Who Will Cry When You Die\?: Life Lessons From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari pdfdrive com

21.
Spend a Day Without Your Watch
Last fall, I did something I have not done for many years: I left my watch at
home and spent an entire day without looking at the time. Rather than living by
the clock and planning everything I was going to do that day, I simply lived for
the moment and did whatever I felt like doing. I became a true human being
rather than merely a human doing.
Early in the morning, I went for a walk deep in the woods, one of my
favorite things to do. With me, I carried an old paperback copy of Walden by the
social philosopher Henry David Thoreau, a book I have come to love. After
finding a beautiful place to sit and read, I experienced one of those moments of
synchronicity where something perfect happens at just the right time. For me it
was randomly opening the book and finding the following paragraph in front of
me:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the
essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and
not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live
what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation,
unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the
marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that
was not life…
I reflected on this great man’s words and soaked up the miraculous beauty
of the scene around me. The rest of the day was spent in a bookshop, watching
Toy Story with my kids, relaxing with the family on our patio and listening to my
favorite pieces of music. Nothing expensive. Nothing complicated. But
completely fun.

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22.
Take More Risks
I’ll make you this promise: on your deathbed, in the twilight of your life, it will
not be all the risks you took that you will regret the most. Rather, what will fill
your heart with the greatest amount of regret and sadness will be all those risks
that you did not take, all those opportunities you did not seize and all those fears
you did not face. Remember that on the other side of fear lies freedom. And stay
focused on the timeless success principle that says: “life is nothing more that a
game of numbers—the more risks you take, the more rewards you will receive.”
Or in the words of Sophocles, “Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.”
To live your life to the fullest, start taking more risks and doing the things
you fear. Get good at being uncomfortable and stop walking the path of least
resistance. Sure, there is a greater chance you will stub your toes when you walk
the road less traveled, but that is the only way you can get anywhere. As my
wise mother always says, “you cannot get to third base with one foot on second.”
Or as André Gide observed, “One does not discover new lands without
consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
The real secret to a life of abundance is to stop spending your days
searching for security and to start spending your time pursuing opportunity.
Sure, you will meet with your share of failures if you start living more
deliberately and passionately. But failure is nothing more than learning how to
win. Or as my dad observed one day, “Robin, it’s risky out on a limb. But that’s
where all the fruit is.”
As I wrote in an earlier lesson, life is all about choices. Deeply fulfilled and
highly actualized people simply make wiser choices than others. You can choose
to spend the rest of your days sitting on the shore of life in complete safety or
you can take some chances, dive deep into the water and discover the pearls that
lie waiting for the person of true courage. To keep me inspired and centered on
the fact that I must keep stretching my own personal boundaries as the days go
by, I have posted the following words of Theodore Roosevelt in the study where
I write:
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The

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credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes
short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the
end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at
least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

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