My favorite book has something new to teach every time I open it
Personal Development
The Lion Trackers Guide to Life, Boyd Varty
This is now my fourth time through this book (once on audio, three times reading it). And every time I go through it, something different sticks out to me. Here are just two examples from this last time around.
Page 72: “In the moment with no social conditioning, who am I?”
This is such a profound question to ask yourself. Perhaps the single most important question anyone can ask themselves. And while the question is important, the answer is of most importance. And answering it is not easy to do. Especially when you’ve spent your life being conditioned to act a certain way or to be a certain someone. And even still, if you are able to drill down to the core of who am I, living it proved to be the most difficult. Society doesn’t make it easy to be the person you innately know you are. We are surrounded in every direction by alternative suggestions for who we should be, how we should act. And that’s really where the work comes in. In maintaining the persona of the person you innately are, while the whole world tries to convince you otherwise.
Page 82: “IF something is all you have ever known, you mistakenly believe that’s just how it is. Perhaps this is the greatest danger, that we don’t even recognize another way.”
This is what I went through. From a very young age I thought you went to college, got a job, had a family. I don’t want to say that this was drilled into me, but it was the only path I ever considered. It wasn’t until 6 or 7 years into my career that I started contemplating a different way was possible. It started becasue I began reading books about successful people and successful companies. And the more stories I read, the more I realize that these people or ideas were for the most part not extraordinary, other than in their determination to be different.
I realized that their paths were not the straight line I had always thought they were, but rather their path was a collection of peaks and valleys, lefts, and rights. But what struck me again and again was their desire to keep trying, despite setbacks, and the criticism for non-conformity. And I began to realize that the path I thought I had to go down, didn’t in fact need to be my path.
If you are looking for your path, I don’t think there is a better book out their to read. Read it. Underline. Ponder his message. This is an awesome book.
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