Think Like A Monk has a wealth of information. Jay Shetty didn’t hold back as he provided all his knowledge since becoming a motivational speaker in one place, in this one book. I can say that because I’ve been following his content from the very beginning.
He addresses every important aspect of your life, from your identity, mental thoughts, purpose, and as well as your relationships. Not only does he eloquently explain each dilemma – he gives you the tools to address them and improve on them.
However, despite how highly I think of this book – I couldn’t help but rate it a 7 out of 10. Exactly because it’s a gold mine of information, it’s very difficult to take in.
Many will think the book’s not for them for this very reason. Since the book doesn’t focus on just one part of your life, like how to find your passion or how to get into meditating. It can easily be very intimidating and become a book that gathers dust on your shelf once you read it. In fact, I know such a person after recommending the book to her. As you can tell, it was quite overwhelming for her and hard for her to digest.
But if you know how to approach this book and use it – it can easily become a book that you refer to for the rest of your life.
To give more insight into the content, Jay divides the book into 3 parts. The first part is to let go, the second is grow, and the third is giving.
Part One: Let Go
Jay Shetty begins Think Like A Monk with the core of any person – their identity which often includes negativity, fear, and one’s intentions. A number of topics he mentioned in this section resonated with me. The one part that made me reassess my life was the part titled “audit your life.”
In an exercise, he asks you to list how you spend most of your time. Then he questions you to see if they are in line with your values, which you also list earlier in the exercise. As you can guess, mine we’re not. In fact, they were way off.
I can assume yours is too. For example, let’s say you value family or knowledge but barely spend time with your family or reading books. You might think, so what? You’re doing other important stuff that you like. However, our choices make us who we are. And based on our choices, it shows that perhaps we aren’t truly valuing family and knowledge despite it being a core value you seek in yourself and others.
Part Two: Grow
The second part of Think Like a Monk focuses on the importance of purpose, routine, the mind, and ego. This part of the book was mind-boggling to me. Even though this book outlined many things I was struggling with – this part honed on the bane of my existence. My lack of purpose and the struggle of having no routine. Even though I have been doing so much better after recovering from my mental health – each day still feels like focusing on staying afloat and getting to the next day. The idea of there being more, was hard for me to imagine. As a result, I didn’t have a passion to focus on, nor a routine to keep me grounded every day. But this book was almost an answer to my cry for help as I began to itch for a more meaningful life.
Part Three: Give
That last part is broken into sections discussing gratitude, relationships, and service. A perfect way to bring closure to Think Like a Monk as we go beyond ourselves. I love this one quote about relationships that spoke to me. “If you don’t know what you want, you’ll send out the wrong signals and attract the wrong people. If you aren’t self-aware, you’ll look for the wrong qualities and choose the wrong people.”
I’ve been out of the dating scene for a while now. Which often surprises many because of my age and personality. However, I never found the connection I wanted from most of the people I dated. But I also knew, it was because I didn’t know what I wanted from my dates either.
Back then, I thought it was just to have a fun time. But now, when I want something more – I realized I’m still sending out the wrong signals despite being self-aware. Perhaps as Jay mentioned, it was easy to go back to my old, die-hard habits. External influences got to me quickly as I started dating again. I thought I had to put on a certain persona when dating even though I knew that when I’m true to myself – all I wanted was something real and genuine.
Conclusion
There’s an exercise Jay gives at the end of the book that was terrifying but grounding. It’s called death meditation. The idea is to imagine you’re on your death bed, in your final moments. You have to imagine the things you would regret and what you wish you had done in your life differently as you’re dying.
The second part asks how people would remember you during your funeral if you died now versus how you would want to be remembered. I couldn’t even complete this part of the exercise.
As someone who just stays close to my inner circle and detaches from the rest of the world – I couldn’t help but get timid. To others, I come off as the next-door b**** who doesn’t want to talk to anyone because she thinks she’s better than everyone else. Even though the reality is I just have a low social battery. But they don’t know that, nor care to understand that if I tell them. At my funeral, I doubt many would come and if they did it would be under false pretenses. The question is, am I okay with that?
Thoughts
After reading Think Like a Monk, you feel overwhelmed with the realization that you have quite a bit of work to do on yourself. And it’s hard to decide, where to start.
The worst part is, I need to work on everything Jay mentioned. However, we’re all at different places in our lives when we read Think Like a Monk. And one struggle may take priority over another depending on where you are in life. In fact, there was one chapter that stood out the most for me – having a routine.
A lack of routine was impacting my life tremendously when I read this book. The idea of finding my passion or honing my relationships seemed secondary. Since I found it difficult to even wake up at a designated time or have the energy to get anything done.
Since I decided to prioritize my routine, I intentionally decided to look for a new job that was hybrid versus remote. I needed an external force to bring back a sense of stable routine in my life. The idea of waking up early, commuting to the office, and meeting new people in person was intimidating. Since I worked remotely for 3 years. But I haven’t regretted even once when I made it out of my bed and went into the office for my new job. Each time I was thankful as I made new connections, and found a reason to dress up.
I also downloaded a habit tracker app named, Habit. I use it to track things I want to create into rituals in my daily life like doing my skincare or stretching for ten minutes. It’s still a work in progress but I’ve jumped leaps and bounds from where I was before. I’ve begun to look forward to my day when I wake up now, knowing I can make it into a meaningful, productive day doing a bit of everything I love.
Even if one chapter doesn’t stand out from the others, you can even choose one goal randomly to focus on. You can give yourself a time frame to work on it, like three to six months. You can add another chapter to focus on in addition to what you’ve already implemented, as you succeed every several months.
So, is it worth reading this book? Yes. But are you also in a mental state willing to absorb a lot of information and looking for some type of change in your life? I hope so – because that will allow you to truly make this book worth it.
To buy the book, click here.
Read more on other tips and tricks I’ve used to stick to my routine.
*Not a sponsored post. This is my own opinion after buying the book.
