[Good Reads]- Follow your heart

Follow your heart?
No, follow your mind. The heart would lead to irrational decisions. The mind is to be followed.

Follow your heart?
Heart says travel. Money is needed for travel. Traveling and earning?

Follow your heart?
People say follow your heart. I don’t know what it means. I only hear dhak-dhak. This was a recent meme I came across on Facebook.

Follow your heart?
The famous Steve Jobs Quote you might have come across.

If you would have ever tried exploring what actually is meant by following your heart. A google search, random quora answer would have given you the very first response mentioned. Let’s revisit Mr. Jobs famous quote …

The struggle is real in understanding, differentiating whether it’s the mind doing the talking or it’s the heart. Every other person tries advising you-you must do this, you should do this when it comes to your life choices. Amidst the noise, the strong, powerful, yet feeble voice of the heart gets over-powered. In case heard, are we courageous enough to take the leap?

Follow your heart is a short and crisp read by Andrew Matthews. Unlike any other self-help book, he puts forth everyday observations in a very thoughtful way using illustrations, short examples etc.

Here, are some of the excerpts from the book. Which is by far the best recommendation I ever received.

1. We reach points in our life when we are ready for new information. Until then, something can be staring in the face but we don’t see it.
2. The only time most of us ever learn anything is when we get hit over the back of the head! Why? Because it’s easier not to change. So, we keep doing what we are doing until we hit a brick wall. Take for example Health, Relationships, business, school …..
   We are creatures of habit. We keep doing what we are doing until we are forced to change.
3. The only way to beat fear is to face it. Because we are always attracting the learning lessons we need, we often attract the experiences that we fear.
4. We are each a cause. Our thoughts attract and create circumstances. As we change, we attract different circumstances. Until we learn a lesson about debt or work or lovers we either, a) Stay stuck on the same lesson, or keep getting the same lessons in different packages. Life goes on like this.
   When we ignore the pebbles, we get hit by a brick. Ignore the brick and we get wiped out by a boulder. We need to be honest and see the warning signs.
5. “It’s only by going down into the abyss
   that we recover treasures of life.
   Where you stumble
   There lies your treasure.
   The very cave you are afraid to enter
   turns out to be the source of what you are looking for” — Joseph Campbell
6. Life doesn’t always have to be painful — but pain is still the main reason we change. Until we are in pain, we can pretend. Our ego says: “I’m fine.” When things hurt enough, for example when we are lonely enough, or scared enough we become vulnerable. Our ego has no more answers and we open up. Pain encourages us to get serious.
7. Life is like a ladder. To move up, we have to fix the step we’re on — whether it’s work, relationships, money whatever. Once, the step is fixed we move to the next step. People handle their steps in different ways:
   “I hate this step — I want to be on a different one.” — That’s when we stay stuck. Whenever we are stuck, we might ask ourselves: “What haven’t I fixed?”
8. We never get our lives tidied into neat little boxes. People see happiness as some kind of distant mirage-like they are crawling through the desert and there is a sign ahead which says “HAPPINESS”, and they say: “If I can just make it THERE, then I’ll be happy.” They have it logically figured out: “We can’t be happy now because we’re having ____________ (try filling in your own reasons) But next month …”.
9. We live in a world where things are always changing. The seasons come and go, the tide comes in and out, inflation goes up and down, people get hired and fired … You would think we would learn that the underlying law of the universe is change! Instead, we get angry. The law is brutal — “ADAPT or DISAPPEAR”
10. We create our own glass cage, and we think it is the reality. Actually, it’s just what we believe. And how attached are people to their beliefs? Just try talking religion or politics at a dinner party! :P
11. People should _________ (do this do that. Try filling in with your list).
    This “should list” might seem a reasonable set of expectations. But, what if you didn’t hold any of these beliefs?
    “Should beliefs don’t help us because reality doesn’t understand “should”. Things are the way they are. When you criticize reality, reality wins.
12. In order to have something in your life, and keep it, you have to be comfortable with it. TO MAKE MONEY AND KEEP IT, YOU MUST BE COMFORTABLE WITH MONEY!
13. The minute you change your beliefs about the situation, your different thoughts will attract different people and new opportunities.
    Every “DISASTER” in your life is not so much a DISASTER, as a situation waiting for you to change your mind about it.
14. When you chase things, they run away. This is true for animals, lovers … even money! Desperation pulls you into a descending spiral — and the more you worry, the less people buy!
    “… There’s such a thing as trying too hard … You’ve got to sing like you don’t need the money — love like you’ll never get hurt — you’ve got to dance like nobody’s watching — It’s got to come from the heart if you want it to work.”
15. Detachment is a major reason why rich people get richer. They don’t care o much. They are not desperate. If you don’t have money, you’ve got to be relaxed enough to know you’re going to get it. When you do have it. You have to be comfortable with it to keep some of it.
16. “If you want something, give it away!” The trick to giving is to give without wanting anything back. If you expect something back, you are attached to a result — and when you are attached less happens.
17. You get motivated by doing things, not thinking about them. Action gets you excited and action reveals opportunity. Take the plunge.
18. Courage is not the absence of fear — courage is acting in spite of fear. People who do nothing with their lives are just as scared as people who take major risks. It’s just that the first group get scared over tiny things. Why not get scared over something significant?
19. There are people around who don’t mind drowning if they can drag you down too. Some people are to be avoided. Sometimes you have to stand and fight.
20. Trying new things. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you have always gotten. It is not a negative approach to ask: “What is the worst that could happen?” It is a way of measuring your commitment. Break your vague fears into specific possibilities, and risk-taking becomes more fun.

The book has way too many takeaways.

Certainly, a lot depends on our own reaction to things that happen to us. It is easier to follow the routine, let things remain the way they are. Or take an alternate route of acceptance and take one step at a time to bring the change in ourself.

In chasing the big things in life. Small, little, beautiful things are to be lived as well :)

This book is worth some space in your bookshelf :)