Book 110 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: I Only Need to Follow 1 Law to Feel Powerful Everyday!

Book – The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Book Description: In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Reflection:

What you consume can have a powerful effect on your thoughts and how you interact with the to the world. Thoughts really do become things over time.

For instance, after I recently finished the book Humankind: A Hopeful History, I felt light, positive, and excited to know that our species is truly special and we can do some good in this world. After I finished The 48 Laws of Power, I felt gross, icky, dirty, like I was doing something wrong, and a little ashamed of the whole human race. As I was going through this book, I could literally feel my outlook on life being slowly altered toward the negative. I felt just a little more dark, depressed, angry, and generally discontent during the week or 2 it took me to finish it. I didn’t like that at all.

At its core, this book takes a deep dive into some basic fundamental laws of how human beings interact, connect, and build relationships to influence one another in a certain direction. The basic underlying principles are real, but the interpretation is what is unique. If you like to think of life having polarity, looking at the underlying principles of human interaction and influence discussed in this book would place The 48 Laws of Power at one extreme end, and How to Win Friends and Influence People at the other end. One book takes the principles and tries to apply to the extreme end influencing people only to gain power and the other to the polar opposite of deepening relationships and gaining friends.

So which is correct? If you’ve followed along with my journey up to this point you probably know my answer already which somewhere in between.

So how does one cut through the noise of all the competing voices in this world sharing their interpretations on how we should live? We are bombarded every day on social media and the news with interpretations of “experts” on which path is right, which voices to listen to, etc? What to do?

If you are tired of playing this exhausting game every day, I’m right there with you. To combat this, I deploy my solution that we can call my Singular Rule of Power. That solution is to take back control of yourself by always doing my best to let my values be my guide to how I navigate and interact in this world.  

I don’t care what the situation is, who did what to whom, what is at stake, etc. I’ve learned that I will always feel powerful and in control if I’m doing my best to control myself and navigate my unique journey. To do that, I turn to my values. My values were jointly created in my mind between myself and God, my conscious, or whatever term you prefer to call it. These values are my unique operating system of my own life. They are Chris at the end of the day.

If you always strive to stay true to yourself, you can shield yourself from unwanted outside influence and preserve your personal power that we all hold so important in life.

Question: How do you do to shield yourself from outside influencers and stay true to yourself?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - The 48 Laws of Power

YOML Bookstore - The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene