the letters I write to my daughter so more people can benefit from them. If you want to buy this book, you can check it out on Amazon using this link.