Subject: You're more than your mindset
This week's book: "The 5 AM Club" by Robin Sharma.
"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
Carl Jung
Almost all the current personal development noise points to one thing: your mindset. Think positive, rewire your beliefs, fix your head. Sharma says that's only a quarter of the picture.
He argues you're not running only one inner life, you're running four at once. Your mind (how you think), your heart (your emotional life), your body (your health and energy), and your spirit (your sense of meaning). Get your mind right but don't pay much attention to the other three, and the whole thing wobbles. You need a great foundation that covers all four. A great attitude on top of a worn-out body or a hollow sense of purpose doesn't hold for long. Real, lasting change addresses every aspect of your inner life.
Twice in my life I've been through this where, by the world's scoreboard, and in my own head, I was winning. I'd reached a level of success I had chased for years. But something was missing. Both times, I felt restless and oddly empty. Looking back, I'd poured everything into one corner of myself and let the rest go unattended. The part that wanted great relationships with the people I cared about. The part that needed my work to mean something. I didn't have Sharma's perspective back then, but I had enough self-awareness to admit that something about my life was off. That admission is what eventually turned me toward work that fed more than my bank account. And trust me, I wasn't making millions of dollars. If I had been, I'm not sure I would have noticed what was missing. Looking back now, I know that was a real blessing.
One thing to try today
Run a quick inventory. Of the four (mind, heart, body, spirit), which one have you let run on empty lately? Pick that one and give it five or ten honest minutes of contemplation today.
Which of the four have you been shortchanging? Hit reply and tell me.
I'll go first: mine's usually the body. I can spend a whole day feeding my head and never once get up to move. And now that I've said it (and I feel mildly embarrassed), I'm going to do something about it. Don't call me for the next 40 minutes, I'll be out on my bike!
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Talk tomorrow,
Mike
Practical wisdom for the life you're building.