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

85.
Have a Family Mealtime
One of the many great family traditions my wonderful mother created for us
when I was growing up was having a family meal every day. No matter what
activities we had on the go, my father, my brother and I were duty-bound to
come home for a dinner, where we could all reconnect and share our stories
about the day that was drawing to a close.
My dad would often go around the dinner table and ask us to share one new
thing we had learned. Or he would pull out a newspaper clipping he had tucked
away in his shirt pocket and engage us in a lively discussion relating to the story.
The special tradition of a daily family meal brought our family closer and gave
me many happy memories. It is a tradition I have now brought into my own
family life and one I hope my children will continue.
Your family meal does not have to be dinner. We live in busy times. We
have endless personal commitments, our children have soccer practices, piano
lessons and ballet classes, which might make it difficult to have a quiet meal in
the early evening hours. Your family meal could take place over breakfast or
lunch if your schedule allows for it. It might even be a quick snack of milk and
cookies at the very end of the day. The important thing is that you find some
time every day to “break bread” with those you love most and consistently work
at building a richer, more meaningful family life.

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86.
Become an Imposter
Research has shown that the way you act influences the thoughts you think. If
you look to the ground, slouch over and generally model yourself physically
after a depressed person, you will eventually start to feel depressed. If, on the
other hand, you smile and laugh and stand upright with your head held high, you
will soon find that you feel much better, even though you may not have been in a
great mood to begin with.
Using this information, you can start to “fake it till you make it.” In other
words, you can pretend to be the kind of person you wish to be. By consistently
acting as a highly enthusiastic person might or as a truly confident person would,
you will eventually take on these personal attributes.
The power of the “act like that which you most wish to become” technique
was demonstrated by a study at Stanford University in which a team of
psychologists took a group of emotionally secure college students and randomly
separated them into two groups within a simulated prison setting. The first group
was instructed to act like prison guards while the second group was told to take
on the characteristics of inmates. The behavior of the group members was
affected so dramatically by this experiment that the psychologists were forced to
end it after only six days. The “inmates” had become severely depressed,
hysterical and suffered from crying bouts while the “guards” behaved cruelly
and uncaringly. As this study confirms, the “acting as if” technique is a highly
effective way to modify your behavior and transform yourself into the person
you plan to be.

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