There are no shortcuts in life
Hello from Pokhara!
We spent five days in Kathmandu before arriving today.
No YouTube video this week, but i’m working on the next one.
I’m excited about it because it was recorded with a new camera and the quality is way better.
I’ve been recently re-learning Algebra from 0 because I was completely lost and had no foundations, and it made me realize that there aren’t any shortcuts in life.
You can go from step 1 to step 20, skipping over everything in between, but it’ll backfire.
Those steps are there for a reason. They’re where you learn, grow, and set you up for the next step.
Skip them, and you’ll end up with a weak foundation.
And that won’t help in the more advanced stages.
You’ll suffer more from taking the shortcut or the easy way.
The hard way is the real way, and it’s the only one that lasts (and worth doing).
📚 Books read + recommendation .
One of the books I read this week was Don't Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen. I read it mainly because it was short. This book has a lot of bad reviews, but I think it's not that bad. I enjoyed the message, its simplicity, and its length. People more advanced in self-help and spirituality may not like this book for the same reasons. You'd be better off reading any of Eckhart Tolle's stuff or The Untethered Soul. Don't Believe Everything You Think can be a reminder/refresher for the above books. I personally thought the book was okay. But, at times, it did feel like a combination of random quotes.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is one of those books that has always interested me for no reason. Siddhartha is an incredible book about a wealthy Indian Brahmin who leaves a life of privilege to seek spiritual fulfillment. I had no clue what the book was before reading it. When I bought it (1 year ago), I thought it was a biography of the Buddha. I had a lot of fun reading it, and the writing was great.
Educated by Tara Westover has one million 5-star reviews on Goodreads. But I thought it was okay. I was thinking of stopping it several times, but I heard it was a slow book, so I stuck with it. If I had read it on paper or Kindle, I wouldn’t have made it to the end. I thought Part 3 was better compared to the rest of the book. But apart from that, meh.
Letting Go by David R. Hawkins was excellent. I can’t believe I hadn’t read it earlier. This quote describes this book better than I can:
This motivational book provides a mechanism for letting go of blocks to happiness, love, joy, success, health, and ultimately Enlightenment. The mechanism of surrender that Dr. Hawkins describes can be done in the midst of everyday life. The book is equally useful for all dimensions of human life: physical health, creativity, financial success, emotional healing, vocational fulfillment, relationships, sexuality and spiritual growth. - SOURCE
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman was the very first book I bought on Kindle, and since then (January 1st, 2024), I've been reading one page/meditation a day. When I first started reading this book, Project Goat was just a dream. Now, I'm writing this while in a country I always dreamed of going to, Nepal. It's crazy how much life can change in one year. If you want to get into Stoicism, this book is perfect. This will be a book I constantly come back to.
If you want to keep up with what books I’m reading and listening to, follow my GoodReads!
💬 Thought-Provoking Quote
Carl Jung once said, “The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.”
🗣 Tempting Question!
Are you taking any relationships for granted? Are you neglecting any relationships?
These questions are taken from my next YouTube video! It’ll be coming out sometime next week.
🎙️Great Podcast
I don’t listen to many podcasts, but during an 8-hour-long car drive— after I had finished Educated and Letting Go—I listened to a Matthew McConaughey interview on Modern Wisdom. I haven’t finished it, but so far it’s great.
📝 Medium Article
I wrote a great article about my brother competing in a dance competition in Bhutan!
see yo next sunday?