Book 262 - A Year of Magical Learning (4/5)

Reflection Title: “Preach the Gospel at all Times, and If Necessary Use Words”

Book – Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day by Jay Shetty (Part 4 of 5)

Book Description: Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life.

In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Combining ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, Think Like a Monk reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. He transforms abstract lessons into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve relationships, and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can—and should—think like a monk.

Reflection:

The Year of Magical Learning isn’t just a year to me, it is my life, now and forever. As a matter of fact, the title of this project “A Year of Magical Learning” has nothing to do with a year at all. By the time it is completed, it will have taken me at least 4 years to learn, reflect, act, and distill these lessons down into a format for others to follow.

The word “year” only appears in the title because that is how I hope others will consume this distilled journey, it has nothing to do with how it was created or how long it took to do it.

YOML is a creative output that results from me living my purpose every single day of my life. Even when this particular project is complete, I have zero plans to stop this process until the day I take my last breath on this Earth. If I’m lucky, I’ll find that when my physical body leaves this world that somehow I will still be able to do this stuff in whatever comes next. The creative output may change over the course of my life, but the input will always stay the same (for the most part as values can shift slightly over time).

My Lifetime of Magical Learning will continue exactly like this journey began, with Emilia and I choosing to consciously live each day by doing our best to transform our values into actions to share with the world. That is what this journey is really all about…that…is Living for 2.

Once I emerged from the rubble of my life that was left by the atomic blast that destroyed my world, I was excited to share my journey with others verbally because I wanted to help. I wanted to talk about it, to talk about what I was learning, share how Emilia and I were growing and evolving together, and how we were able to work together to find a way to honor her life in a way that reflected the beauty of her soul and not the tragically short outcome of her life.

In short, we wanted to help. We wanted to help anyone and everyone that needed it and was open to listening. I was ready, willing, and eager to talk to anyone at any time if they wanted. The problem is, how do you bring something like this up to other people and have the conversation matter? How do you distill down 1,000’s of hours of learning, reflection, and action into a 2-minute conversation with someone you see at a social gathering 1 or 2 times a year? How do you walk up to someone and start a conversation about the power of purpose?

The answer is, you don’t and it is a fool’s errand to even try. When you try, it comes across as preachy, and we all know how much we loved to be preached at by some person who recently had a revelation in their life.

So slowly, and as time evolved, I found myself talking less and less about this whole journey when I would encounter people on this journey. That didn’t mean that the journey had stopped, far from it actually as it has been accelerating faster and faster as each day passes.

The reason I stopped talking about it is because I found that people don’t want to listen to words, they only respond to actions!

So, Emilia and I got to work!

Through our actions, others began to see what I was talking about through the way I went about my life with intentional design and purpose. That work is what gets people’s attention, and then they stop me and ask what is this all about? That is when the door is magically cracked open, and a meaningful conversation has the potential to ensue as they are finally open to listening.

As St. Francis of Assisi says, “Preach the Gospel at all Times, and If Necessary Use Words”.

I love that saying as it is so true. The gospel of Emilia and Chris is Living for 2. Emilia and I preach our gospel of the power of living a life of values and purpose through our actions every single day. That will never change! If you see me out and about living for 2 and are curious and want to learn more about my purpose or the power of living a life of purpose; I’m sure we will have an incredibly meaningful conversation…which is what we both wanted all along.

Question: Are you sharing your purpose with the world through your words or your actions?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Think Like a Monk