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

89.
Don’t Worry About Things You
Can’t Change
Time and again, when I face a challenge in my own life, I return to The Serenity
Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr: “God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the
things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be
changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”
One business executive who went through an exercise I use in my
leadership coaching programs found that 54 percent of his worries related to
things that would likely never happen; 26 percent were about past actions that
could not be changed; 8 percent related to the opinions of people whose opinions
really did not matter to him; 4 percent concerned personal health issues that he
had since resolved; and only 6 percent concerned real issues worthy of his
attention. By identifying and then letting go of the worries he could do nothing
about or that were a complete waste of his energy, this man eliminated 94
percent of the problems that had plagued him.

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90.
Learn How to Walk
Nearly ten years ago, I received a package in the mail from my father. In it was a
worn-out old book that carried the following inscription on the inside front
cover: “Dear Robin, some time ago, I picked up this book from a store that sells
secondhand books. Though the money paid for this book was nominal, its net
worth is tremendous. I enjoyed reading it immensely and I hope you will too.
Love, Dad.”
Published in 1946, the book is called Getting the Most Out of Life and is
one of the treasures in my library of wisdom literature and self-help books. I
have returned to the short essays it contains on a wide range of life improvement
topics, bearing titles such as “Wake Up and Live!” “The Business of Living a
Long Time” and “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day,” many times over the years
and have grown much from the lessons offered. It is truly a priceless possession.
On a recent rainy day, I pulled out the book and flipped through the
different chapters, stopping at the one entitled “How to Take a Walk.” In it,
author Alan Devoe shares his insights on how one can get the best out of
walking. First, he advises, a walk should never have a specific purpose. Rather
than having a destination, you should simply immerse yourself in the beauty of
the walk itself. Second, you must never take your worries with you on the walk.
Leave them at home, for if you don’t, they will become even more deeply rooted
in your mind by the end of the walk. And finally, be fully aware. Train yourself
to pay complete attention to the sights, sounds and smells. Study the shape of the
leaves on the trees. Observe the beauty of the clouds and the fragrance of the
flowers. As he concludes: “The world, after all, is not so unendurable, when a
person gets a chance to look at it and smell it and feel its texture and be alone
with it. This acquaintance with the world—this renewal of the magical happiness
and wonderment which you felt when you were a child—such is the purpose of
taking walks.”

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