We are continually looking for something more or something better in our lives; Will we ever arrive at a state of satisfaction and present fulfilment?
Modern life is characterized by its being frenetic, in the spasmodic recourse to obtaining more. We are in a continuous race to the aspired “success” without then perhaps really knowing what it consists of.
Getting a pay raise? Get promoted? Afford a luxury car?
Those seem to be the things society wants us to pursue.
And we, as bewitched by the neighbour who already seems to enjoy them, live continuously in a loop searching for what we think can give us happiness.
Vishen Lakhiani, CEO of Mindvalley, has deeply investigated the subject in his book: The code of extraordinary minds. Inside this New York Times bestseller, he highlights 10 unconventional laws to redefine your life and reach success.
- First, we need to transcend from the cultural space. As humans, we grow up in a social and cultural environment that conditionate us; That’s why the first rule is to question the laws of the world that belongs to us.
Often we feel forced to follow an ordinary life’s path just because we think that’s how supposed to be.
I have to attend university, get a degree, find a job, get married etc…
These and other cultural biases act on our way of seeing and managing life.
We are constantly influenced by our family, friends and cultural environment in general. The world around us is forged on rules, the very first is based on language and then follow beliefs and customs. We create cultural truths about politics, religion, marriage, work etc .. but these are not absolute truths, they are relative to our surroundings. The first fundamental step is therefore to become aware of these conditions and to be able to transcend them.
- For the author, the second step in approaching extraordinary minds is to question the meaningless rules of our society and culture. We use infinite apparent truths simply to classify things, processes and people. For example, acceptance of a specific religion, shared thinking about marriage or career and professional success; Many of these stereotypes in Western culture are quite different from other cultures. So is there an absolute truth?
Furthermore, Lakhiani in this regard, explains that there are 5 ways to adopt these meaningless rules:
1-Through the indoctrination in childhood.
2- Through authority figures.
3- The need to belong.
4- For social proof.
5- For internal insecurity within ourselves.
- In the third chapter of the book, the writer suggests applying what is called “engineering of consciousness“; In fact, human beings, like a machine, can be made up of two systems: The model of reality (the hardware) that constitutes our beliefs concerning the surrounding world. And our way of living (the software) habits, activities and routines. The application of consciousness engineering lies in understanding that personal growth passes through these two systems, the model of reality and the system of life. Extraordinary minds follow and update such patterns and systems continuously to make them more powerful.
The three limitations of current systems and models:
1- They are programmed by the world in which we have grown up
2- The models of reality (good or bad) determine our way of living.
3- They suffer from a conscious practice.
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” – R. Buckminster
- The fourth point concerns the redefinition of our belief patterns. Our belief pattern is largely contained in our subconscious. We often do not become aware of our unconscious beliefs until they manifest and we recognise them; This happens in many cases with beliefs that develop as a result of experiences lived in childhood that remain latent in our subconscious. If you can recognize these disempowering patterns and replace them with empowering patterns, you will make significant progress in your life. An extraordinary mind has empowering role models for feeling good about itself and the ability to change the world in a way that supports its vision.
- Update the systems that govern your life. Improving the efficiency of our processes is crucial.
Extraordinary people use this ladder:
A- They discover new, more effective systems (for example, from books or other mentors).
B- They use an update rate. How often should do I update a system to remain effective?!
C- I measure the results.To what extent has the updated system improved me over the previous one. This ladder allows us to continually grow in our personal development while staying inspired and active.
- Reprogram your inner world. A work that Vishen defines as bending reality. On this point, many mentors suggest finding happiness in living in the present moment, but according to the author, this is only part of personal fulfilment. He teaches that to reach full happiness one must live in the moment but also set goals that give future ambitions. Set yourself big goals without tying your happiness to achieving them.
“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.” – Alan Watss
- Stage seven consists in living in what he called the Blissipline, the discipline of daily happiness. Happiness is a determining element in every action of our life. It has been proven that our mind acts as a mirror, if we emanate happiness and are in a good mood it is much more likely that others are also happy with us and consequently that positive things will happen to us. It is possible to increase one’s happiness in three steps:
- 1- Being grateful.
- 2- Forgiving.
- 3- By giving to others.
- Develop a vision for the future. Make sure your goal in life leads to long-term happiness. For this reason, focus on the final goal and not too much on the intermediate steps to reach it. Often life puts many unexpected on the road, and the achievement of a final goal does not follow the steps we had calculated.
Final goals can be defined in three macro-categories:
1- Experiences (Love, Friendships, Adventure, Social Surroundings)
2- Growth (Health, Intellectual Life, Skills, Spiritual Life)
3- Contribution (Profession, Creative Life, Family Life, Life in the community).
- With the penultimate step, you begin to convert into an extraordinary human being. Learn to remain unalterable. Stay immune from external fears and actions. Set goals that do not depend on anything or anyone, over which only you have absolute control. Realize that you are self-reliant and that it all depends on you.
“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” – Yoda, Star Wars.
- Embrace your mission. In this final step, we learn to integrate everything and live a life full of meaning. Once we have found our vocation, we put our life at its service. In this phase we feel the connection with life, we are inspired and intuitive, we advance reaching goals driven by our vision, we perceive luck on our side.
These, according to the author, are the 10 laws that encode the extraordinary minds of our age.
By putting these teachings into practice, you can achieve personal success by transforming yourself into an extraordinary person and thus learning to live your life to the full.
Sources:
–Order the book: The Code of extraordinary minds
-Signup to Mindvalley