How successful would you be if you weren’t afraid?
~ Shavon Ethridge
It’s a midday lunch among friends. A thirty-first milestone birthday, with mine creeping just around the corner. With more than fifteen years of friendship under our belts, we begin discussing our lives without the blahzay blahzay lead up. These guys are some of my closest brothers, closer than my biological. We talk for several hours in what seems like a half hour. We converse about all things and I realize that these conversations don’t happen nearly enough. I leave with a sense that people’s varying degrees of problems are all relative. I work diligently to reach my zenith and hope to perfect the man who some patient, compassionate woman would share her world with.
As previously mentioned, thirty-one is knocking on the door. I don’t feel my age, I actually feel as flexible as my twenty-five self with a sharper brain to boot. I don’t really do the new year’s resolutions thing, but on my birthday I do outline where I want to see myself one year later. I have attained my wildest dreams in my thirtieth year and found someone who could potentially be someone special.
The majority of my thirties have been spent attempting to complete the ’48 Laws of Power’, a book I would herald as the best text I’ve read. This book took upwards of eight months to read and apply. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t like to touch the same paper twice. In my ever-increasing thirst for knowledge, I like to devour a book, reflect and repeat. This book didn’t allow me that opportunity. I had to seriously take a look at things I was doing, what I wasn’t doing and what I needed to be doing. This book doubled as a history teacher and parable simultaneously.
Transgression of the Law
Prior to reading this piece, know that some of the laws will disturb you. They will downright sicken you. The danger is ignoring these teachings. Throwing the book aside as drivel will be to your detriment. I have to admit that my personality thrives on using my brain to deduct issues and my heart to feel out a situation. When someone says ‘strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter’ (Law 42) or ‘crush your enemy totally’ (Law 15), you may think to yourself “this is ugly”. You’re not alone in this train of thought. My mentality doesn’t shine light on at least one-third of this material, the huge division is that I understand others do think this way. The kicker with this book is that it speaks volumes about people’s nature. This fact may upset you, turn you off or make you cynical. I choose to use the information as armour to understand the people I’m dealing with day-to-day. Considering that my nature is jovial, I think it pertinent to guard myself against people who would take advantage of me. The kicker is to maintain your sense of self without being jaded after realizing some people use you as a pawn to attain the power they need.
Observance of the Law
I was unaware I subconsciously used power play tactics. I now understand the reasoning behind some of the things I do (Enter action with boldness – Law 28). Things that were foreign to me are now a part of my being (Assume formlessness – Law 48). I get it! Reading this allowed me to understand the code. You see things in a new light and your ability to judge a person’s character is much more fine tuned. Recognizing a person’s nature early can prevent you from suffering later on.
Keys to Power
The biggest tool garnered from this book is that fear is the greatest weapon in creating inertia. Enter into action with boldness, planning all the way to the end, mastering the art of timing, all of these and more can be used to benefit your life. While the examples from history are many and the maxims are weighty, it’s a necessary read for anyone interested in learning the inner workings of people’s minds. It could be children vying for position on the playground or two colleagues duking it out for a promotion, this reading explains many tactics used in the game of life. My most important takeaway is Law 48, be formless. This doesn’t mean be spineless, it means be adaptable. Some things I feel strongly about, most others I’m indifferent to, for the things I don’t have a particular opinion on – I try. This works twofold, one, I’ll form an opinion and two, I’m trying something new.
Reversal
Understand that this book isn’t a tool to take advantage of people. This is a tool for understanding and broadening your own mind. It’s easy to apply the lessons to illicit what you want, but I suppose this speaks to the nature of people. How good is your nature?
Carpe Diem Que
Here’s to your Freedom!
20 Jun“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”
~Mahatma Gandhi
Cottage. Stomach flu. Work. Work. Work. Beach. Euro Cup 2012. Chris Guillebeau. A late night walk. I’ve had one helluva week. I feel like I’ve neglected you, but I’m back. After a rejuvenation session at the cottage I came down with what may be called a stomach flu. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, I made it through alive and well.
Monday came with tons of anticipation, one of my favourite authors/travel hacker/free-thinker, Chris Guillebeau, came to Toronto on one of his stops for his book tour ($100 Startup). His speech wasn’t original, mostly anecdotes from the novel. The triumph of this gathering was the amount of people who lined the walls and sat around who were just like me. Free thinkers and life hackers alike, all ages and backgrounds. This was a group of people who I was happy to be around, they inspired and made me proud. Proud to be in the midst of so many people with the state of mind to step off the hamster wheel.
I write this now at 3:38am, I’m wide awake – half-excited and half-driven by my ambition alone. There’s work that has to be done and sometimes sleep just interrupts the flow of thought. You know that feeling you have when you should be doing something, but you’re not. The shower of guilt and responsibility. Tomorrow I venture to Canada’s Wonderland, my only day off and a lot must be done before fun can be had.
Now, for some housekeeping issues. People reading this, know that I’m not unique and the possibilities to accomplish anything derive from a single thought. Your belief in yourself and the single minded pursuit of your task will make it come to fruition. I was told last week that I inspired someone to change her situation and pursue a life of writing overseas away from family and friends. I was flattered to know I made a small difference in her life, but the choice was hers. She deserves more credit than I. Anyone can give you mouth service and continue following their insane path. These people infuriate me beyond belief, but that’s another subject for another day. This woman took her destiny into her own hands and began a journey I admire and respect. Her blog should be up and working soon, I’ll post her info here and urge people to check out her journey.
This little story reminded me of the people I appreciate who are like-minded. So, in order to let them know I care, I gave them “drive-by loving”, plugging them and their respective journeys. This is something you could try, just randomly letting someone you respect or love know that you feel that way. I do it often and it’s sad that it’s such a foreign concept to people that they question my motives. Appreciating people should be more commonplace and critiquing should be more foreign.
I’ll leave it at that since I still have much to do before my day of gross amounts of candy floss, roller coasters and water parks.
Carpe Diem Que
Tags: mahatma gandhi, travel