
Alcoholics Anonymous | Big Book 4th Edition | Book Summary
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Alcoholics Anonymous 4th Edition
Many thousands have benefited from The Big Book and its simple but profound explanation of the doctrines behind Alcoholics Anonymous, which was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith.
Preface
THIS IS the fourth edition of the book “Alcoholics Anonymous.” The first edition appeared in April 1939, and in the following sixteen years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation. The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more than 1,150,500 copies. The third edition, which came off press in 1976, achieved a circulation of approximately 19,550,000 in all formats.
We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person. And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.
Strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery.
By the end of 1939 it was estimated that 800 alcoholics were on their way to recovery.
In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited A.A. members to tell their stories. News of this got on the world wires; inquiries poured in again and many people went to the bookstores to get the book “Alcoholics Anonymous.’’ By March 1941 the membership had shot up to 2,000.
By the close of 1941, A.A. numbered 8,000 members. The mushrooming process was in full swing. A.A. had become a national institution.
Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with
- showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few A.A. meetings and at first decided they didn’t want the program. But great numbers of these—about two out of three—began to return as time passed.
Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Neither does A.A. take any particular medical point of view, though we cooperate widely with the men of medicine as well as with the men of religion.
By March 1976, when this edition went to the printer, the total worldwide membership of Alcoholics Anonymous was conservatively estimated at more than 1,000,000, with almost 28,000 groups meeting in over 90 countries.
Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope.
FOREWORD TO FOURTH EDITION
THIS fourth edition of “Alcoholics Anonymous” came off press in November 2001, at the start of a new millennium. Since the third
edition was published in 1976, worldwide membership of A.A. has just about doubled, to an estimated two million or more, with nearly 100,800 groups meeting in approximately 150 countries around the world.
Currently, “Alcoholics Anonymous” has been translated into forty-three languages.
Taking advantage of technological advances, for example, A.A. members with computers can participate in meetings online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world. In any meeting, anywhere, A.A.’s share experience, strength, and hope with each other, in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics. Modem-to-modem or face-to-face, A.A.’s speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity.
We who have suffered alcoholic torture must
believe—that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.
On the other hand—and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand—once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules.
The classification of alcoholics seems most difficult, and in much detail is outside the scope of this book. There are, of course, the psychopaths who are emotionally unstable. We are all familiar with this type. They are always “going on the wagon for keeps.’’ They are over-remorseful and make many resolutions, but never a decision.
There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot take a drink. He plans various ways of drinking. He changes his brand or his environment. There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger. There is the manic-depressive type, who is, perhaps, the least understood by his friends, and about whom a whole chapter could be written.
Then there are types entirely normal in every respect except in the effect alcohol has upon them. They are often able, intelligent, friendly people.
All these, and many others, have one symptom in common:
they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity. It has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.
Chapter 1: BILL’S STORY
Liquor ceased to be a luxury; it became a necessity.
The remorse, horror and hopelessness of the next morning are unforgettable. The courage to do battle was not there.
In alcoholics the will is amazingly weakened when it comes to combating liquor, though it often remains strong in other respects.
God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat. Then he had, in effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a level of life better than the best he had ever known!
It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build.
Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.
There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as He would. I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my newfound Friend take them away, root and branch. I have not had a drink since.
I was to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within. Common sense would thus become uncommon sense. I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me. Never was I to pray for myself, except as my requests bore on my usefulness to others. Then only might I expect to receive. But that would be in great measure.
Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all.
These were revolutionary and drastic proposals, but the moment I fully accepted them, the effect was electric. There was a sense of victory, followed by such a peace and serenity as I had never
known. There was utter confidence. I felt lifted up, as though the great clean wind of a mountain top blew through and through. God comes to most men gradually, but His impact on me was sudden and profound.
Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.
Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish.
Bill W., co-founder of A.A., died January 24, 1971.
Chapter 2: THERE IS A SOLUTION
We of alcoholics anonymous know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem.
We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.
The main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.
At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected.
The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our socalled will power becomes practically non-existent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the
suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.
Chapter 3: MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows.
Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals usually brief—were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.
Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!
Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums—we could increase the list ad infinitum.
Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking. But the difficulty is that few alcoholics have enough desire to stop while there is yet time. We have heard of a few instances where people, who showed definite signs of alcoholism, were able to stop for a long period because of an overpowering desire to do so. Here is one.
A man of thirty was doing a great deal of spree drinking. He was very nervous in the morning after these bouts and quieted himself with more liquor. He was ambitious to succeed in business, but saw that he would get nowhere if he drank at all. Once he started, he had no control whatever. He made up his mind that until he had been successful in business and had retired, he would not touch another drop. An exceptional man, he remained bone dry for twenty-five years and retired at the age of fifty-five, after a successful and happy business career. Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has —that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men. Out came his carpet slippers and a bottle. In two months he was in a hospital, puzzled and humiliated. He tried to regulate his drinking for a while, making several trips to the hospital meantime. Then, gathering all his forces, he attempted to stop altogether and found he could not. Every means of solving his problem which money could buy was at his disposal. Every attempt failed. Though a robust man at retirement, he went to pieces quickly and was dead within four years.
“Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.’’ Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of
any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol.
For those who are unable to drink moderately the question is how to stop altogether. We are assuming, of course, that the reader desires to stop. Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not. Many of us felt that we had plenty of character. There was a tremendous urge to cease forever. Yet we found it impossible. This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it—this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.
What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink?
In some circumstances we have gone out deliberately to get drunk, feeling ourselves justified by nervousness, anger, worry, depression, jealousy or the like. But even in this type of beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened. We now see that when we began to drink deliberately, instead of casually, there was little serious or effective thought during the period of premeditation of what the terrific consequences might be.
The actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.
He was positive that this humiliating experience, plus the knowledge he had acquired, would keep him sober the rest of his life. Self-knowledge would fix it.
Not only had I been off guard, I had made no fight whatever against the first drink. This time I had not thought of the consequences at all
If I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come—I would drink again. They had said that though I did raise a
defense, it would one day give way before some trivial reason for having a drink.
I knew from that moment that I had an alcoholic mind. I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots.
An alcoholic mentality was a hopeless condition. They cited cases out of their own experience by the dozen. This process snuffed out the last flicker of conviction that I could do the job myself.
The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.
Chapter 4: WE AGNOSTICS
In the preceding chapters you have learned something of alcoholism. We hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic. If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.
To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
Find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.
As soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God.
Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another’s conception of God. Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach and to effect a contact with Him. As soon as we admitted the possible existence
of a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps. We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men.
Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material?
When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did.
The Wright brothers’ almost childish faith that they could build a machine which would fly was the mainspring of their accomplishment. Without that, nothing could have happened. We agnostics and atheists were sticking to the idea that self-sufficiency would solve our problems. When others showed us that “God-sufficiency’’ worked with them, we began to feel like those who had insisted the Wrights would never fly.
When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?
For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.
Chapter 5: HOW IT WORKS
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely
give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way.
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol— that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to
maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
That God could and would if He were sought.
Being convinced, we were at Step Three, which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood Him. Just what do we mean by that, and just what do we do?
The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good. Most people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way.
We alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible.
This is the how and why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn’t work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.
When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and
more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life.
We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: “God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!’’ We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.
Our liquor was but a symptom. So we had to get down to causes and conditions.
Therefore, we started upon a personal inventory. This was Step Four. A business which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke. Taking a commercial inventory is a fact-finding and a fact-facing process. It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade. One object is to disclose damaged or unsalable goods, to get rid of them promptly and without regret. If the owner of the business is to be successful, he cannot fool himself about values.
But the more we fought and tried to have our own way, the worse matters got. As in war, the victor only seemed to win. Our moments of triumph were short lived.
It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worthwhile. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.
If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.
The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear.
Chapter 6: INTO ACTION
This is perhaps difficult—especially discussing our defects with another person. We think we have done well enough in admitting these things to ourselves. There is doubt about that. In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. Many of us thought it necessary to go much further.
If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. Time after time newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives. Trying to avoid this humbling experience, they have turned to easier methods.
More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation but knows in his heart he doesn’t deserve it.
The inconsistency is made worse by the things he does on his sprees. Coming to his senses, he is revolted at certain episodes he vaguely remembers. These memories are a nightmare. He trembles to think someone might have observed him. As fast as he can, he pushes these memories far inside himself. He hopes they will never see the light of day. He is under constant fear and tension—that makes for more drinking.
The rule is we must be hard on ourselves, but always considerate of others.
When ready, we say something like this: “My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.’’ We have then completed Step Seven.
Now we need more action, without which we find that “Faith without works is dead.’’ Let’s look at Steps Eight and Nine. We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We made it when we took inventory. We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal. Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past. We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves. If we haven’t the will to do this, we ask until it comes. Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.
Simply we tell him that we will never get over drinking until we have done our utmost to straighten out the past. We are there to sweep off our side of the street, realizing that nothing worth while can be accomplished until we do so, never trying to tell him what he should do. His faults are not discussed. We stick to our own. If our manner is calm, frank, and open, we will be gratified with the result.
In nine cases out of ten the unexpected happens. Sometimes the man we are calling upon admits his own fault, so feuds of years’ standing melt away in an hour. Rarely do we fail to make satisfactory progress. Our former enemies sometimes praise what we are doing and wish us well. Occasionally, they will offer assistance. It should not matter, however, if someone does throw us out of his office. We have made our demonstration, done our part. It’s water over the dam.
So, we clean house with the family, asking each morning in meditation that our Creator show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.
The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole
attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along.
That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality—safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. “How can I best serve Thee— Thy will (not mine) be done.’’ These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.
Step Eleven suggests prayer and meditation. We shouldn’t be shy on this matter of prayer.
We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined.
But this is not all. There is action and more action. “Faith without works is dead.’’ The next chapter is entirely devoted to Step Twelve.
Chapter 7: WORKING WITH OTHERS
Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one
else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail.
Remember they are very ill.
Life will take on new meaning. To watch people
recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends— this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.
We have no monopoly on God;
Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn’t enough. You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be.
This truth: Job or no job—wife or no wife—we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.
Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house.
Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn’t think or be reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so.
We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be someplace like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything!
In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever. We have tried
these methods. These attempts to do the impossible have always failed.
After all, our problems were of our own making. Bottles were only a symbol. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We have to!
“He wants to want to stop.”
Chapter 9: THE FAMILY AFTERWARD
All members of the family should meet upon the common ground of tolerance, understanding and love. This involves a process of deflation. The alcoholic, his wife, his children, his “in-laws,” each one is likely to have fixed ideas about the family’s attitude towards himself or herself. Each is interested in having his or her wishes respected. We find the more one member of the family demands that the others concede to him, the more resentful they become. This makes for discord and unhappiness.
Henry Ford once made a wise remark to the effect that experience is the thing of supreme value in life. That is true only if one is willing to turn the past to good account. We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets. The alcoholic’s past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one!
Cling to the thought that, in God’s hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have—the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them.
First Things First, Live and Let Live, Easy Does It.
Chapter 10: TO EMPLOYERS
Understand that he must undergo a change of heart. To get over drinking will require a transformation of thought and attitude. We all had to place recovery above everything,
The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear. Wherever men are gathered together in business there will be rivalries and, arising out of these, a
certain amount of office politics. Sometimes we alcoholics have an idea that people are trying to pull us down. Often this is not so at all. But sometimes our drinking will be used politically.
Chapter 11: A VISION FOR YOU
The familiar alcoholic obsession that few knew of his drinking.
They must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary. It was transcended by the happiness they found in giving themselves for others. They shared their homes, their slender resources, and gladly devoted their spare hours to fellow-sufferers. They were willing, by day or night, to place a new man in the hospital and visit him afterward. They grew in numbers. They experienced a few distressing failures, but in those cases they made an effort to bring the man’s family into a spiritual way of living, thus relieving much worry and suffering.
Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
May God bless you and keep you—until then.
DOCTOR BOB’S NIGHTMARE
A co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The birth of our Society dates from his first day of permanent sobriety, June 10, 1935.
To 1950, the year of his death, he carried the A.A. message to more than 5,000 alcoholic men and women, and to all these he gave his medical services without thought of charge.
June 10, 1935, and that was my last drink.
As I write, nearly four years have passed.
The question which might naturally come into your mind would be: “What did the man do or say that was different from what others had done or said?” It must be remembered that I had read a great deal and talked to everyone who knew, or thought they knew anything about the subject of alcoholism. But this was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkard’s experiences known to man, but who had been cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach. He gave me information about the subject of alcoholism which was undoubtedly helpful. Of far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language. He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them up in his reading.
I spend a great deal of time passing on what I learned to others who want and need it badly. I do it for four reasons:
- Sense of duty.
- It is a pleasure.
- Because in so doing I am paying my debt to the man who took time to pass it on to me.
- Because every time I do it I take out a little more insurance for myself against a possible slip.
Unlike most of our crowd, I did not get over my craving for liquor much during the first two and one-half years of abstinence. It was almost always with me. But at no time have I been anywhere near yielding. I used to get terribly upset when I saw my friends drink and knew I could not, but I schooled myself to believe that though I once had the same privilege, I had abused it so frightfully that it was withdrawn. So it doesn’t behoove me to squawk about it for, after all, nobody ever had to throw me down and pour liquor down my throat.
If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. If you still think you are strong enough to beat the game alone, that is your affair. But if you really and truly want to quit drinking liquor for good and all, and sincerely feel that you must have some help, we know that we have an answer for you. It never fails, if you go about it with one half the zeal you have been in the habit of showing when you were getting another drink.
After reviewing these things and realizing what liquor had cost me, I went to this Higher Power that, to me, was God, without any reservation, and admitted that I was completely powerless over alcohol and that I was willing to do anything in the world to get rid of the problem. In fact, I admitted that from then on I was willing to let God take over instead of me. Each day I would try to find out what His will was and try to follow that, rather than trying to get Him to always agree that the things I thought up for myself were the things best for me. So, when they came back, I told them.
Whether you quit six days, months, or years, if you go out and take a drink or two, you’ll end up in this hospital tied down, just like you have been in these past six months. You are an alcoholic.” As far as I know that was the first time I had ever paid any attention to that word. I figured I was just a drunk. And they said, “No, you have a disease, and it doesn’t make any difference how long you do without it, after a drink or two you’ll end up just like you are now.” That certainly was real disheartening news, at the time.
The next question they asked was, “You can quit twenty-four hours, can’t you?” I said, “Sure, yes, anybody can do that, for twenty-four hours.” They said, “That’s what we’re talking about. Just twenty-four hours at a time.” That sure did take a load off of my mind. Every time I’d start thinking about drinking, I would think of the long, dry years ahead without having a drink; but this idea of twenty-four hours, that it was up to me from then on, was a lot of help.
“If they can do it, I can do it!” Over and over he said this to himself. Finally, out of his hope, there burst conviction. Now he
was sure. Then came a great joy. At length, peace stole over him and he slept.
It was in the next two or three days after I had first met Doc and Bill that I finally came to a decision to turn my will over to God and to go along with this program the best that I could. Their talk and action had instilled in me a certain amount of confidence, although I was not too absolutely certain. I wasn’t afraid that the program wouldn’t work, but I still was doubtful whether I would be able to hang on to the program, but I did come to the conclusion that I was willing to put everything I had into it, with God’s power, and that I wanted to do just that.
I remember telling them too that it was going to be awfully tough, because I did some other things, smoked cigarettes and played penny ante poker and sometimes bet on the horse races, and they said, “Don’t you think you’re having more trouble with this drinking than with anything else at the present time? Don’t you believe you are going to have all you can do to get rid of that?” “Yes,” I said, reluctantly, “I probably will.” They said, “Let’s forget about those other things, that is, trying to eliminate them all at once, and concentrate on the drink.”
I’ve heard people get up in meetings and say it—is this statement: “I came into A.A. solely for the purpose of sobriety, but it has been through A.A. that I have found God.”
I became an active alcoholic from that first day, when alcohol produced a very special effect in me. I was transformed. Alcohol suddenly made me into what I had always wanted to be.
Alcohol became my everyday companion. At first, I considered it a friend; later, it became a heavy load I couldn’t get rid of. It turned out to be much more powerful than I was, even if, for many years, I could stay sober for short periods. I kept telling myself that one way or another I would get rid of alcohol. I was convinced I would find a way to stop drinking. I didn’t want to acknowledge that alcohol had become so important in my life. Indeed, alcohol was giving me something I didn’t want to lose.
I will keep my job for a year while you go save the drunks.” That is exactly what I set out to do.
As I look back on it now, I did everything wrong, but at least I was thinking of somebody else instead of myself. I had begun to get a little bit of something I am very full of now, and that is gratitude.
“Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us.” It is very simple—though not always easy. But it can be done.
I know the Fellowship of A.A. doesn’t offer any guarantees, but I also know that in the future I do not have to drink. I want to keep this life of peace, serenity, and tranquility that I have found.
When I entered a sanitarium for prolonged and intensive psychiatric treatment, I was convinced that I was having a serious mental breakdown. I wanted help, and I tried to cooperate. As the treatment progressed, I began to get a picture of myself, of the temperament that had caused me so much trouble. I had been hypersensitive, shy, idealistic. My inability to accept the harsh realities of life had resulted in a disillusioned cynic, clothed in a protective armor against the world’s misunderstanding. That armor had turned into prison walls, locking me in loneliness—and fear. All I had left was an iron determination to live my own life in spite of the alien world—and here I was, an inwardly frightened, outwardly defiant woman, who desperately needed a prop to keep going.
Alcohol was that prop, and I didn’t see how I could live without it.
I wasn’t mad or vicious—I was a sick person. I was suffering from an actual disease that had a name and symptoms like diabetes or cancer or TB—and a disease was respectable, not a moral stigma!
“We cannot live with anger.” The walls crumpled—and the light streamed in. I wasn’t trapped. I wasn’t helpless. I was free, and I didn’t have to drink to “show them.” This wasn’t “religion”—this was freedom! Freedom from anger and fear, freedom to know happiness, and freedom to know love.
“The thing I do is to say ‘God, here I am and here are all my troubles. I’ve made a mess of things and can’t do anything about it. You take me, and all my troubles, and do anything you want with me.’ Does that answer your question?”
I am learning that I cannot have my own way as I used to. I blame my wife and children. Anger possesses me, anger such as I have never felt before.
Strength has come from weakness.
I learn that honesty is truth and that truth shall make us free!
Invariably reward myself for my efforts with that “first” drink.
Every time I blacked out, and that was every time I drank, there was always that gnawing fear, “What did I do this time?”
The mental state of the sick alcoholic is beyond description.
But we were staying sober as long as we kept and talked together. There was one meeting a week at Bill’s home in Brooklyn, and we all took turns there spouting off about how we had changed our lives overnight, how many drunks we had saved and straightened out, and last but not least, how God had touched each of us personally on the shoulder. Boy, what a circle of confused idealists! Yet we all had one really sincere purpose in our hearts, and that was not to drink.
Our one desire is to stay in A.A. and not on it. Our pet slogan is “Easy Does It.”
I got to the place where I’d look forward to the weekend’s drinking and pacify myself by saying that the weekends were mine, that it didn’t interfere with my family or with my business if I drank on the week- ends. But the weekends stretched on into Mondays, and the time soon came when I drank every day.
One clear thought came to me: Try prayer. You can’t lose, and maybe God will help you —just maybe, mind you. Having no one else to turn to, I was willing to give Him a chance, although with considerable doubt. I got down on my knees for the first time in thirty years. The prayer I said was simple. It went something like this: “God, for eighteen years I have been unable to handle this problem. Please let me turn it over to you.”
Nothing had changed and yet everything had changed. The scales had dropped from my eyes, and I could see life in its proper
perspective. I had tried to be the center of my own little world, whereas God was the center of a vast universe of which I was perhaps an essential, but a very tiny, part.
There have also been numerous times when I have thought about taking a drink. Such thinking usually began with thoughts of the pleasant drinking of my youth. I learned early in my A.A. life that I could not afford to fondle such thoughts, as you might fondle a pet, because this particular pet could grow into a monster. Instead, I quickly substitute one or another vivid scene from the nightmare of my later drinking.
The Six-Step program as it was at that time. The six steps were:
- Complete deflation.
- Dependence and guidance from a Higher Power.
- Moral inventory.
- Continued work with other alcoholics.
When you are right and the time is right, Providence will provide.
One could not take the moral inventory and then file it away; that the alcoholic has to continue to take inventory every day if he expects to get well and stay well.
I was thirty-three years old and my life was spent. I was caught in a cycle of alcohol and sedation that was proving inescapable, and consciousness had become intolerable.
Every doctor gets his quota of alcoholic patients. Some of us struggle with these people because we know that they are really very sick, but we also know that, short of some miracle, we are not going to help them except temporarily and that they will inevitably get worse and worse until one of two things happens. Either they die of acute alcoholism or they develop wet brains and have to be put away permanently.”
He further explained that alcohol was no respecter of sex or background but that most of the alcoholics he had encountered had better-than-average minds and abilities. He said the alcoholics seemed to possess a native acuteness and usually excelled in their fields, regardless of environmental or educational advantages.
“We watch the alcoholic performing in a position of responsibility, and we know that because he is drinking heavily and daily, he has cut his capacities by 50 percent, and still he seems able to do a satisfactory job. And we wonder how much further this man could go if his alcoholic problem could be removed and he could throw 100 percent of his abilities into action.
“But, of course,” he continued, “eventually the alcoholic loses all of his capacities as his disease gets progressively worse, and this is a tragedy that is painful to watch: the disintegration of a sound mind and body.”
More often, I was having these little moments of clarity, times I knew for sure that I was an alcoholic. Times when I was looking at the bottom of my glass asking myself, Why am I doing this? Something had to give, something had to change. I was suicidal, evaluating every part of my life for what could be wrong. It culminated in one last night of drinking and staring at the problem. It made me sick to think about it, and even sicker to continue drinking it away. I was forced to look at my drinking as the chief suspect.
The idea that religion and spirituality were not one and the same was a new notion. My sponsor asked that I merely remain open-minded to the possibility that there was a Power greater than myself, one of my own understanding. He assured me that no person was going to impose a belief system on me, that it was a personal matter. Reluctantly, I opened my mind to the fact that maybe, just maybe, there was something to this spiritual lifestyle. Slowly but surely, I realized there was indeed a Power greater than myself, and I soon found myself with a full-time God in my life and following a spiritual path that didn’t conflict with my personal religious convictions.
I started drinking nearly thirty years ago—right after I was married. My first drinking spree was on corn liquor, and I was
allergic to it, believe me. I was deathly sick every time I took a drink. But we had to do a lot of entertaining. My husband liked to have a good time; I was very young, and I wanted to have a good time too. The only way I knew to do it was to drink right along with him.
I am trying now, each day, to make up for all those selfish, thoughtless, foolish things I did in my drinking days. I hope that I never forget to be grateful.
I should have realized that alcohol was getting hold of me when I started to become secretive in my drinking.
I never knew which came first, the thinking or the drinking. If I could only stop thinking, I wouldn’t drink. If I could only stop drinking, maybe I wouldn’t think. But they were all mixed up together, and I was all mixed up inside. And yet I had to have that drink.
After that I sat for a week, a body in a chair, a mind off in space. I thought the two would never get together. I knew that alcohol and I had to part. I couldn’t live with it anymore. And yet, how was I going to live without it? I didn’t know. I was bitter, living in hate. The very person who stood with me through it all and has been my greatest help was the person that I turned against, my husband. I also turned against my family, my mother. The people who would have come to help me were just the people I would have nothing to do with.
Nevertheless, I began to try to live without alcohol. But I only succeeded in fighting it. And believe me, an alcoholic cannot fight alcohol. I said to my husband, “I’m going to try to get interested in something outside, get myself out of this rut I’m in.”
Mere cessation from drinking is not enough for an alcoholic while the need for that drink goes on.
“Half measures availed us nothing”; No one made me drink, and no one was going to make me stay sober. This program is for people who want it, not people who need it.
If everyone who needed A.A. showed up, we would be bursting at the seams. Unfortunately, most never make it to the door.
Following the principles laid out in the Big Book has not always been comfortable, nor will I claim perfection. I have yet to find a place in the Big Book that says, “Now you have completed the Steps; have a nice life.” The program is a plan for a lifetime of daily living. There have been occasions when the temptation to slack off has won. I view each of these as learning opportunities.
“You hit bottom when you stop digging.” DENIAL IS THE MOST cunning, baffling, and powerful part of my disease, the disease of alcoholism.
I found everything I had ever looked for in Alcoholics Anonymous.
I used to thank God for putting A.A. in my life; now I thank A.A.
for putting God in my life.
As long as I put A.A. first in my life, everything that I put second would be first class.
I asked the therapist I was seeing, sometimes with beer in hand, would I have to stop? His answer was that we had to find out why I drank. I’d already tried but was never able to find out why until I learned the answer in A.A.—because I’m an alcoholic.
I learned that alcoholism isn’t a sin, it’s a disease.
The slogans on the walls, which at first made me shudder, began to impress me as truths I could live by: “One Day at a Time.” “Easy Does It.” “Keep It Simple.” “Live and Let Live.” “Let Go and Let God.” “The Serenity Prayer.”
Commitment and service were part of recovery. I was told that to keep it we have to give it away.
HOW CAN a person with a fine family, an attractive home, an excellent position, and high standing in an important city become an alcoholic? As I later found out through Alcoholics Anonymous, alcohol is no respecter of economic status, social and business standing, or intelligence.
In the first step of the Twelve Steps of A.A. “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become un-manageable.”
The explanation that alcoholism was a disease of a two-fold nature, an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind,
The obsession of the mind was a little harder to understand, and yet everyone has obsessions of various kinds. The alcoholic has them to an exaggerated degree. Over a period of time he has built up self-pity and resentments toward anyone or anything that interferes with his drinking.
He suggested that for me a good starting point would simply be recognition of the fact that I had failed in running the world—in short, acceptance of the fact that I was not God. He also suggested that I might try occasionally to act as if I believed. Somewhere I had heard that it is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting, and this made sense in the context of “acting as if.”
I remember telling a friend years ago that I didn’t have a drinking problem, I had a stopping problem. We laughed. It was true, but there was something else going on, something that never occurred to me until I came to A.A. I didn’t just have a stopping problem. I had a starting problem too.
In working the steps, my life changed. I think differently today; I feel different today. I am new. We have a sign at the A.A. meetings I go to that says, “Expect a Miracle.” My sobriety is full of miracles.
“Don’t drink! Don’t think! Go to meetings!”
Many years later, although alcohol is not part of my life and I no longer have the compulsion to drink, it can still occur to me what a good drink tastes like and what it can do for me, from my stand-at-attention alcoholic taste buds right down to my stretched out tingling toes. As my sponsor used to point out, such thoughts are like red flags, telling me that something is not right, that I am stretched beyond my sober limit. It’s time to get back to basic A.A. and see what needs changing. That special relationship with
alcohol will always be there, waiting to seduce me again. I can stay protected by continuing to be an active member of A.A.
Later I learned the definition of a social drinker: some-one who could take it or leave it.
They said I only had to go to meetings on days I would have had a drink. They said I needed to identify, not compare. I didn’t know what they meant. What was the difference? Identifying, they said, was trying to see how I was like the people I was with. Comparing, they told me, was looking for differences, usually seeing how I was better than others.
By taking care of the internal environment via the Twelve Steps, and letting the external environment take care of itself.)
“I’m a success today if I don’t drink today,”
(Today there is absolutely nothing in the world more important to me than my keeping this alcoholic sober; not taking a drink is by far the most important thing I do each day.)
It helped me a great deal to become convinced that alcoholism was a disease, not a moral issue; that I had been drinking as a result of a compulsion, even though I had not been aware of the compulsion at the time; and that sobriety was not a matter of willpower.
At last, acceptance proved to be the key to my drinking problem.
When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away.
And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.
- and acceptance have taught me that there is a bit of good in the worst of us and a bit of bad in the best of us; that we are all children of God and we each have a right to be here. When I
complain about me or about you, I am complaining about God’s handiwork. I am saying that I know better than God.
Before A.A. I judged myself by my intentions, while the world was judging me by my actions.
One of the primary differences between alcoholics and non-alcoholics is that non-alcoholic change their behavior to meet their goals and alcoholics change their goals to meet their behavior.
“You don’t have to drink over it.”
“It’s not how much you drink, it’s what drinking does to you.”
The tides of life flow endlessly for better or worse, both good and bad, and I cannot allow my sobriety to become dependent on these ups and downs of living. Sobriety must live a life of its own.
There is a saying that alcoholics either get sobered up, locked up, or covered up.
From experience, I’ve realized that I cannot go back and make a brand-new start. But through A.A., I can start from now and make a brand-new end.
I went to meetings every day and started taking the steps. The First Step showed me that I was powerless over alcohol and anything else that threatened my sobriety or muddled my thinking. Alcohol was only a symptom of much deeper problems of dishonesty and denial.
What I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter what hardships and losses I’ve endured in sobriety, I have not had to go back to drinking. As long as I work the program, keep being of service, go to meetings, and keep my spiritual life together, I can live a decent life.
As my faith grows, my fears lessen.
True happiness is found in the journey, not the destination.
Humility is the key.
Some people get sober because they’re afraid to die. I knew I would live, and that was far more terrifying. I had surrendered.
For each step, I still had to go through the process of recognizing that I had no control over my drinking. I had to understand that the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous had helped others and could help me. I had to realize that if I did want sobriety, I had better do the steps whether I liked them or not. Every time I ran into trouble, I ultimately found that I was resisting change.
My mentor had to remind me that A.A. is not just a project. A.A. offers me an opportunity to improve the quality of my life. I came to recognize that there is always a deeper and wider experience awaiting me.
All my sobriety and growth, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, are dependent upon my willingness to listen, understand, and change.
“There is just one good drunk in every alcoholic’s life, and that’s the one that brings us into A.A.,”
The A.A. members who sponsored me told me in the beginning that I would not only find a way to live without having a drink, but that I would find a way to live without wanting to drink, if I would do these simple things. They said if you want to know how this program works, take the first word of your question— the “H” is for honesty, the “O” is for open-mindedness,
and the “W” is for willingness
“If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don’t really want it for them and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks, and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate understanding and love.”
“The only real freedom a human being can ever know is doing what you ought to do because you want to do it.”
“A.A. does not teach us how to handle our drinking,” he said. “It teaches us how to handle sobriety.”
It’s no great trick to stop drinking; the trick is to stay stopped.
I have come to realize that the name of the game is not so much to stop drinking as to stay sober. Alcoholics can stop drinking in many places and many ways—but Alcoholics Anonymous offers us a way to stay sober.
God willing, we members of A.A. may never again
have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day.
THE A.A. TRADITION
The Twelve Traditions
One—Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
Two—For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority— a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
Three—The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
Four—Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
Five—Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Six—An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Seven—Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Eight—Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Nine—A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Ten—Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Eleven—Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
Twelve—Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
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Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin | Book Summary
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Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich by Duane Elgin
First published in 1981, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY was quickly recognized as a powerful and visionary work in the emerging dialogue over sustainable living. Now-more than 44 years later and with many of the planet′s environmental stresses more urgent than ever-Duane Elgin has once again revised and updated his revolutionary book.
VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY is not a book about living in poverty; it is a book about living with balance. Elgin illuminates the changes that an increasing number of Americans are making in their everyday lives-adjustments in day-to-day living that are an active, positive response to the complex dilemmas of our time. By embracing the tenets of voluntary simplicity-frugal consumption, ecological awareness, and personal growth-people can change their lives and, in the process, save our planet.
What is Voluntary Simplicity?
It turns out voluntary simplicity has a lot of synonyms that Elgin uses throughout the book including:
Green lifeways, Earth-friendly living, soulful living, simple living, sustainable lifestyles, living lightly, compassionate lifeways, conscious simplicity, Earth-conscious living, simple prosperity
What does “voluntarily” mean?
“To live more voluntarily is to live more consciously. To live more consciously is to live in a life-sensing manner. It is to taste our experience of life directly as we move through the world.”
“To live more voluntarily is to live more deliberately, intentionally, and purposefully—in short, it is to live more consciously…To act in a voluntary manner is to be aware of ourselves as we move through life. This requires that we pay attention not only to the actions we take in the outer world, but to ourselves acting—our inner world.”
What does “simply” mean?
“To live more simply is to live in harmony with the vast ecology of all life. It is to live with balance—taking no more than we require and, at the same time, giving fully of ourselves.”
“To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction…To live more simply is to unburden ourselves—to live more lightly, cleanly, aerodynamically. It is to establish a more direct, unpretentious, and unencumbered relationship with all aspects of our lives: the things that we consume, the work that we do, our relationships with others, our connections with nature and the cosmos, and more. Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face. It means confronting life clearly, without unnecessary distractions. It means being direct and honest in relationships of all kinds. It means taking life as it is—straight and unadulterated.”
And, when you put it all together into “voluntary simplicity”:
“When we combine these two concepts for integrating the inner and outer aspects of our lives, we can then say: Voluntary simplicity is a way of living that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich. It is a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living.”
What are the Goals of Voluntary Simplicity?
Simplicity can be applied to every aspect of your life. Elgin acknowledges that those who adopt life changes of simplicity often do so after “deep soul-searching.”
He sums up the objective as:
The objective of the simple life is not to dogmatically live with less but to live with balance in order to realize a life of greater purpose, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
First, we must wake up:
We can awaken ourselves from the dream of limitless material growth and actively invent new ways to live within the material limits of Earth.
With conscious simplicity, we can seek lives that are rich with experiences, satisfaction, and learning rather than packed with things.
You can change your life and change the world:
By embracing a lifeway of voluntary simplicity — characterized by ecological awareness, frugal consumption, and personal growth — people can change their lives. And in the process, they have the power to change the world.
And, connect directly with the world:
Simplicity fosters a more conscious and direct encounter with the world.
In living more simply we encounter life more directly—in a firsthand and immediate manner. We need little when we are directly in touch with life.
How You Can get Started with Voluntary Simplicity and Live Simply:
The simplicity movement is a global “leaderless revolution.” But, there are many ways you can get involved if you choose to do so (and I hope you do!):
“When people ask me, ‘What can I do?’ I often reply that one of the most powerful things we can do is to start talking with other people about our personal hopes and fears for the future.”
“As individuals we are not powerless. Opportunities for meaningful and important action are everywhere: in the food we eat, the work we do, the transportation we use, the manner in which we relate to others, the clothing we wear, the learning we acquire, the compassionate causes we support, the level of attention we invest in our moment-to-moment passage through life, and so on. The list is endless, since the stuff of social transformation is identical with the stuff from which our daily lives are constructed.”
“The character of a society is the cumulative result of the countless small actions taken day in and day out, by millions of persons.”
“Traditional political and economic perspectives fail to recognize the most radical change of all in a free-market economy and democratic society: the empowerment of individuals to consciously take charge of their own lives and to begin changing their manner of work, patterns of consumption, forms of governance, modes of communication, and much more.”
“Simplicity is simultaneously a personal choice, a community choice, a national choice, and a species choice.”
“The outcome of this time of planetary transition will depend on the choices that we make as individuals. Nothing is lacking. Nothing more is needed than what we already have. We require no remarkable, undiscovered technologies.”
“Our choice is ruin or responsibility.”
“As we become empowered to take charge of our lives, we feel that no one is to blame other than ourselves if our experience of life is not satisfying.”
“To live sustainably, it is vital that we each decide how much is ‘enough.’”
“Conscious simplicity is not an alternative way of life for a marginal few; it is a creative choice for the mainstream majority, particularly in developed nations.”
The History of Simplicity:
Simplicity has been a theme in all the world’s wisdom traditions: Christian, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Puritan, Quaker, Transcendentalist, you name it. The Greeks have the “golden mean” and the Buddhists have the “middle way.”
“Living more consciously seems to be at the core of a path of simplicity and, in turn, makes it clear why this way of life is compatible with Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism, Zen, and many more traditions.
“An old Eastern saying states, ‘Simplicity reveals the master.’ As we gradually master the art of living, a consciously chosen simplicity emerges as the expression of that mastery. Simplicity allows the true character of our lives to show through.”
“Historian of the simple life David Shi describes the common denominator among the various approaches to simpler living as the understanding that the making of money and the accumulation of things should not smother the purity of the soul, the life of the mind, the cohesion of the family, or the good of the society.”
Elgin spends some time highlighting the work of Richard Gregg, who coined the term “voluntary simplicity” in the 1930s:
“(Richard Gregg) said that the purpose of life was to create a life of purpose.”
“Gregg saw a life of conscious simplicity and balance as vital in realizing our life purpose because it enables us to avoid needless distractions and busyness.”
“Simplicity is a relative matter depending on climate, customs, culture, and the character of the individual.” — Richard Gregg
“Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means singleness of purpose and sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate organization of life for a purpose. Of course, as different people have different purposes in life, what is relevant to the purpose of one person might not be relevant to the purpose of another…The degree of simplification is a matter for each individual to settle for himself.” — Richard Gregg
Simple Living Myths & Misconceptions:
Elgin says, “Contrary to media myths, consumerism offers lives of sacrifice while simplicity offers lives of opportunity.” In the media, simplicity is often presented as: 1) Crude or Regressive Simplicity (anti-technology, anti-innovation, back-to-nature movement), 2) Cosmetic or Superficial Simplicity (shallow simplicity, green lipstick on our unsustainable lives), or 3) Deep or Conscious Simplicity.
Myth #1: Simplicity means poverty
“It makes an enormous difference whether greater simplicity is voluntarily chosen or involuntarily imposed.
“Simplicity is not about a life of poverty, but a life of purpose.”
“Voluntary simplicity is not about living in poverty; it is about living with balance.”
“Poverty is involuntary and debilitating, whereas simplicity is voluntary and enabling. Poverty is mean and degrading to the human spirit, whereas a life of conscious simplicity can have both a beauty and a functional integrity that elevates the human spirit. Involuntary poverty generates a sense of helplessness, passivity, and despair, whereas purposeful simplicity fosters a sense of personal empowerment, creative engagement, and opportunity.”
“A conscious simplicity, then, is not self-denying but life-affirming. Voluntary simplicity is not an ‘ascetic simplicity’ (of strict austerity); rather, it is an ‘aesthetic simplicity’ where each person considers how his or her level and pattern of consumption can fit with grace and integrity into the practical art of daily living on this planet.”
Myth #2: Simplicity means rural living
“Instead of a ‘back to the land’ movement, it is much more accurate to describe this as a ‘make the most of wherever you are’ movement.”
Myth #3: Simplicity means ugly living
Myth #4: Simplicity means economic stagnation
“Although the consumer and material goods sectors would contract, the service and public sectors (education, health care, urban renewal) would expand dramatically. When we look around at the condition of the world, we see a huge number of unmet needs: caring for the elderly, restoring the environment, educating illiterate and unskilled youth, repairing decaying roads and infrastructure, providing health care, creating community markets and local enterprises, retrofitting the urban landscape for sustainability, and many more. Because there are enormous numbers of unmet needs, there are equally large numbers of purposeful and satisfying jobs waiting to get done. The difficulty is that in many industrialized nations there is such an overwhelming emphasis placed on individual consumption that it has resulted in the neglect of work that promotes public well-being.”
Wake up & break out of Society’s Automation:
“Simplicity is the razor’s edge that cuts through the trivial and finds the essential.”
“To live voluntarily requires not only that we be conscious of the choices before us (the outer world) but also that we be conscious of ourselves as we select among those choices (the inner world). We must be conscious of both the choices and ourselves as the chooser. Put differently, to act voluntarily is to act in a self-determining manner. But who is the ‘self’ making the decisions? If that ‘self’ is both socially and psychologically conditioned into habitual patterns of thought and action, then behavior can hardly be considered voluntary. Therefore, self-realization—the process of realizing who the ‘self’ really is—is crucial to self-determination and voluntary action.”
“If we do not become conscious of these automated patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, then we become, by default, human automatons.”
“An old adage states, ‘It’s a rare fish that knows it swims in water.’ Analogously, the challenge of living voluntarily is not in gaining access to the conscious experiencing of ourselves but rather in consciously recognizing the witnessing experience and then learning the skills of sustaining our opening to that experience.”
“The capacity to move through life with conscious awareness is central to our species identity. We have given ourselves the scientific name Homo sapiens, which means that we are a species that not only ‘knows’ but ‘know that it knows.’ We have identified our core trait as a species—our capacity for reflective consciousness. Living ever more consciously goes to the very heart of our species natures and to our core evolutionary journey as a human community.”
“To the extent that we are able to see or know our automated patterns, we are then no longer bound by them. We are enabled to act and live voluntarily.”
“As we learn to watch ourselves ever more precisely and intimately, the boundaries between the ‘self-in-here’ and the ‘world-out-there’ begin to dissolve. In the stage beyond self-reflective consciousness, we no longer stand apart from existence as observers; now we are fully immersed within it as conscious participants.”
On Media (TV & Internet):
“As the Internet fosters a new capacity for rapid feedback from citizens and organizations around the world, the human family is developing a level of collective awareness, understanding, and responsiveness to the well-being of the Earth that previously would have been unimaginable.”
TV: “Mass entertainment is used to capture the attention of a mass audience that is then appealed to by mass advertising in order to promote mass consumption.”
“Because television’s being programmed to achieve commercial success, the mind-set of entire nations is being programmed for ecological failure.”
“The most precious resource of a civilization—the shared consciousness of its citizenry—is literally being prostituted and sold to the highest corporate bidders.”
“Because the overwhelming majority of prime-time hours on television are devoted to programming for amusement, we are entertainment-rich and knowledge-poor.”
On Identity:
“The hallmark of a balanced simplicity is that our lives become clearer, more direct, less pretentious, and less complicated. We are then empowered by our material circumstances rather than enfeebled or distracted by them. Excess in either direction—too much or too little—is complicating.”
“When we engage in ‘identity consumption,’ we become possessed by our possessions, we are consumed by that which we consume.”
“We begin a never-ending search for a satisfying experience of identity. We look beyond ourselves for the next thing that will make us happy…But the search is both endless and hopeless, because it is continually directed away from the ‘self’ that is doing the searching.”
“It is transformative to withdraw voluntarily from the preoccupations with the material rat race of accumulation and instead accept our natural experience — unadorned by superfluous goods — as sufficient unto itself.”
“A self-reinforcing spiral of growth begins to unfold: As we live more consciously, we feel less identified with our material possessions and thereby are enabled to live more simply. As we live more simply and our lives become less filled with unnecessary distractions, we find it easier to bring our undivided attention into our passage through life, and are thereby enabled to live more consciously.”
On Inner & Outer Alignment:
“Simplicity has as much to do with each person’s purpose in living as it does with his or her standard of living.”
“Voluntary simplicity, then, involves not only what we do (the outer world) but also the intention with which we do it (the inner world).”
“The ecological crisis we now face has emerged, in no small part, from the gross disparity that exists between our relatively underdeveloped inner faculties and the extremely powerful external technologies at our disposal.”
“Throughout history, few people have had the opportunity to develop their interior potentials because much of the human journey has been preoccupied with the struggle for survival.”
“Simpler living integrates both inner and outer aspects of life into an organic and purposeful whole.”
On Work:
“Given the drive to find meaningful work coupled with the shortage of such work in today’s economy, it is not surprising that many choosing a simpler way of life are involved in starting their own small businesses.”
“When our work is life-serving, then our energy and creativity can flow cleanly and directly through us and into the world without impediment or interruption.”
“Overall, people viewed work in four primary ways:
As a means of supporting oneself in activity that is meaningful and materially sustaining
As an opportunity to support others by producing goods and services that promote a workable and meaningful world
As a context for learning about the nature of life—using work as a medium of personal growth
As a direct expression of one’s character and talents—as a celebration of one’s existence in the world”
On Money & Materialism:
“Once a person or family reaches a moderate level of income, here are the factors that research has shown contribute most to happiness: good health, personal growth, strong social relationships, service to others, connection with nature.”
“Until the last few generations, a majority of people have lived close to subsistence, so an increase in income brought genuine increases in material well-being, and this has produced more happiness. However, in a number of developed nations, levels of material well-being have moved beyond subsistence to unprecedented abundance.”
“The more materialistic values are at the center of our lives, the more our quality of life is diminished…reported lower levels of happiness and self-actualization and higher levels of depression, anxiety, narcissism, antisocial behavior, and physical problems such as headaches.” — Tim Kasser
Questions to Ponder:
Elgin poses many thought-provoking questions throughout the book. Here are my favorites that are worth thinking about:
“Who are these people who want to slow down, lighten their impact on the Earth, and grow the quality of their relationships with the rest of life?”
“Why would an individual or couple adopt a way of life that is more materially frugal, ecologically oriented, inner-directed, and in other ways removed from the materialism of much of Western society?”
“What is the pathway from consumer to conserver?”
“If the material consumption of a fraction of humanity is already harming the planet, is there an alternative path that enables all of humanity to live more lightly upon the Earth while experiencing a higher quality of life?”
“Instead of visualizing how material limitation can draw out new levels of community and cooperation, many people see a life of greater ‘simplicity’ as a path of sacrifice and regress. Living within the limits that the Earth can sustain raises a fundamental question: Can we live more lightly on the material side of life while living with greater satisfaction and meaning on the nonmaterial side of life?”
“They all share 3 concerns:
How are we to live sustainably on the Earth?
In harmony with one another?
And in communion with the universe?”
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The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh | Book Summary
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The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering Into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh
“Mindfulness is the energy that allows us to recognize our habit energy and prevent it from dominating us.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Who is Thich Nhat Hanh and why listen to him?
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, spiritual leader and author.
Today, he’s probably the second most influential Buddhist figure in the Western world after the Dalai Lama.
Yet at 16 years old, he was just another novice monk at a temple in central Vietnam. In fact, his family believed a monk’s life would be too difficult for him, but after he entered the temple, he says he felt so joyful and free. On moonlit nights in front of the pond listening to the other monks chanting holy sutras, he felt like he was listening to a choir of angels.
But then when Nhat Hanh was a young adult, his country erupted into war. The Vietnam War lasted almost 20 years and over one million soldiers and civilians died.
Many monks chose to retreat from society, but Nhat Hanh bravely spoke out against the war, urging both sides to find peace. In this way, he promoted a type of “engaged Buddhism” which uses mindfulness as a foundation to actively create positive change in society. For this reason, Martin Luther King Jr publicly nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967, saying:
His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Nonetheless, in 1975 when the war was over, Thich Nhat Hanh was exiled from his own country by the North side which won the war. He spent the next part of his life promoting Buddhism in western countries, opening mindfulness centers under the name Plum Village in France, America and elsewhere. He wrote many popular books to spread the practice of mindfulness, including this one.
In the mid-2000s Nhat Hanh was finally allowed to return to Vietnam, but his health has been slowly declining. In 2014 he suffered a stroke leaving him in a wheelchair mostly unable to talk. He’s now returned to the same temple where he first became a monk and remain there until he died in 2022.
I think his life story demonstrates one of the core truths of Buddhism: that in life everyone faces suffering. Yet we can also embrace that suffering as our path towards peace.
So let’s now explore some of the best lessons from this book, starting with:
- Buddha’s teachings were passed down orally for 400 years before being written down
Today the two major schools of Buddhism are Theravada and Mahayana. The main difference between them is they follow two separate Transmissions or records of Buddha’s teachings. These are called the Southern and Northern Transmissions and they were written down in different places after Buddha’s death.
The Southern Transmission is a record of Buddha’s teachings written down about 400 years after Buddha died. It was written down in the language of Pali by Sri Lankan monks. (This one is also known as the Pali Canon.)
You have to understand that Buddha’s teachings were passed down orally from monk to monk for many generations. So after 400 years, there was only one monk alive in Sri Lanka who could recite all of Buddha’s teachings from memory. It’s a bit ironic, but this monk was arrogant so the other monks had to persuade him to recite the teachings. The Southern Transmission is followed by members of Theravada Buddhism who live mostly in southeast asian countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Now, The Northern Transmission is a separate record of Buddha’s teachings, written down in the language of Sanskrit in a part of India. The original Sanskrit writings are lost, but the Chinese and Tibetan translations survive. The Northern Transmission is followed by members of Mahayana Buddhism who live mostly in east asian countries like China and Japan.
At the time, it was normal for teachings to be preserved and passed down orally. They say that people had better memorization skills back then than we do today. Yet it’s no small feat for a teaching to be preserved accurately being passed down this way for hundreds of years. Even while Buddha was alive, some of his monks (like his disciple Arittha) misunderstood his teachings or understood them only partially.
Nhat Hanh doesn’t seem concerned about rigidly following one school of Buddhism. To understand what Buddha really taught in the clearest way, he studies multiple schools and translations. While most of the schools share important core teachings in common, sometimes one of the schools offers a point of view that better reflects what Buddha actually taught.
- Buddhism not about memorizing theories, but living in a new way
Buddhist teaching are meant to awaken our true self, not merely to add to our storehouse of knowledge.
In this book, Thich Nhat Hanh appears to teach a more modern form of Buddism, one that may be easier for Western people to digest. He does not talk about certain beliefs common in traditional Buddhist countries which may be viewed by secular people as superstitious. For example, performing moral acts to improve one’s chances for a better rebirth.
Nhat Hanh focuses on the practical aspects of Buddhism, especially mindfulness. In this way, he resembles other teachers who also brought Buddhist ideas to the West beginning in the 1960s, including Alan Watts and Shunryu Suzuki.
The Buddha often said his teachings are like a finger pointing at the moon. All the books and lectures are meant to point us in the right direction, but at some point we are supposed to stop thinking about them. Nhat Hanh says it is like following a map to get to Paris. Once you arrive, you fold up the map and enjoy yourself.
- Embrace suffering as a fact of life (The First Noble Truth)
Without suffering, you cannot grow. Without suffering, you cannot get the peace and joy you deserve.
The Buddha called suffering a Holy Truth, because our suffering has the capacity of showing us the path to liberation. Embrace your suffering, and let it reveal to you the way to peace.
Buddha famously said that “life is suffering.” Many people misunderstood that to mean Buddhism is a pessimistic philosophy, full of doom and gloom. But Buddha’s real message here is not meant to be negative, he is just stating a fact that nothing in life is ultimately satisfying.
The heart of Buddha’s teachings are The Four Noble Truths. These truths were part of the first lesson Buddha gave his disciples after he became enlightened. Thich Nhat Hanh focuses heavily on these four truths at the beginning of the book to give us a foundational understanding of Buddhism. Buddhists believe that because Buddha shared these truths, he “put into motion the wheel of the Dharma” which in this context means “the Way of Understanding and Love”.
So let’s talk about suffering. We all suffer in some way. We suffer in our health, our relationships or the accidents that happen to us. And even if nothing is going wrong in our lives right now, we still suffer from anxiety that something could go wrong. A poor person suffers because they desire more money and security, a wealthy person suffers because they could always lose the money and security they acquired.
Thich Nhat Hanh grew up in the middle of a war. He was surrounded by immense suffering and destruction that most of us can’t imagine. Adults and children being killed. Bombs dropping on homes. People hungry and starving. Society and cultural values being broken. He says those wounds of suffering are still there inside him. But that’s okay because…
It is only through our suffering that Buddha can communicate with us. In the first sentence of this book, Thich Nhat Hanh says Buddha was a human being and he suffered too. It is because of that shared experience of suffering that his teachings can connect with us. So our pain, unhappiness or dissatisfaction is not an obstacle to peace, but rather provides the bridge.
- Look deeply to find the causes of your suffering (The Second Noble Truth)
So this next step is to identify what we are consuming that is causing our suffering. This means realizing what things we are letting into our mind or our lives that eventually lead to unnecessary hurt.
Buddha mentioned four kinds of source materials that we must be aware of: food, sense impressions, intentions and consciousness. Let’s look at these closer:
Food includes what you eat, and also how you sleep and work. These are the physical basics of your existence. They are more important for well being than most people think. For example, modern scientific studies have proven that a lack of sleep is a factor in all major mental health issues like depression, anxiety and suicide. Next we have…
Sense impressions, these include what you see and hear like social media, movies, news and in-person conversations. If you feel terrible after watching something, then that is a good sign it is toxic to your mental health. Next are…
Intentions, these are the goals you chase. Often people believe getting status, fame or possessions will make their lives better, but it actually leads them towards more unhappiness. It’s helpful to listen to what people who are already rich or famous are saying about this. For example, the famous comedian and movie actor Jim Carrey has some awesome speeches about this, here’s a quote from one:
I’ve often said that I wish people could realize all their dreams and wealth and fame so they could see that it’s not where you’re gonna find your sense of completion.
– Jim Carrey
And finally we have consciousness, this is what is going through your mind. Our consciousness can be a great source of suffering if we are not in control of it. Thich Nhat Hanh describes it like this:
We chew the cud of our suffering, our despair, like the cows chew the regurgitated grass. Every time we think about being abused, we are abused once again. But actually that is not happening now; it is all over. Thinking like this, we can be abused every day, even though our childhood may have had a great deal of happiness and sweet moments. We ruminate on our hatred, suffering, and despair and it is not healthy food.
So once we see which types of source materials create our suffering, we must choose not to ingest more of those in the future. Only consume those materials which you can be sure are safe, for your mind and body. This is how to live The Second Noble Truth.
For example, I spent a few months following the news every day and I didn’t really consider how much it colored my worldview in a negative and anxious way. When I started only checking the news once per week for a short burst, I found my life became a lot better and calmer.
- Face your real suffering directly to end it (The Third Noble Truth)
The next step to ending suffering is facing it directly, which means not avoiding aspects of experience which are unpleasant. (Remember Buddha didn’t just teach that life is suffering, but he also taught how to end suffering. )
Thich Nhat Hanh says people are often awakened while going through a difficult time. Why? Because they are forced to face their suffering and they see how their own irresponsible behavior caused it to happen. While this is painful, it is the first step to not falling into that suffering again.
To face your suffering, touch deeply both the good and bad parts of life. It’s about experiencing everything that happens to you indiscriminately. Knowing that both the positive and negative things pass with time.
Mindfulness practices allow us to touch life deeply. These include mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful eating… and generally doing anything mindfully. Doing things mindfully means doing them with your full attention in the present moment. Not being distracted by sadness from the past or worry for the future.
Mindfulness allows us to appreciate what we already have. When people become older or they have bad health, they always deeply miss being young and healthy. Yet young and healthy people usually never appreciate or even notice what they do have. Mindfulness can change this. For example, by giving your full attention to your breathing for a few moments, you can feel how good it feels to breath into your lungs. Someone who has breathing problems would pay anything to feel this.
As a child, Thich Nhat Hanh and his siblings would run outside to take a shower every time it rained. They were bursting with happiness, simply enjoying themselves. But as they grew older, they began to worry about school, clothes, making money and the war. But mindfulness can bring us back to the joy of our true home, which is always found in the present moment.
- Follow the Noble Eightfold Path to stop doing what causes suffering (The Fourth Noble Truth)
So the final Noble Truth is to follow the eight right practices of Buddhism. By following these practices, you can avoid doing the things which cause suffering.
Buddha taught The Noble Eightfold Path in his first discourse after awakening, and continued teaching it all his life. In fact, his last talk ever was on the subject of this Noble Eightfold Path. When Buddha was dying, a young monk named Subhadda managed to visit him. Subhadda asked Buddha if two of the other local spiritual teachers were really enlightened. Buddha said that wasn’t important. He said what was most important is that Subhadda practice The Noble Eightfold Path if he wanted to reach liberation, peace and joy.
These eight practices are not really religious or moral rules in the traditional sense. Buddha said you shouldn’t follow these rules because someone in authority tells you to. Instead, you should first see with your own awareness how the wrong practices lead to suffering and the right ones lead to peace.
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path includes Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Here is a brief overview of how Thich Nhat Hanh explains each of these eight practices:
Right View – Buddhism does not teach us which point of view is right, but it gives us practices to get rid of wrong views. Most of us are stuck in wrong views because our perceptions are based on our human afflictions like craving, ignorance and prejudice. We can get rid of these inaccurate perceptions and wrong views by touching reality deeply through mindfulness practices.
Right Thinking – Most of our thoughts contribute to our suffering because we are distracted by anxiety for the future or regret from the past. The right way of thinking is being in touch with the present moment. Nhat Hanh sometimes asks his students “What are you doing?” to help them come back to the present. When you are in the present, your everyday experiences becomes much more deep and enjoyable, even seemingly boring activities like washing dishes.
Right Speech – Telling the truth and not changing what you say when you’re talking to different people. However, speaking the truth must be done in a way that does not cause hurt to others. So do your best to communicate the truth using language other people will be able to accept. The foundation of right speech is deep listening, which means listening non-judgmentally with your whole being. Therapists are trained to listen this way, and it nourishes both people in the conversation.
Right Action – Being compassionate and protective of all life, including people, animals, plants and minerals. Not killing. Being generous about sharing your time, energy and other resources with those in need. Not stealing. Being sexually responsible, which means only making love inside of a long-term committed relationship. Eating mindfully rather than destructively. And not using alcohol or other intoxicants.
Right Livelihood – Earning your living without violating any of the right actions we just listed. Buddhism also says not to sell alcohol, drugs, poisons, arms, meat or slaves. And don’t peddle prophecies or fortunes.
Right Diligence – Having goals which won’t cause suffering. Suffering is often caused by having the wrong goals, being wrongly diligent for food, possessions, sex or other sensual pleasures. Thich Nhat Hanh says we all have a store consciousness from where seeds arise into our daily thoughts. These seeds can be wholesome or unwholesome. So we must nurture the wholesome seeds that arise in our mind so they stay here longer. We must also let the unwholesome seeds (like anger, ignorance and greed) sink back down to our store consciousness.
Right Mindfulness – This means being aware of what you are doing in the present moment, rather than being lost in your thoughts about the past or future. A great way to practice mindfulness is by sitting and watching your breath. This is a classic Buddhist meditation. Every time you catch your mind wandering, return your attention back to the breath. This is a great exercise that helps us train ourselves to pay attention to the here and now. However, the real transformation will happen when you practice this kind of attention all day long, no matter what you’re doing.
Right Concentration – This is living deeply with every moment that comes to you, welcoming whatever happens. Living deeply is the key. But how can we do this? Buddha taught one useful practice called The Concentration on Impermanence to help us out. In this practice, you see your beloved one as impermanent. When you recognize that your loved one will someday not be here, then you naturally enter right concentration, cultivating appreciation while at the same time letting go of craving and attachment.
- Stop your old habit energies with mindfulness
We all have done things we later regretted. Sometimes we do destructive actions that we don’t even want to do! Why? Because our old addictions, habits and patterns have an energy of their own. We can slip back to those old patterns.
Buddha said our habit energy is like two strong men dragging a third man into a fire pit. The two strong men that we can’t resist are our old habit energies. These energies often overpower us and drag us back to suffering.
Mindfulness is the energy that allows us to recognize our habit energy and prevent it from dominating us.
Doing something with our full awareness can break the pattern of our old habit energies. Practices like mindful breathing, mindful walking or mindful listening can help us stay in control of our habit energies.
The opposite of mindfulness is doing something mindlessly, which means being totally controlled by your habit energies. For example, many people commute to work in their car every day and they can “zone out” completely while driving. They spend an hour thinking about something else and it’s like their hands move themselves. They arrive at work and can barely remember how they got there!
Thich Nhat Hanh says it is good to say “hello habit energy” when you see old destructive thoughts, emotions or behaviors rise up again. Greet your old habits without judgment as if they are an old friend. Don’t feel guilty because we all carry these energies.
The four functions of mindfulness
Buddha said the four functions of mindfulness are stopping, calming, resting and healing. These are the four ways mindfulness can be useful to us. Let’s look at these quickly one-by-one:
Stopping – Thich Nhat Hanh says:
We have to learn the art of stopping — stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us.
Calming – When you feel an overwhelming emotion like anger, you can first recognize it is there, then accept that it is present (rather than denying it), then embrace the anger like a mother comforting her child. When you are calmer you can look deeply what brought this emotion out, and gain insight into what causes contributed to the anger. This is how mindfully accepting and embracing our emotions can calm us.
Resting – Mindfulness should be relaxed, light and free of struggle. It does not have to be hard work. Nhat Hanh says we should “Be like the earth. When the rain comes, the earth only has to open herself up to the rain.” and Buddha often repeated that he taught “The practice of non-practice.”
Healing – If you stop, become calm and rest, then healing can happen in your mind and body. The other three functions are necessary for the healing to begin. It’s just like when an animal becomes hurt, it lays down and rests totally for many days so its body can be healed. But normally our human minds never stop and rest from our old patterns, so the wounds from our past don’t heal.
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Are You Fully Charged? The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life by Tom Rath | Book Summary
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Are You Fully Charged?: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life by Tom Rath
Tom Rath, author of five influential bestsellers, reveals the three keys that matter most for our daily health and well-being, as well as our engagement in our work. Drawing on the latest and most practical research from health, psychology, and economics, this book focuses on changes we can make to create better days for ourselves and others. Are You Fully Charged? will challenge you to stop pursuing happiness and start creating meaning instead, lead you to rethink your daily interactions with the people who matter most, and show you how to put your own health first in order to be your best every day.
The Book in Three Sentences
There are three keys to being fully charged each day: doing work that provides meaning to your life, having positive social interactions with others, and taking care of yourself so you have the energy you need to do the first two things. Trying to maximize your own happiness can actually make you feel self-absorbed and lonely, but giving more can drive meaning and happiness in your life. People who spend money on experiences are happier than those who spend on material things.
Are You Fully Charged summary
Daily well being is what we should be targeting.
The new research on daily experiences has changed the way we think about health, happiness, and well being.
Scientists can now study the day to day experiences of individuals often in minimally invasive ways. (Fitbit, etc.)
3 keys to bring fully charged: meaning, positive interactions, and energy.
“The odds of being completely engaged in your job increases by 250% it you work on meaningful projects each day.”
The pursuit of meaning, not happiness is what makes life better.
The more value you place on your own happiness, the more likely you are to feel lonely. If you spend your time seeking your own happiness then you end up feeling more shallow or self-absorbed. Meaning, however, makes you feel better by giving yourself to a cause bigger than yourself.
Fredrickson’s research found that 70% of people had higher happiness levels vs meaningfulness levels. These people displayed a similar genetic markers as those in stressful and adverse situations.
Study of teenagers showed that those with a higher percentage of meaningful behaviors had lower levels of depression. 2014 study followed them for a full year and tested them in an fMRI scanner about hedonic acts vs meaningful acts.
Spend time listing the positive impact your work does. Attach meaning to the small things you do and “connect the dots between your efforts and a larger purpose.” It’s important to understand how you contribute value.
The differences in how we view our work can just be a result of the stories we tell. You can tell a negative version of the story or you can tell a positive version. Which true version do you want to believe?
Study of hospital workers by Raznoski found that people who made connections with patients and coworkers found more meaning in their work.
Most people try to “squeeze meaning in around the edges” of their day rather than dedicating their work day to meaningful things. “Work for more than a living.”
“Work is a purpose, not a place.”
When figuring out what you should do each day begin by asking, “How can my time make a difference for others?”
According to one research study, doubling your income only increases happiness by 9 percent.
The game of upward comparison: “Satisfaction and income are almost entirely relative to ones comparison group.”
Many successful people can live stressful and miserable lives if all they do is compare upwardly.
Idea: compare downward to maintain perspective? Travel to poor areas? Etc.
Most work days consist of small wins and tiny actions, not large external bonuses or rewards. You need meaning to drive you forward on most days.
Spending more time working toward a shared mission will add meaning to your life.
One of the downfalls of the “follow your passion” advice is that it assumes that putting your own passion and happiness at the center of your world is what leads to meaning, fulfillment and joy. That is often not the case.
Focus on your strengths every day. People who do are 6x more likely to find meaning in their job.
“Cast a shadow rather than living in one.”
It’s easy to fall into a default career path that is more about other people’s expectations than your own interests.
View work as the original social network. Just how negative and positive emotions can spread virally online, they can do the same in the office.
For most of us, reactionary actions take up way more of our day than tasks we initiate. But most of the meaning we derive is from task we initiate, not reactions we fall into based on what others need.
One study: people unlock their phones 110 times per day.
“We lose 28% of our time each day.”
Dan Gilbert study: participants reported a wandering mind 48% of the time and “a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” (Think about how different a wandering mind is from a mind in flow. And we know that flow is one of the most happy and fulfilling experiences we can have.)
Rest more: There is always the option to do nothing.
Physical mail only shows up once per day and then we process it. But email is something we check all the time. (How can you blockemail and only answer once per day?)
Finland’s 45/15 break time … Covered by Tim Walker.
“What the most productive people have in common is that they treat working time like a sprint (52 minutes on average) and then pairing it with a recharge session (17 minutes on average).
Idea: what if you treated work like practice? At practice each period is planned. Hell, each minute is planned. And then breaks are planned as well.
“We need 3 to 5 interactions to make up for each negative one.”
Being ignored is actually worse than hearing a negative comment. We often think that not telling someone bad news is preferable, but ignoring people is the worst possible option. We often assume the worst when we hear nothing — not to mention feeling lonely.
The Contagion Effect in relationships explains why the people around us influence our own behaviors. (NEJM obesity study, smoking, etc.)
People who spend money on experiences are happier than those who spend on material things.
People who spend on other people end up happier AND it makes someone else happy too.
Share the things you are planning with other people because anticipation increases well being. Give people the chance to anticipate great experiences. (Planning a vacation can often lead to more happiness than the vacation itself.)
Energy is critical. Yes, doing things for others and living a life of meaning is important. But without energy you can’t do your best work. “If you want to make a difference for years to come, you have to put your health and energy first.”
Maintain a better balance of proteins to carbohydrates throughout the day. And reduce sugar.
“People now spend more time sitting than sleeping, 9.3 hours per day.”
“The average American spends over 15 hours per day sitting or sleeping.”
“After sitting for two hours your good cholesterol drops by 20 percent.”
10,000 steps per day is a good baseline target of movement for most people.
Exercise creates a twelve hour mood boost. This is a good reason to do something physical early in the morning.
The 10,000 hours study by K. Anders Ericsson has a hidden finding most people ignore: the top performers slept over 8 hours on average.
Rhinovirus and sleep study: those not getting efficient sleep were 5.5x more likely to get sick when exposed to the Rhinovirus.
For better sleep avoid light, excessive heat, and noise.
Chopsticks study: smiling, even when you don’t feel like it, you experience less stress.
Botox study: hindering the frowning muscles led to reduced rates of depression weeks later.
“Giving improves well-being in many ways.”
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Winners | And How They Succeed by Alastair Campbell | Book Summary
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Winners: And How They Succeed by Alastair Campbell
Winning is not the important thing, it is the only thing.
The Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller. How people succeed – and how you can, too.
Alastair Campbell knows all about winning. As Tony Blair’s chief spokesman and strategist he helped guide the Labour Party to victory in three successive general elections, and he’s fascinated by what it takes to win.
How do sports stars excel, entrepreneurs thrive, or individuals achieve their ambition? Is their ability to win innate? Or is the winning mindset something we can all develop? Drawing on the wisdom of an astonishing array of talented people – from elite athletes to top managers, from rulers of countries to rulers of global business empires – Alastair Campbell uses his forensic skills, as well as his own experience of politics and sport, to get to the heart of success. He examines how winners tick. He considers how they build great teams. He analyses how they deal with unexpected setbacks and new challenges. He judges what the very different worlds of politics, business and sport can learn from one another. And he sets out a blueprint for winning that we can all follow.
SUMMARY PT 1: WINNING DEPENDS FIRST AND FOREMOST ON A SOLID STRATEGY THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO YOUR ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE.
If you’re reading this, you’ve decided you want to be a winner. Whether you’re shooting for the corner office or dreaming of rock ’n’ roll fame, there are a few essential things to know.
First is strategy. Strategy is the how of winning. A strategy paves the way toward your goal; thus it is the most important aspect of becoming a winner.
Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov says that if you don’t commit to a strategy, you’re doomed to react to your opponents, allowing them to control the game.
The what of winning is your objective. You need to determine what you want to win before you can lock down a successful strategy.
For instance, if you want to lose weight, your objective might be to lose 10 pounds. Once you’ve defined your objective, then you can create a strategy to help you reach it.
Yet a strategy is useless if your objective is essentially unattainable. Remember: winners set goals they can reach.
In November 2013, Tony Pulis started managing the British soccer team Crystal Palace, a club struggling to stay in the Premier League. Pulis didn’t shoot for the stars and try to make the team Premier League champions in his first year. Instead, he set a realistic objective of securing the team’s position in the league – and he succeeded.
However, don’t confuse your strategy with tactics, or the little steps in between that help you realize your strategy and ultimately, your objective.
If your strategy to lose 10 pounds is to start dieting and perform exercises daily, your tactics will include things such as monitoring your caloric intake, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and joining a diet group.
In the holy trinity of winning, strategy is just one aspect. The other two components are leadership and “teamship,” or the elements that make a winning team.
SUMMARY PT 2: LEADERSHIP COMES IN MANY FORMS; THERE’S NO ONE TRAIT THAT UNITES ALL THE GREAT LEADERS OF HISTORY.
So what does it take to become a great leader? There’s no one specific trait; each leader is outstanding in a different way.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel possesses the ability to see what works in a given situation and to stick with it. Instead of offering grand gestures, she acts pragmatically. Because of these skills, Merkel is a winner, leading one of the European Union’s most powerful nations.
During the recent eurozone crisis, for example, Merkel was steadfast even when politicians such as British Prime Minister David Cameron or US President Barack Obama pushed her to act faster or more boldly. Despite pressures all around her, Merkel would not be rushed, staying true to a time-proven strategy of being cautious and sticking to long-term goals.
Winston Churchill became a great leader by recognizing Nazi Germany as a major threat early on, and he addressed this issue with a laser-like focus. In fact, his record as a winner wasn’t very impressive until World War II rolled around.
Here’s his story:
In 1899, Churchill as a young man tried his hand at politics but lost an election. After working as a war correspondent in South Africa, he returned to Britain and finally became a member of parliament (MP).
Yet still he lost subsequent elections, eventually fighting his way back into government. By the 1920s, he was Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, leading the country’s return to the gold standard – a disastrous move that resulted in deflation and unemployment.
Despite all this, Churchill is still one of history’s great leaders. Early on he saw the danger of Adolf Hitler and the aspirations of Nazi Germany. He channeled all his energies into finding ways to defeat the Nazis.
It was this insight and determination that resonated deeply with the British people and made Churchill the great leader the world now remembers him to be.
Next, we’ll explore the building blocks of successful teams, the third element in the holy trinity of winning.
SUMMARY PT 3: WINNING MEANS CREATING A TEAM IN WHICH PEOPLE SHARE TALENTS WHERE YOU FALL SHORT.
Do you think a soccer club composed of 11 athletic clones would be a winning team?
Definitely not. A team with members who all have the same skills just won’t win. If you want to be a winner – in sports or business – you need to find a team with talents that complement your own.
A team brings together people with different strengths – a winning strategy. As a winner, you need to find people for your team who excel in areas in which you struggle.
For instance, you might be a great striker but a terrible defender. Naturally, you’d bring someone on your team who can defend the goal!
Remember that a leader’s job is to define a team’s goals, strategy and tactics, ensuring that everyone on the team knows what to do.
For example, a cycling team comprises athletes, mechanics, sports therapists, and so on. But in the follow car, the person with the walkie-talkie who is directing team tactics is the leader.
After a leader comes the warriors. They’re not the “stars” of the show, but they make the engine run.
For instance, consider the role of a bus driver during an election campaign. This person drives the bus, carrying a politician from meeting to rally. If a driver were unreliable, the whole campaign would collapse!
The talent refers to people who make all the difference, the rare personalities who have something extra, who are more capable or knowledgeable than the pack.
In politics, the talent is often the leaders themselves. Consider Hillary Clinton, who challenged Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primary in the United States, but lost. She then was named secretary of state, a preeminent “talent” on the president’s team.
But being a winner isn’t just about strategy, solid teams and leadership. It’s also about what’s on your mind.
SUMMARY PT 4: WINNERS HATE LOSING AND PUT PRESSURE ON THEMSELVES, LEAVING THEIR COMFORT ZONE, TO AVOID IT.
It’s often said that winning is all about mind-set. But what exactly does this mean? Are winners merely people who really want to win? Doesn’t everybody want to win?
Of course, most people want to win, but not everyone fears losing. Many people are winners simply because they’re too scared to lose.
Many winners have experienced the pain of defeat and will go to great lengths to avoid repeating the experience.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps has won more gold medals than any Olympian in the history of the games. His motivation to win goes back to the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.
That year, he was ready to compete but didn’t win a single meet. It was this failure that pushed him to work harder, and he never lost a race again!
Winning isn’t just about motivation, however. It’s also about getting out of your comfort zone.
While things that are familiar and easy might make you feel good, staying in a place where you’re comfortable will prevent you from winning big.
For years, Garry Kasparov won chess tournament after chess tournament. His successes kept him firmly in his comfort zone and, certain that he’d win, he stopped testing new strategies or making bold moves.
He thus stopped growing as a player, his skills stagnating. Finally, Vladimir Kramnik, an opponent, beat him and claimed Kasparov’s world title.
To win, you’ve got to push yourself and get out of your comfort zone. In other words, you need to put yourself under pressure. Pressure influences both your body and mind, improving your ability to focus and think, and in turn, unlocking new heights of performance.
SUMMARY PT 5: WINNERS SET THEMSELVES APART FROM THE PACK BY INNOVATING AND ACTING BOLDLY.
Want to stand out from the crowd? You could always dress up like Superman. But for those who aren’t into costumes, there are other ways to get noticed – a key aspect of being a winner.
To get noticed, you first have to be bold. When you act boldly, you’ll stand out because you’ll accept challenges that those people who are more reserved just wouldn’t.
Being bold also helps you push past the fact that in many areas, you might be a novice – but still have the drive to achieve. Entrepreneur Richard Branson, for example, was just 17 years old when he launched a student newspaper. A few years later, he founded Virgin, a record business.
Branson went on to found several other companies, including Virgin Airlines. All these projects had one thing in common – Branson committed despite a lack of experience in each field!
Branson is dyslexic, a potential impediment when running a news organization. He also knew nothing about the music business but was, as a consumer, frustrated with the lack of labels for great music. What’s more, Branson also knew next to nothing about the airline business.
His foray into aviation was launched when he was bumped off a flight to the Virgin Islands. Annoyed with the delay and poor service, he decided to launch his own airline. A bold move that made him a winner!
Boldness will set you apart, and similarly, a hunger for innovation will help you win. But remember, innovation doesn’t necessarily mean invention. Instead, to innovate, you take a product, service or process and make it better.
Thus a winner pays attention to the details and finds opportunities. Apple, for example, took an existing product like the mobile phone and improved it – a classic innovative, winning strategy.
SUMMARY PT 6: A CRISIS CAN QUICKLY OVERWHELM YOU IF YOU DON’T KEEP YOUR MIND ON WHAT MATTERS.
Have you ever noticed that so many events today are called a “crisis”? From minor disagreements between heads of state to a blogger’s bad hair day, “crises” seem to be everywhere and define everything.
But none of these examples represent a real crisis – a situation that could overwhelm if you don’t make the right decisions.
A soccer team losing a few matches isn’t a crisis. On the other hand, issues involving people potentially abusing power, such as US President Bill Clinton’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, could be considered a crisis in politics.
Let’s examine this a bit more deeply.
When a true crisis strikes, you need to stay focused. If you find yourself in a crisis, remember to keep your mind on what truly matters – the things over which you have influence. This is a key point.
When Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky was revealed, Clinton kept himself focused on the political issues at hand. When the media published the revelations, Clinton was on the phone with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, talking over concerns regarding Russian nuclear arms.
Clinton knew the prosecutor’s report would be published that same day, but he didn’t know what it would say. He also wasn’t sure how friends, family or colleagues would react to the report.
He did know, however, that he couldn’t control these things. What he could do was focus on doing his job. In the end, it was Clinton’s constant focus that earned him the respect he needed to make it through the crisis.
IN REVIEW: WINNERS BOOK SUMMARY
The key message in this book:
Winners come in all shapes and sizes. While winners share certain traits, such as boldness or innovation, their ability to beat the competition is also a result of the teams they build and their focus amid crises.
Actionable advice:
When dealing with a crisis, be honest.
If you find yourself in the middle of a crisis, you might feel like closing your eyes and wishing it to disappear – or worse, pointing the finger at someone else. These are not the best solutions and certainly not the easiest. Instead, do something radical: be honest.
If you did something wrong, fess up or at least initiate an honest, transparent inquiry into the issue. If you don’t, someone else will do it for you – potentially bringing issues to light that could irreparably damage your reputation.
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The Mindful Day | Practical Ways to Find Focus, Calm, and Joy by Laurie J. Cameron | Book Summary
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The Mindful Day: How to Find Focus, Calm, and Joy From Morning to Evening by Laurie Cameron
For overscheduled professionals looking to incorporate mindfulness into their daily lives, this step-by-step guide draws on contemplative traditions, modern neuroscience, and leading psychology to bring peace and focus to the home, in the workplace, and beyond.
Designed for busy professionals looking to integrate mindfulness into their daily lives, this ultimate guide draws on contemplative practice, modern neuroscience, and positive psychology to bring peace and focus to the home, in the workplace, and beyond.
In this enriching book, noted mindfulness expert and international teacher and business leader Laurie J. Cameron – a veteran of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason, and 20-year mindfulness meditation practitioner- shows how to seamlessly weave mindfulness and compassion practices into your life. Timeless teachings, compelling science and straightforward exercises designed for busy schedules — from waking up to joy, the morning commute, to back-to-back meetings and evening dinners – show how mindfulness practice can help you navigate life’s complexity with mastery, clarity and ease. Cameron’s practical wisdom and concrete how-to steps will help you make the most of the present moment, creating a roadmap for inner peace – and a life of deeper purpose and joy.
Chapter 1 – Practicing mindfulness assists you to stop thinking about the past, or mentally running ahead to the future.
All of us are aware that physical exercise is good for health; however, as a matter of fact, our minds can gain from exercise, as well. This is the point where mindfulness comes in. However, before we proceed to the mind gym and begin practicing, let’s explain what the meaning of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the awareness we acquire when we concentrate our attention on our inner sensations and feelings, or toward our immediate surrounding. However, more than this, mindfulness is essentially about changing our outlook. As we redirect our attention inward, we begin to notice negative habits, such as making fast decisions, criticizing ourselves, or trying to control everything. By giving us the gift of awareness, mindfulness assists us transform these habits, and helps us to be more open-minded, more accepting, and also more receptive to change.
Essentially, mindfulness is a strong tool that can assist you to appreciate the present moment. As a matter of fact, we need it. Think about a Harvard University study that discovered that the human mind concentrates on the present moment just 53% of the time. This signifies that you’re using nearly half your mental life being busy with abstract thoughts – frequently analyzing what’s has occurred already, or anticipating what might occur in the future.
The cause for this is rooted in our biology. Just like the remaining part of your body, your mind is essentially made for survival. Evolution has fortified you with a mental alarm system that’s usually at alert for dangers, regularly anticipating the worst-case scenario. For our olden forefathers, it was safer to concentrate on the critical inner voice than anticipating for the best in a likely dangerous condition.
In the contemporary world, which is volatile, uncertain, and extremely complicated, our evolution works against us. Our mental alarm systems are regularly overwhelmed with info, distractions, as well as danger. This doesn’t just make mindfulness a challenge – it makes it vital for our well-being as well.
In the following chapter, you’ll learn about how you can begin to reclaim your peace of mind by learning about simple mindfulness practices.
Chapter 2 – Learning only a few basic practices is all you need to begin being mindful.
The first thing to do on your mindfulness path is to learn some vital practices. Altogether, these practices make a basis for a calmer, more compassionate mindset. Also, they will assist you to make better choices.
This is the first one: mindful breathing. This can be done at any time, anywhere. It has to be your go-to exercise when you feel as though your mind I wandering, or when day-day life throws a curveball at you and you have to calm down, fast. Just stop anything you’re doing and redirect your concentrate to your breath: concentrate on the sensation in your nose as you breathe in the air, to the feeling in your chest as it increases with your breath, and then reduces again.
As soon as you’ve followed your breath for a moment, you can proceed to a different vital practice, the body scan.
In order to do this exercise, turn your attention toward the feelings in your body. Begin by concentrating on your feet, and gradually change your attention up to your body, ending with the crown of your head. Is any part of your body aching, or tingling, feeling hot or cold? By observing these physical feelings, you’ll as well become conscious of any emotions you’re feeling.
For instance, if your stomach is clenched, it probably signifies that you are feeling fear or worry. As you learn to precisely know your emotions, you can make use of them as a source of relevant information. How? Well, when you have an understanding of your emotions, you can make use of this greater awareness to make more important decisions–decisions that take you closer to the life you really want to live, and the kind of person you want to be.
Loving-kindness meditation is our following practice. To do this exercise, concentrate on a person you know and hold them in your mind. Visualize this individual wishing you well. After, visualize yourself giving back their warm, loving wishes. Silently wish them peace, love, and joy. End the exercise by wishing these good things for yourself as well. Research has revealed that loving-kindness meditation increases our compassion for both other people and ourselves.
Our last practice is known as STOP, and it’s particularly beneficial in stressful circumstances. As you might have thought, this is an acronym. The S represents Stop since the first step in any challenging circumstance should be to just pause, and know that your emotions require some space. The T stands for Take a breath, as this will assist you to calm down and take your attention back to the present moment. The O represents Observe your immediate experience.
Take a few instants to study how you’re feeling, by observing your bodily sensations, your feelings, as well as your thoughts. The last one which is P represents Proceed with kindness. Amidst this difficult moment, reflect on how you can develop yourself. This could be as basic as reaching out to a friend or just taking a walk.
Chapter 3 – By practicing gratitude and meditation, you can get a mindful morning.
Morning can be a whirlwind of stress. Even before you’ve woken up, you’re stressing about your to-do list or that forthcoming presentation at work. By the time you get up from bed, you’ve already got your game face on, mentally planning for success. If this seems conversant, there’s a better approach.
The first thing to do in order to have a better morning is to be kinder to yourself. When you wake up from sleep, it’s tempting to think about every slight thing you didn’t get around to the day before. The author used to stress about, if she didn’t instantly remind herself of her entire unresolved tasks, she wouldn’t get the motivation to do those tasks that day either.
However, beginning your day by concentrating on your failures is neither healthy nor beneficial. As a matter of fact, if you truly want to enhance your productivity in the day, attempt concentrating your first thoughts in the morning on gratitude. Use a few minutes, as you’re still lying in bed, and think about the whole thing you’re grateful for. This could be anything like your friends and family, your work projects, to the basic reality that you’re living to witness another day.
It was discovered by researchers at Harvard Business School that practicing gratitude has an important positive effect on your physical and mental health. Also, feeling grateful can assist you to be more productive since gratitude puts you in a more conscious and energetic mood.
Should in case you’re thinking about how you’re going to fit in this whole gratitude into your life, you can be sure that a little goes really a long way. A study that was conducted by the University of California discovered that practicing gratitude every week is more effective than doing it daily; therefore, in order to benefit from this powerful practice, you just have to do it one time a week.
For the remaining six days, you can provide your morning routine an improvement by starting a short meditation session. Also, research has revealed that meditation decreases anxiety and assists us to regulate our feelings. Only ten minutes per day of meditation can be the only thing you need for you to reap these benefits.
Even though it might look daunting, meditation doesn’t need to be challenging. It can be as basic as sitting down in a quiet place and practicing mindful breathing for just ten minutes. Don’t bother if you notice your mind regularly wandering as you meditate. As a matter of fact, each time you sense that you’re distracted and have to refocus, you are in fact boosting your self-awareness.
Chapter 4 – Mindfulness assists one to become a better communicator.
How often have you listened to one of your colleagues; however, discovered that your attention had wandered to another place? You might be saying, “Hmm, right, I hear you,” however, 50% of you are already pondering on your following meeting. Noticing that you’re not really interested, your colleague speaks faster, and it gets more and more difficult to follow what she’s talking about.
When you listen mindfully, you concentrate your entire attention on what is being said to you. If you discover that your attention is wandering, simply pull it back to the speaker. Even though it’s tempting to come in with your own view as the other individual is talking, attempt to prevent yourself from doing this.
Similarly, when we’re speaking to others, it can be easy to hear just what we anticipate to hear, not what is really being said. Mindful listening entails being open and receptive rather than depending on your own expectations. In order to know that you’ve really understood the other person’s message, shortly summarize what you believe they’re attempting to say to you, and ask them if you’ve got it correctly. Attempt it– you might be surprised by how regularly you’ve misunderstood what a person said.
Email is another vital part of professional communication. Whether you believe it or not, there is something known as mindful emailing.
Think about the last time you got a displeasing email from a colleague. Maybe you considered it unfair, or critical of your work. When this occurs, it can be tempting to instantly fire off a defensive or aggressive response.
However, there’s a better, more mindful approach of addressing circumstances such as this.
First and foremost, you have to take a pause before reacting, and make use of this time to foster a sense of compassion for the person that sent the email. Bring to mind the person that sent the message, and bear in mind that, just like you, they as well have needs, concerns, and hopes for the future. Attempt to put yourself in their situation and question yourself what they might want from you at the moment? As soon as you’re in a kinder mindset, respond to their email in a spirit of openness as well as collaboration.
Writing emails that are kinder might not look like much; however, it can have a huge effect on your workplace. As a matter of fact, research conducted by the University of Michigan has discovered that greater compassion at work brings about reduced staff turnover, more collaboration, and more dedication to the organization. Therefore, before you press “send,” take a minute to think about everything you have to gain, only by being nice.
Chapter 5 – Your spare time is a valuable resource, and you shouldn’t waste that time.
Do you get the best out of your weekends? As a young kid, you most likely had no issues making the most out of your spare time; however, as an adult, it can be a bit more difficult. Rather than spending that time with our friends or intentionally having fun, we usually waste our time off, sitting on the sofa and going through the internet from our phones. Instead of seizing the day, we’re allowing it to slip away.
But the good news is that making the most out of your leisure time doesn’t need to be difficult or costly. As a matter of fact, it can be as basic as turning off the TV and taking a mindful walk.
This practice entails concentrating your attention on the basic act of walking. Each time you take a step, notice the stability of the ground as your feet touch the ground. Take in your surroundings, as well; however, don’t allow your thoughts to wander a lot. For example, if you sight an apple tree, notice it, and appreciate it; however, attempt not to ponder on how much you’d wish to bake an apple pie when you get back to your house!
It is even good for your health as well as your brain if you can take your mindful walk in nature. Similar to every other part of your body, your brain needs to work hard daily, and at times it requires rest. Various studies have shown that, when you go for a walk in nature, a part of your brain known as the prefrontal cortex, which is in charge of planning and decision-making, is less active. Also, researchers from Japan have also discovered that, compared to walking in an urban surrounding, walking through woodland reduces your blood pressure and lowers your cortisol level, the alleged “stress hormone.”
If you’ve kids, it’s even a good idea to bring them together with you on your mindful nature walk. Now, experts believe that the quality of the time you use with your children is very much significant than the quantity. When you walk mindfully with your kid, you’re completely dedicating to being in the moment with them.
Also, to your kid, whenever they have your complete, undivided attention is possibly the highest quality time of all! Furthermore, kids love it when adults share in their sense of wonder and awe of the natural world. Therefore, if you’ve got a child present in your life, make a date to spend your following weekend together with the child, relishing the trees, the sky, as well as the sun on your face.
Chapter 6 – Hugging meditation assists us to show the people we love that we care about them.
When the husband of the author gets home from his workplace, there’s a family member he can usually depend on to give him a warm welcome – his golden retriever, Beau. Anytime he hears the door, Beau hurries over, barking his excitement and wagging his tail. Dogs such as Beau find it easy to show their love; however, human beings don’t usually find it really easy.
As the story of this shaggy dog shows, the instant a person passes through your door is a great chance to communicate your affection for that person. If your family welcomes have turn into a slight lackluster of late, why don’t you attempt the hugging meditation?
This practice begins with basically identifying that the other individual is now present. For instance, you could walk to the front door, meet their eyes, and say something like, “Welcome home.” After, both of you should take a mindful breath, to completely put yourself in the moment.
Now you can hug one another, for a complete three full breaths. Become aware of your presence and joy at this moment with your first breathe. So, with your second breath, increase your awareness of that other person and imagine their presence and joy as well. Then, with your last breath, allow a sense of joy and appreciation wash over you since you are together.
Aside from making the one you love to feel welcome, hugging has other advantages as well.
To begin with, hugging increases your connection with your partner, by boosting your levels of oxytocin, normally called the “love hormone.” However, it has been proven to minimize the harmful effects of stress on your body as well. For instance, researchers at the University of North Carolina have found out that women who usually hug their partner have a lower blood pressure compared to women who don’t.
However, what is the reason why are hugs really good for us? Well, according to neuroscientists, they believe it’s due to the fact that the sensations of a warm hug stimulate a part of our brains known as the insula, which assists us to process our emotions. Due to that, we immediately feel less irritated. Therefore, if your partner looks tense or stressed after a long day, attempt holding them in a hug till their body calms down.
Chapter 7 – Mindfulness allows you to feel as though you’ve actually come home.
The majority of us anticipate the end of the working day when we can spend time with the people we love, or just enjoy a carefree evening. Therefore, it looks cruelly ironic that immediately we get to our house, usually, all we can think about is work!
If you find it difficult to remove your thoughts away from your work, then a mindful evening ritual can assist you to relax.
The first aspect of this ritual is to speak your intention. When you reach outside your front door, take a second to touch the doorknob and make this declaration loudly: “As I enter my house, I am present, calm, and at peace.”
As soon as you’ve walked across your threshold, pause before moving any further. Make use of this pause to practice three mindful breaths. While doing that, ask yourself these three basic questions: “What are my thoughts presently? What sensations am I feeling,” and “What feelings are present with me?”
If you’ve had a hectic day, you might become conscious of some painful feelings. Don’t attempt to disregard these emotions; however, accept them, and concentrate your attention on the part of you that is going through pain. Lastly, send yourself kind and loving wishes. If you find it hard to think of what these might be, then visualize what you would tell a friend who was feeling unhappy after a terrible day, and mentally speak these words to yourself.
After you’ve finished this ritual, you can use the remaining of your evening concentrating on something that is positive, like cooking and enjoying a meal.
Taking about cooking, this is a thing you can do mindfully as well. Begin by giving the ingredients your undivided attention. This can be as basic as running some uncooked grains of rice through your hands before you put the rice in the pot, or observing the bright orange shade of melon as you slice it. If you feel as though your mind is wandering, you can make use of heat as an anchor for your attention. Maybe it’s a boiling pot of water or the sizzle of garlic in a frying pan, focus on the warmth, sounds, and smells of the heat sources in your kitchen, and continue taking your attention back to them.
As you eat your evening food, feel thankful to the farmers and everybody that participate in making the food possible, and give thanks that life has offered you another chance to enjoy the present moment.
Review
Your mind has grown to stress about the future and dwell on the past. However, you don’t need to be a slave to your neurobiology. Basic mindful practices can assist you to concentrate on the present, and appreciate the brief instants of intimacy, joy, and calmness that only occur in the here-and-now.
Relish the moment, even when it’s cold and dark.
Winter can be a hurdle, and a lot of us count down the days until spring comes. However, a more mindful technique is to accept this extreme season instead. Bear in mind that the most vital time is the present; therefore, instead of anticipating brighter days, look for means to make the winter more pleasant. Light candles in the evening to form a warm glow, put cozy blankets on the couch, and invite friends over to keep your company in the time of those long, dark nights. With some mindful attention to detail, winter can turn into a source of happiness and a chance for connection.
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Pathways to Bliss | Mythology and Personal Transformation by Joseph Campbell | Book Summary
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Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation by Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell famously defined myth as “other people’s religion.” But he also said that one of the basic functions of myth is to help each individual through the journey of life, providing a sort of travel guide or map to reach fulfillment ― or, as he called it, bliss. For Campbell, many of the world’s most powerful myths support the individual’s heroic path toward bliss.
In Pathways to Bliss, Campbell examines this personal, psychological side of myth. Like his classic best-selling books Myths to Live By and The Power of Myth, Pathways to Bliss draws from Campbell’s popular lectures and dialogues, which highlight his remarkable storytelling and ability to apply the larger themes of world mythology to personal growth and the quest for transformation. Here he anchors mythology’s symbolic wisdom to the individual, applying the most poetic mythical metaphors to the challenges of our daily lives.
Campbell dwells on life’s important questions. Combining cross-cultural stories with the teachings of modern psychology, he examines the ways in which our myths shape and enrich our lives and shows how myth can help each of us truly identify and follow our bliss.
Short Summary of Pathways to Bliss by Joseph Campbell
Mythology provides a role model for people to follow if they hope to have “lives well-lived”.
Myths fulfill four functions in society:
- Mystical: provides a sense of awe, wonder, and unity with the universe.
- Cosmological: explains the stars and the planets.
- Sociological: establish an order for people to be able to live together.
- Psychological: helps one realize themselves and find meaning in life.
The psychological function is important as it is the one helping people transcend and attain bliss. Myths give individuals clues regarding their path and their hero’s journey which enables them to live the life they were meant to live.
They also provide images and symbols that help them go through the three stages of life (childhood, adulthood, and old age and death.)
All myths resemble one another because they come from the unconscious, and everyone’s unconscious is more or less the same because as humans, we’re all going through the same experience.
Therefore, myths act as a door to the unconscious. Why would you want to have that?
Because the hero’s journey is not only real – it’s also psychological. When you act out your hero’s journey in real life, you undergo a psychological transformation that helps you get closer to the state of bliss, to individuation, that is, becoming fully integrated with yourself.
You find your journey by paying attention to the recurring themes in your life, your dreams, and your shadow.
There have been three mythological periods:
- Myths embrace life as it is and accept that life, to thrive, must feed off death.
- 8th BC: Myths reject life as it is and seek to escape from the cycle, to transcend it (Eg: Buddhism)
- Zoroaster: Life is a result of the fight between good VS evil, and we can weigh into the fight by choosing the side of the good.
The Western myths come from the idea of God creating the universe: creator ≠ creatures. People’s model is the prophets (Moses, Jesus, Muhammad) -> rise of individualism.
The Eastern myths come from the observation of the cosmic cycle as the overarching rule of the way things ought to be: people should strive to become a cog in the machine, to become perfectly integrated into the grand scheme of things to reach the Great Harmony -> individualism (the ego) should be crushed.
Introduction
[Campbell] felt that myth offered a framework for personal growth and transformation, and that understanding the ways that myths and symbols affect the individual mind offered a way to lead a life that was in tune with one’s nature—a pathway to bliss.
Myths provide people in society with role models to follow. The myths show how cosmic energy manifests itself and how these manifestations change form and nature.
The gods, for example, represent the “powers” that support you (or not). By contemplating the gods and what they do, you find inspiration to do like them.
Myth is the transcendent in relationship to the present.
The question is: what do you do when you have no mythological model to follow?
-> you invent folk heroes.
Folk heroes are real people who have been “mythologized” (Eg: Napoleon).
What the myth does is to provide a field in which you can locate yourself.
If life is a labyrinth, the myth provides you with an individual (a model) who got out of it.
The psychiatrist Karlfried Graf Dürckheim believed that we’re all the manifestation of the power of life, a transcendent which comes from beyond and flows through us.
When we get anchored too much in reality, we stop letting this energy flow and we become sick as a result.
Keep moving, let the energy flow.
-> make yourself transparent to the transcendent.
Myth points out the transcendent.
When you have a deity as your model, your life becomes transparent to the transcendent.
When you trap the transcendent into a concrete reference, you get an allegory, something that is no longer transcendent (aka moving forward), and which becomes a final fact rather than a dynamic image.
To reach the transcendent, you first have to go through “the local” which is your own tradition, your own culture.
Eg: the shaman in the tribe provides this road to the transcendent.
If your myths are relevant to your society, repeating the myth and enacting its rituals center you.
Ritual is simply myth enacted.
Eg: Mass.
The Egyptians believed in eternal time and built the pyramids to this end. But eternity has little to do with time – time shuts down eternity.
Eternity is the “now”.
Eternity is the transcendent dimension of the now to which myth refers.
Myth makes the link between mental wisdom and life-body wisdom.
It tells you that if you live in a certain way – if you imitate the gods, Christ, the Buddha, etc – you are “under the protection” of the gods or whatever deity we’re concerned with.
This model is the model of the past and no longer exists today. Everything changes very fast and we don’t have the stasis (state of harmony in which opposing forces are equalized) necessary for the formation of a mythic tradition.
The present is a fall into the future, and myths no longer guide people in the fall.
Fortunately, you can find two other guides:
- Someone who inspired you in your childhood.
- Your bliss.
In Sanskrit, there are three points that are really close to the transcendent: being, consciousness, and bliss.
The author doesn’t know what being or consciousness are, but he knows what bliss is: the sense of being present, of doing what you absolutely must do to be yourself.
If you can follow your bliss, you’re edging on the transcendence side.
Your bliss can guide you to that transcendent mystery, because bliss is the welling up of the energy of the transcendent wisdom within you.
Your bliss is your own personal myth. You can use earlier myths as clues, but they can’t be anything more than that. You need to find the wisdom inside them, the inexpressible.
The best things can’t be told.
These are transcendental experiences.
The second-best things are misunderstood: these are the myths.
And the third-best things come from disciplines like history, science, etc. It’s the only type of talking that can be understood.
You use the third kind to talk about the first kind, but people misunderstand you and think you speak about the third kind.
Following your bliss means entering your own path, that is, making your own path. If the path you enter has already been traced, it isn’t yours.
Part I: Man and Myth
Chapter 1: The Necessity of Rites
Traditionally, the first function of a living mythology is to reconcile consciousness to the preconditions of its own existence; that is to say, to the nature of life.
Life is horrible because it feeds off life – something needs to die for something else to live.
The first purpose of myth is to reconcile that horrible fact with your consciousness.
The first mythologies embraced this principle, they embraced nature – they didn’t go against it. They recognized the horrors of life through horrible rites (sacrifice) that made people feel grateful to live despite the suffering -> life was beautiful.
Then in the eighth century BC, people took the opposite stance: life is horrible and should not be lived (Eg: Buddhism). This is the second order of mythology, the second type.
The mythologies that appeared then were ones of retreat, dismissal, and renunciation.
Then a third order of mythology came with Zaratustra, an Iranian prophet. The idea was that life is both good and evil, and that you can tip the balance towards the good by doing good things (which translates to “progressivism” in the secular world.)
These are the three mythological orders.
A mythological order is a system of images that gives consciousness a sense of meaning.
That order itself has no meaning, but the mind asks for one as the mind cannot play games without rules.
Mythologies present games to play and people that play them well experience “living meaningfully” -> first function of mythology (mystical): giving a sense of awe in the face of the horrific thing that life is.
The second function of mythology is to present an idea of the cosmos (cosmological) that will maintain the feeling of awe we got from the first function. Whether the image is true or not is irrelevant.
The third function is to maintain a sociological system (what you should and should not do, Ten Commandments, etc). These laws are in the same order as the laws of the universe: you cannot change them.
The fourth function of myth is psychological: the myth must carry the individual from birth to death. Today, we call this function “pedagogical”.
The second and third functions have been taken over by secular institutions. Our idea of the universe is scientific and changes all the time and our laws change all the time too.
So we’ll talk about the first and fourth functions.
Myth and the Development of the Individual
The psychological is the most constant function of myth across cultures. Human beings are born too soon: puberty doesn’t hit before 12 years old, and we don’t reach physical maturity before our twenties.
In the beginning, we’re dependent on an authority – our parents. But as we grow, we should get out of it and become the authority ourselves – become parents ourselves.
Some people (PhDs, for example) never fully free themselves from authority and hence, never fully acquire full confidence.
The purpose of the rites that young boys had to go through at puberty was to facilitate this transition. Neurotic people are people that never fully became independent. When a problem hits, they ask their parents what to do before realizing they are the parents.
So, everyone is raised with an attitude of submission to authority and fear of punishment: always looking to those above you for approval or disapproval.
In most tribes, the survival of the group depended on the behavior of the individuals. To make sure they would behave accordingly, the rites of passage were often extremely violent (children that disobeyed or failed to show specific qualities were killed).
As a result, societies did not evolve forward -> absence of individual freedom -> you had to become exactly what society wanted you to be.
In Western society, it’s the opposite. We encourage people at being critical individuals who think for themselves -> individualism, inherent to Western society -> to become somebody is to become exactly who you want to be.
The next thing myth helps people with is growing old.
When it seems that you have learned and done everything you had to do, you suddenly lose your capacities.
In the Western world, men work hard now to retire and do fun stuff later. Then they get to “later” and realize that working hard wasn’t worth it – that they can no longer do the stuff they really wanted to do when they were working hard.
As for women, they work hard to give birth and raise children, and these children grow and get their own life. And they end up alone.
The myths address this problem of growing old and not being wanted anymore.
When societies didn’t evolve, old people could give advice as whatever would happen had already happened.
It’s not the case in our society any more as everything is constantly new -> old people are no longer needed.
Finally, the last thing myth must help people with is dying.
To let them go peacefully, the myth says that “life after death is going to be beautiful”.
-> something all religions do.
Myths for the Future
The baby kangaroo is also born too early, so he waits a few more weeks in the pouch of its mother before being strong enough to get out.
Myth is to humans what the pouch is to the kangaroo.
Our society (science) has ripped this pouch (religion) apart. As a result, most people never have the chance to “be born a second time”. They’re thrown out into the world, but too weak to survive.
The problem with science is that there are no facts, just theories that are disproved one after the other. Religion, on the other hand, was true forever.
We cannot hang on to anything, we have to “stay open”.
But can we handle it?
Chapter 2: Myth Through Time
The Surface and Substance of Myth
One might reasonably define mythology as other people’s religion. The definition of religion is equally uncomplicated: it is misunderstood mythology.
It is misunderstood because we interpret mythological symbols as historical facts.
All religions have a foundation of mythology that represents the human psyche – that is, all religions look alike.
All religions are a reflection of the human psyche, which is why all religions look alike.
Eg: Eastern European religions fear the dark forests with the wolves, while the Polynesians fear the dark ocean with the sharks -> same things.
Symbols in religions are not historical events.
Eg: Jesus VS Christ. Jesus is a historical character, Christ is the Son of God. The former was the incarnation of the latter.
It is of more worth to God that Christ should be born in the virgin soul than that Jesus should have been born in Bethlehem.
Meister Eckhart
Many things in our religions that have been interpreted as historical were in fact symbolic.
We have a collision between these articles of faith and the historical and physical sciences, which we have to admit are ruling our lives, giving us everything that we live by from day to day. This collision has destroyed people’s belief in these symbolic forms; they are rejected as untrue.
Now, it’s not because we know it’s impossible to walk on water that we should discard these myths altogether. In fact, we should keep the symbolism, as it is the vehicle that helps us communicate with our subconscious.
Myths act as a channel between your consciousness and subconsciousness.
When these symbols are taken away, we lose contact with this deeper part of our psyche.
A deity is a personification of a spiritual power. And deities who are not recognized become demonic; they become dangerous.
When you are not talking to these deities aka when you are not in touch with your subconscious, these deities break through to your consciousness which becomes overthrown.
Myths derive from the visions of people who have searched their own most inward world.
The Medieval age was built on the fall and redemption of Man, then was dissolved when we rediscovered the Roman and Greek myths leading up to the Renaissance.
The Birth of Myth: Primitive and Early Societies
There are three great periods in the history of the human race.
- The primitive period
From consciousness to writing. Men hunt and fight -> emphasis and attention on masculine prowess (courage, skill, success).
- The middle period
From 3500 BC in Mesopotamia (with the establishment of cities, discovery of mathematics, etc) to the Renaissance in Europe.
The earth is a tool that needs to be mined and utilized for prosperity.
- The modern period
The Renaissance in Europe (scientific method, empiricism, industrialization, etc) up to now.
Let’s talk about the primitive period.
In the north, people lived off death: hunting, eating, wearing animal skins, etc. They have to kill to survive.
To protect themselves against this death, death does not exist -> beliefs in reincarnation + gratitude toward the animals and the earth (no intensive hunting, respect of nature).
The structure of myth in northern pagan societies.
In the south, people lived off vegetables -> no bravery in picking up a banana -> females become the most important sex as they give birth -> females become associated with the earth.
Now, in the rain forest, you see lots of dead plants from which grow brand new plants -> life comes from death -> more death means more life -> justifies sacrifices.
The structure of myth in southern pagan societies.
A culture’s rites repeat the underlying myth of that culture. One could— as I have—define a ritual as the opportunity to participate directly in a myth. It is the enactment of a mythical situation, and, by participating in the rite, you participate in the myth.
By practicing the rites of the myths, you directly participate in them.
It is from the planting zone that the Neolithic emerges with the first permanent settlements.
Since the first great civilizations come from southeast Asia (rain forest), we are influenced by the idea that life comes from death. Eg: Jesus’crucifixion.
Over the centuries, real sacrifices slowly transformed into symbolic sacrifices.
In foraging societies, all adults were equivalent and of equal status as they controlled the whole culture.
When cities were established, trade, crafts, and arts were invented. Individuals no longer controlled the whole but became a part of it and specialized in one specific thing.
People had to live with people completely different than them.
This created new problems psychologically, and sociologically.
The priests were the most important and educated people. They used mathematics and writing to understand the movement of the star and sun. They created an idea of the cosmic order from their studies.
It was the revelation, namely, of a universal process, an impersonal, implacable power (…) absolutely impersonal and mathematically measurable, to which the ordinances of civilization should be brought into accord. That’s the basic mythic concept of the first high civilizations.
Society down below should imitate the order of the cosmos.
The Birth of East and West: The High Cultures
The high cultures can be divided into two great domains: Orient (everything east of Persia), and Occident (everything west).
There are two great creative centers in Orient, both isolated: northern India, and Japan-China-Southeast Asia. We recognize the ancient Bronze Age worldview brought in from Mesopotamia: the great impersonal cycle.
In Occident, we have the Near East, where the stress is put on the individual participating in the group, and Europe, where the stress is put on the individual.
These two centers are constantly in interplay with each other. In Europe, people located in the middle (agricultural people) suffer invasions from the Aryans up north, and the Semites down south. Both Aryans and Semites honor a masculine god, while the land-based group celebrates the goddess Earth.
The mythology of Europe is the result of this conflict. The Old Testament is about the warrior god saying you can just go and take what belongs to others.
The barbarians became the dominant force in cultures that honored the cosmic cycle. Man god fought mother Earth’s female god. While the Aryans had “a god”, the Semites had a deity attached to the tribe -> Semites regard themselves as unique.
The Barbarians dominated -> Adam (a man) gives birth to Eve. The entire Old Testament is about the masculine god oppressing the feminine mother Earth goddess.
While it sounds like God is masculine, your psyche understands it as being feminine -> all of the symbols are speaking double-talk.
The Orient doesn’t have this problem. The cosmic cycle transcends gender. It transcends even words, so we can’t describe it – it is the essence of your own being -> you are it. The idea is to make you realize that you are “one” with the mystery of the universe.
In the West, God created the world -> the creator and its creatures aren’t the same.
When Jesus said he was “One with the Father”, he was crucified for it.
What we begin to realize now is something India realized 3000 years ago: our myths can no longer be read the way we have been reading them (that is, historically, for Christianism).
The myth is there to help us understand what’s inside us, as the Orient already understood.
The Church has the lessons and symbols to do so, so it shouldn’t tell people what they are supposed to experience – just let them experience it.
The real, important function of the Church is to present the symbol, to perform the rite, to let you behold this divine message in such a way that you are capable of experiencing it.
Part II: Living Myth
Chapter 3: Society and Symbol
The Mechanism of Myths: How Symbols Work
Mythologies use symbols that release energy and channel it. All mythologies use universal symbols -> are the symbols learned (imprinted), or organic (stereotyped)?
They’re likely imprinted. What explains, then, that there are universal?
-> it’s because the human experience in infancy is the same across all cultures.
Society, Myth, and Personal Development
Freud explains that children are born with desires, but not all of them can be fulfilled. When a desire cannot be fulfilled, it goes down into the subconscious and takes with it the forbidding of this desire -> you want something but you know you shouldn’t have it. Freud calls this ambivalence.
Women give birth to the physical body of their child while men give birth to the spirit -> men should be in charge of their children’s education.
Up until 12 years old, children depend on their parents. After 12 years old, a crisis hits during which the child has to become independent rather than asking his parents for solutions.
This experience is universal in all societies.
Primitive societies used rites that compel children to face problems and “grow up”.
The educational ritual translates the inevitable, universal images of infancy into images that will link the individual to the society.
Gods inspired individuals to behave and be responsible.
Nowadays, people who hesitate between dependency and responsibility are neurotic, pulled into two directions.
Until he can face a challenge without running back to his parents internally, a child can never be a true adult.
The adult eventually declines and must prepare for death, using the same images he did to become an adult.
The Ego: East and West
Freud explains that your desires come from your subconscious, out of the id. When you’re born, the id knows that you have needs.
As we said above, you cannot and should not satisfy all of your desires. All of these “I should not” go into the subconscious with the attached desire.
The ego helps you judge things by yourself -> develops your individuality.
In Orient, you should drop the ego and behave how society wants you to behave. They even equalize the ego with the id, so it’s a battle between “I want” VS “you should”. “I should” (the ego) does not exist.
This idea of complete obedience is found in the Bible.
We find there the oriental idea that the smaller societal structure should imitate the way the cosmos works -> Great Harmony.
Individuals must fill a role dictated by priests and given at birth to be a part of this order.
Eg: a mouse should fill the role of a mouse -> education is about teaching you your role, not teaching you individualism -> superego is the sole ideal -> other people decide for you (arranged marriage, etc).
It’s totally different in Occident.
God makes man, and God isn’t man -> symbols are based on the relationship between God and man.
Chapter 4: Myth and the Self
Jung and the Polarities of Personality
Freud thought sex was the main determinant in psychology. Adler disagreed and thought the main determinant was the will to have power, whose sex was a function.
Jung finally, thought that the psyche had an energy that contributes to wanting sex and power.
The tendency to want one or the other is called the basic attitude.
Jung called introverts those who were oriented toward power. They’re constantly wondering how well they’re doing and focus inward.
The sex-oriented person is the extrovert.
You are whether introvert or extrovert (eg: 60% introvert, hence 40% extrovert).
When you are in a situation where your drive for sex or power does not work well, you switch to the secondary drive and an inferior personality emerges, characterized by compulsiveness (aka lack of control).
Jung calls this enantiodromia. That’s often what happens during mid-life crises.
Eg: men who retire (got all the power they needed) suddenly pursue young women. Women who after raising their families, become power monsters (mothers-in-law).
The question is: can you integrate that “inferior side” of your personality instead of letting wreak havoc in your life?
Jung pursues and explains that the psyche is dominated by four functions divided into two opposing pairs:
- Rational functions: thinking and feelings
- Irrational functions: sensation (seeing reality as it is) and intuition (predicting the future aka seeing what can not yet be seen).
These two functions are zero-sum games: developing one a lot means not developing the other (eg: the scientist has poor music tastes.)
In order to avoid this midlife crisis, you should develop these four functions together -> achieving wholeness (individuation).
The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
Jung also saw archetypes of the collective unconscious which are structures in the mind that exist in everybody since birth.
The first one is the self. It encompasses all of the possibilities that you could be. As you grow up and become aware of your self, your ego slowly comes out. The ego is the identification with your body, its experiences, and memories.
As you grow up, you need to learn to live in society with all of its rules, demands, expectations, and roles. The latter are called personae. Eg: when you’re at work, you put on your work role – your persona role.
Problems arise when you act out your persona outside of its context (aka lawyers that keep pleading at home) -> separate your sense of yourself (your ego) from the self you show the rest of the world (your persona.)
In the Orient, this is the opposite: you must become selfless and cancel the ego to become fully the role society gave you.
Then finally, there is a lot of “you” which does not seem to be placed in a persona nor in the ego. It’s in the unconscious, in a place called the shadow. The shadow welcomes all of the “mean things” you want to do but that you shouldn’t do.
The shadow is the repressed recollections as well as the repressed potentialities in you.
The shadow is to the ego what darkness is to light.
The shadow takes the form of monsters in mythology (eg: the dragon).
It is the dark thing that comes up from the abyss and confronts you the minute you begin moving down into the unconscious.
You bury the shadow because it is something your ego doesn’t recognize about you, or doesn’t want to admit.
You can recognize what your shadow is made of by noticing what makes the people you don’t like unlikeable. The traits that annoy you are things you have not integrated into your personality.
These things are rarely as bad as you think originally, and you should find a way to integrate them.
Next comes the anima, the repressed feminine side in men; and the animus, the repressed masculine side in women.
These repressed sides represent the ideal of the opposite sex. We project these onto other people we fall in love with. Then we marry, then we find out who the real person is, and we get divorced.
The only way you have not to get a divorce is to have compassion. You married a human, not a perfect person.
In fact, have compassion for the world in general, even if it’s really crappy.
Nothing alive fits the ideal.
Jung advised releasing all projections and ideals, a process he calls individuation.
There are four types of crises that can trigger enantiodromia.
- You passed from one life stage to another without knowing it.
- Relaxation of life requirements: you’ve worked a lot and now you don’t have to anymore, and you suddenly become a sex addict, or power-hungry -> sense that it is too late for these things.
- Loss of confidence in your moral ideas: you meet someone with different morals, which change yours, and since morals retain (understand: refrain) other types of behaviors, these behaviors emerge. Eg: the nice innocent kid who meets a not-so-innocent kid and they do bad stuff together.
- Doing something you really don’t want to do (due to shame, conflict with your values, etc). Eg: Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.
Chapter 5: Personal Myth
Jung: What Myth Do I Live By?
We no longer all live through the same myth, especially in Western civilization where we now have a secular view of life.
Yet we all have a myth that’s driving us, whether we know it or not. Social life today is taken care of in another better way, but at the cost of leaving the individual mythless.
Mythological images are the images by which the consciousness is put in touch with the unconscious.
Myths act as a channel between your consciousness and subconsciousness.
When you lack these images, you’re out of touch with your deepest part -> find your own myth!
A lot of people live according to a religious myth and this is fine for them. Those who don’t are deeply troubled when a crisis arises.
One of the ways you uncover your myth is by wondering what you would look for should you lose it all tomorrow.
Another way is to look for things that pull you out of the mundanity of life; things that inspire a feeling of awe.
Two things pull people together: aspiration and terror.
When you look at the Western world during the Middle-Age, you see inspiration and terror – which is no wonder why all European cathedrals were built at that time.
When doubts about religion came, society fell apart.
The main mistake the Catholic Church made was to insist on the historical veracity of the myth rather than insist on its psychological relevance.
Mythic images (…) come from the psyche and talk to the psyche; their primary reference is to the psyche.
If you learn religion as being historical rather than learning it as being symbolic, and you begin to doubt the historicity of it all, then you will lose the symbol because you reject it, hence the access to your subconscious.
Jung sought his own myth by wondering what he liked to do as a boy (piling up stones to make “cities”) and enacting it as an adult.
He also recorded his dreams and used mythology to interpret them.
He realized that there were two types of dreams:
- Little dreams: used to deal with the expansion of consciousness and the uncovering of taboos from your childhood.
- Big dreams: those where you wonder about the origin of the universe, and the death.
There are two types of symbols: local, and universal. The universal symbols lead to enlightenment while the local symbols lead to one’s culture.
Make sure that you’re seeking and living the stage of the archetype you are in. It leads to neuroticism otherwise (eg: adults who lack confidence in their judgment and are hence constantly looking for approval from authorities).
When the whole society loses its symbols, people stop turning outward for answers and turn inward, using drugs, meditation, etc as a gateway to wisdom.
Our world now is what could be called a terminal moraine of broken mythological traditions. All the mythical images of mankind are known to us in the museums and everywhere.
Western culture is the only culture that enabled the individual to develop and break free from the demands culture imposes on you. In the Orient, people who live eventually die and are replaced by people who will live the same way. Life is a cycle, and it doesn’t evolve; it doesn’t change.
In the West, people are encouraged to actualize their potential.
The only place to look for blame is within: you didn’t have the guts to bring up your full moon and live the life that was your potential.
Part III: The Hero’s Journey
Chapter 6: The Self as Hero
In the West, you have the liberty and the obligation of finding out what your destiny is. You can discover it for yourself. But do you?
The only way to observe your myth is to pay close attention to your thoughts, symbols, and recurring themes in your life.
Overall, every human follows more or less the same hero’s journey which Campbell wrote about in The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
This journey goes like this:
First, you leave where you are after you have been called to an adventure. Those who refuse the adventure become “hollow men”. Those who accept it get into a dangerous, unknown, and unbeaten path.
The hero journey (…) is simply a journey (…) where you go beyond good and evil.
In stories, this is when the hero goes “past judgment”, into another world. Often the challenge to get there is to face and fight a villain, a dragon, which is the metaphor for the hero’s own shadow.
In some stories, the hero arrives in the other world already dead (Eg: Osiris, Christ, etc) and is resurrected (aka transformed) later on.
Once you have got into the other world, helpers will come along to provide help.
After that, you will have to pass trials and fight off threats that represent the shadow (again) and the repressed parts of yourself.
The deeper you go, the tougher these “monsters” are.
There are four kinds of hurdles along this road:
- Meeting the goddess: integration with the anima/animus. Eg: Prince reaching Sleeping Beauty for men, Europa being impregnated by Zeus for women.
- Atonement with the father: the hero finds his father in the depth of the abyss. The woman becomes either a guide to it, or an obstacle.
- Apotheosis: the hero realizes he is what he is seeking. Eg: The Buddha realizes he is the Buddha.
- The symbols above are the main realization symbols. The fourth one is different: The Promethean theft: the hero lost his lover to an ogre and goes after it (Troy). Once he takes her back, the ogres are angry: no reconciliation with the power of the unconsciousness -> the hero must escape quickly and come back by the path he took to get in. Eg: Moses: arrives as a prince in Egypt through the water, and escapes through the water too.
The whole idea is that you’ve got to bring out again that which you went to recover, the unrealized, unutilized potential in yourself. The whole point of this journey is the reintroduction of this potential into the world; that is to say, to you living in the world.
You have then to integrate this potential into your life -> super difficult.
Whatever you bring back should be something the world doesn’t have but wants.
There can only be three times of reactions when you show what you brought back.
- No one cares. Screw it, you say, and start doing your work for yourself.
- You make something that people care about at the price of losing your authenticity and originality -> you become “commercial”.
- You find the intersection between the thing you want to do and the thing others want to receive.
The characteristic of monsters is that they mistake shadow for substance.
Today, the function of artists is to create symbols that inspire awe in people, that inspire radiance.
A good life is one lived with heroes’ journeys -> don’t be scared to go on that journey.
Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco. But there’s also the possibility of bliss.
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Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey by Bob Hoffman | Book Summary
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Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey by Bob Hoffman
In marketing today, delusional thinking isn’t just acceptable — it’s mandatory. In “Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From New Jersey”, Bob Hoffman, author of “101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising” and “The Ad Contrarian” explains how marketers and advertisers have lost touch with consumers and are living in a fantasy land of their own invention — fed by a cultural echo chamber of books, articles and conferences in which people like them talk to people like them.
What you will learn from reading Marketers are from Mars:
– Why there is an increasing disconnect between marketing and reality.
– How marketers hide behind jargon and vague concepts.
– The rise of fraud in digital advertising and where your ad spend actually goes.
Reality Check – The real reasons why people buy:
You can’t advance your career by speaking plainly and asserting the indisputable — that the reason people buy most products is because they are cheaper, tastier, prettier, work better or are simply more readily available.
Or they are made to believe they have a problem.
Two very different mindsets:
How marketers think: How can I engage consumers with my brand? How do I connect the personality of my brand with my target audience? How can I co-create with my target and develop a conversation?
How consumers think: Is there parking? Will this fucking thing work? How badly are they going to screw me on the price? Will there be anyone there who knows what the fuck he’s talking about?
How can you align the two?
Consumers want clarity and simplicity. Marketers want to complicate things.
The Latest (marketing) Fad always begins with “this changes everything”:
Using hysteria – everything has changed, this changes everything… The fact is habits die hard.
The “thought leaders” of the marketing industry are no less guilty of playing the hysteria card to buy themselves status (and consulting gigs) than the media are. They have created an avalanche of exaggerated claims and dire warnings that gain them attention and a nice little profit from the increased viewership/listenership/readership.
The 21st Century brand engagement – No, consumers do not want to have a conversation with your brand, or an “authentic relationship” with it, or co-create with it, or engage with it, or dance with it, or take a shower with it. They want it to work well, taste good, be reasonably priced, and look pretty. End of story.
Consumers want their predicted end goal not to engage with your brand:
Prof. Byron Sharp has said much more articulately in his book, How Brands Grow most of what we call “brand loyalty” is simply habit and convenience.
Useful Advice: Create a great product – Well, I’m afraid Bob has a very old guy opinion. You want customers raving about your brand? Sell them a good fucking product. Steve Jobs had it right. At Apple “brand” was a “dirty word” and Steve “dreaded, hated” the word “branding.”
Interesting Insight – People love bullshit: In trying to analyze the reason for this sudden popularity, I’ve noticed something. People seem to love posts with the word “bullshit” in the title. (One word persuasion, something they believe isn’t quite right)
The ugly truth – The point is this: our brands are very important to us marketers and very unimportant to most consumers. Please read that again.
Richard Feynman, who wonderfully declared that “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
Targeting:
“But, with digital we have comprehensive targeting ability….”
Targeting has it’s pro’s like everything it’s a tool.
The present obsession with media delivery systems may help our media people locate a certain type of person more easily, but is never going to provide the spark of brilliance on how to motivate this person.
The other exception occurs when people are shopping. Someone actively looking for something is willing to connect.
Here are the 6 stages of digital delusion:
- The Miracle Is Acknowledged: It may be podcasting or banner advertising, YouTube, The Ice Bucket Challenge, or Big Data. Whatever it is, it is going to “change everything.”
- The Big Success: A company somewhere has a big success with it. This is where the danger starts. The success is plastered all over every trade magazine and analyzed at every conference.
- Experts Are Hatched: Clever entrepreneurs gather up a Powerpoint full of cliches and march them around from conference to conference.
- The Bandwagon Rolls: Everyone who knows nothing is suddenly asking the marketing department, “what is our (the new miracle) strategy?”
- Reality Rears Its Ugly Head: The numbers dribble in. Oops… people are ignoring our miracle by the millions. The miracle seems to be working for everyone but us!
- The Back-Pedaling Begins: “Well, it’s just part of an integrated program…” say the former zealots. The experts start blaming the victims.
Now an important question — What is content?
So they’ve renamed it all “content” because it is non-specific — no one knows what the hell it is. And if you don’t know what it is, how can you criticize it?
Content is anything you can upload to the web. In other words, it is pretty much anything. It is a Shakespeare sonnet and a picture of my cat’s ass.
Distinguishing – The idea that “content” as a concept is an important marketing discipline is absurd. An old pizza crust is garbage. But an uploaded picture of an old pizza crust is “content.”
The selfie – and gives it status. You’re not guilty of narcisstic self-indulgence, you’re creating content!
Content is everything, and it’s nothing. It’s an artificial word thrown around by people who know nothing, describing nothing.
By invoking the c-word they are doing what marketing people do best — avoiding the specific and hiding behind jargon.
New Paradigms, ignorance and conformity:
If you don’t buy into new paradigms – When I left the agency business, people within agencies were essentially forbidden from saying this. If you did, you were labeled a Luddite, a dinosaur, or just plain stupid. You “didn’t get it.” It was a one-way ticket out the door.
Jes’s Insight – Ignorance demands conformity. Because everyone knows they are faking it, they seek comfort in the warmth of consensus.
Fraud in digital advertising:
We have failed to educate our clients on the serious deficiencies related to web advertising: -62% of web traffic is reportedly phony -54% of display ads paid for reportedly never ran -57% of video ads paid for are apparently never seen -Fraud and corruption are massive and reportedly in the billions.
It never ends:
For one thing, online work is never done. A website is never finished, a social media or content program always needs feeding, and display advertising always needs optimizing.
If you don’t have negative punishment how can it be stopped? Thinking financiers.
Self-interest has come into conflict with responsibility. Take a guess what’s winning?
In fact, there is only one lesson to be learned from the Ice Bucket Challenge: sometimes silly shit catches on.
A whole generation of marketing and advertising people been taught an entire set of principles that is so lacking in a factual basis, and so influenced by anecdotes and fantasies.
Marketers use Gobbleteegook to hide the fact what they say is meaningless:
Most of the time it doesn’t matter. You can get away with not knowing anything by talking in riddles, parables, and indecipherable jargon.
People, being the insecure dimwits they are, assume that since you’re an expert and they’re not, all this hogwash must mean something.
Because if you’re a prototypical marketing professional pretty much everything you say has already been said a thousand times and is going to turn out to be wrong.
Three effective strategies for being dead wrong, but maintaining your “expert” status:
- “I wasn’t wrong, I was ahead of my time.” This is also known as the “just wait, you’ll see” defense.
- “Of course, I didn’t mean it literally.”
- “It may seem like I was wrong, but if you look beyond…” This is the “broader view” defense.
Arguments against the older generation can be wrong
Everyone’s opinions are shaped by their circumstances — digital zealots no less than old traditional ad people. Their criticism implies that the only valid opinions are those of people who are a blank slate.
My opinions may be dead wrong. But the criticism that they are tainted because I started as a “traditional ad guy” is as stupid as criticizing a baseball manager because he started as a player.
Those who can’t argue on merit argue about you:
This is not the basis for serious debate. However, it is the only line of defense for people who can’t argue on merit.
In fact, the most important success factor for mainstream consumer brands is not how many loyal customers you have, but how many total customers you have. Which is why the current obsession with “engagement” is so misguided.
Most of what I read about the advantages that tech-based advertising (i.e., online advertising) has over traditional advertising seem to be opinions masquerading as facts. Is expanded reach actually a benefit?
If your product is lousy, marketing can’t fix that. If your location is lousy, marketing can’t fix that.
Jes’s Insight – As always with irrational human behaviour we conform to the majority and the cocksure and we forget to question where there beliefs were founded.
Important competitive insight:
As new technology is adopted by everyone, what starts as a competitive advantage often quickly evolves into just another cost of doing business.
It is remarkable to me how much time is spent on technology voodoo and how little time is spent on solving the real problems of real customers.
Technology seduces us into thinking we can solve our problems by spending money instead of changing behaviours. Which is about the most damaging trap a business can fall into.
Here are Bob Hoffman’s 7 secrets of success:
- Assume everyone is faking it. Nobody knows a thing about advertising. All the rules are bullshit. There are a few people who can make good ads. That’s all there is.
- Preparation is everything. If you are not the best prepared person in every meeting you are in for trouble.
- Do as little work as possible at the office. Do your real work somewhere else. It’s almost impossible to do anything useful in an office. Offices are for meetings and phone calls and memos and emails and Powerpoints and politics and bullshit.
- Worry about everything. If you don’t worry you don’t care. Figure out what’s going to go wrong and be prepared when it does.
- Stay as far away from big organizations as possible. Corporations will suck all the joy out of your life.
- Pay no attention to the industry. The more you read about what other agencies or other clients are doing the more you’re going to become a cliché spewing zombie
- Be satisfied. You don’t have to work for the biggest agency in the world or be the best art director on the planet to be successful and happy.
Generation gap and misperceptions:
Anyone who’s ever had a parent knows one thing for sure: Old people think young people are idiots.
It’s no coincidence that people in the ad industry tend to be young. All this youth worship is really just narcissism masquerading as business strategy.
Realistic look at demographics – Youth: Even if they wanted a Pontiac (which they didn’t and never would) young people can’t afford new cars, and no lender in his right mind will finance them. Chevy is flirting with frittering away its whole culture on people who don’t buy cars, don’t want cars, and can’t afford cars.
Do not hold up a mirror. Don’t try to show them who they are or tell them what they believe. Older people want to be youthful, but they do not want to be like young people.
Contrary to popular belief – It turns out that the average consumer has a lot more on her mind than conducting online conversations about fabric softener.
Why people change brands:
Enthusiasm about a brand or convenience – Believers in this ideology assumed that a person’s use of a product was a demonstration of enthusiasm for the brand. Sadly, in the vast majority of cases, it is merely an indication of habit, convenience, or mild satisfaction.
In most cases people will change brands with very little bother if it turns out to be convenient or otherwise beneficial.
The State of Social Media:
Social media sites are quickly evolving into just another channel for delivering traditional interruptive advertising.
There are only two possible explanations. The first is that they are not capable of creating anything that anyone wants to read. I doubt that this is the reason. I think the real reason is the second possibility — they’re full of shit.
“The Future Of Data Driven Infometrics.” Let’s be honest here…none of us really gives a shit about the future of anything except ourselves. – Tell me how this will benefit me.
A Hilarious interpretation of current state of social media consultants – According to one theory proposed by physicists at the Very, Very Small Teflon Collider in Rhode Island, there are actually more bosons in the universe than social media consultants in Brooklyn.
Issue the following statement: “Sometimes process can be the enemy of progress. We’ve learned something from this and are streamlining everything we do.”
The truth of Social Media:
Your social media strategy doesn’t suck because Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs can’t reach people. It sucks because you’re stuffing it with crap that no one is interested in.
Maybe ask yourself this question before you create social content: Do you have something worth saying?
Online Fraud:
CNET reported on a study by research firm Incapsula that found only 38% of traffic on the web is human. – fake traffic is essentially systemic to advertising—it’s part of how the business works.
Every study ever done tells the same story — display ads are overwhelmingly ignored.
Internet is full of phonies:
Phony traffic – Bot-nets generate billions of phony visits to websites daily, which advertisers pay for. Phony clicks – Likewise
Phony websites – Sometimes called “spoofing,” phony websites pretend they’re real websites and sell imaginary ad space to knuckleheads Invisible ads –
Euphemistically called “unviewable,” these are ads that “technically” appear but are invisible.
A company in the advertising fraud detection business recently estimated that just one average sized bot-net could be responsible for one billion fraudulent ad impressions every day.
The digital industry is full of sneaky little bastards whose “facts” and “data” usually turn out to be either intentionally misleading, willfully incomplete, or stone cold bullshit.
The research industry, heavily dependent on the digital ad industry for business, is complicit and almost always spins its findings about digital in the most positive light.
The pitiful trade press — devoid of perspective or skepticism — swallows this garbage whole and publishes it with a tone of gee-whiz boosterism
Using logic and reason to persuade:
Current Marketers Brains operate like this —- “While I haven’t seen any research that confirms this hypothesis, it seems logical to me and I think it’s probably true.”
Naughty words have a use — they remove any hint of ambiguity.
People keep saying this “the internet now means people are in charge of their choices: Look at what statements assume — consumers are now in-charge of making there own decisions thanks to the internet – It assumes that there was a time in the past when the consumer was not in charge of making buying decisions. I’d love to know when that was.
It assumes the usual bullshit about the web having “changed everything.”
Most depressingly, it shows a remarkable and frightening lack of understanding about what’s going on.
Political reality –
You will think of your agency as “your team.” And, like all teams, they will have a limitless capacity for petty grievances and will go out of their way to undermine each other.
There’s way too much consensus. Way too much cordiality. Way too little controversy.
Nobody seems inclined to challenge the wearisome assertions of modern-day wizards, no matter how many times they’ve been wrong.