Book Review: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI - ROBIN SHARMA

Here at Evolve, we absolutely cherish books that impart long lasting wisdom and principles that will linger on in our memories and enrich our experience of life. This book gives us just that. It cuts straight to the point, no frills, no convoluted storyline, just a simple conversation between two friends on a living room floor.

Robin Sharma tells a story of a big shot lawyer, Julian, who had all the material success the world praises yet felt a persistent sense of unfulfillment. After a life threatening health scare, he leaves his esteemed legal career, sells all his valuables [including his red ferrari] and moves to India in pursuit of the answers to life he so desperately needed.

Despite it being ridiculously difficult to choose, what follows will be five themes we wanted to focus on in this review.

Seeing it through

Julian mentions that the first indications of his personal expansion came three weeks after he started consistently practising the wisdom and strategies he was taught. This shows us the power of sticking it out and showing up despite not seeing any changes or progress. The belief in the magic that's bubbling under just by us consistently showing up is vital. It's important to remember anything sustainable starts with a strong unseen, underground foundation. Don't be discouraged in the waiting. Keep showing up!

True nobility is being superior to yourself and not others

While we can definitely take inspiration from those around us, allowing certain traits of theirs that we admire to help us strive towards the people we want to become, we must let them be just that, an inspiration. This theme highlights that establishing fine personal qualities comes from improving ourselves with the goal of being better than our former selves, and not trying to be better than those around us. It is then important to fix our focus on ourselves and not compete and compare ourselves with other people.

This perspective offers us a far more fulfilling and sustainable avenue for change within ourselves. As it is aptly put in the book: “people who study others are wise but those who study themselves are enlightened”.

Self-mastery: Mind, body and spirit

This speaks to the discipline of self-mastery being tending and investing in your mind, body and spirit daily. No matter how little time you are able to spend with yourself, it is worth the effort. Tending and investing in yourself requires attentiveness towards the personal needs of each part of yourself and tending to them daily. Once you can master taking care and investing in yourself, you better position yourself to successfully face whatever life chooses to bring your way. The book sums this up beautifully: “saying that you do not have time to improve yourself, whether it means improving your mind or nourishing your spirit, is much like saying you do not have time to stop for gas because you are busy driving. Eventually, it will catch up with you.”

Momentum, the secret to self-discipline

It is easier to push a moving car than one that is at a stand still. The only way to get where you want to get to is by keeping it going. It doesn't matter how many steps, how big or small the steps are, what matters is taking a step always. Taking a step actually encourages us to take the next. We may not realise this but what creates true motivation is the success of an action we take, not the desire to take the action. The small wins motivate us to keep going and as you keep going, you create momentum which strengthens your muscle of self-discipline.

When the student is ready the teacher appears.

This is a beautiful reminder that when challenges arise, you are capable of overcoming them. When it is time for you to gain a skill or learn a lesson, you are in the perfect position to absorb it. Nothing life throws at us is beyond our capabilities and what we can withstand builds us. But this understanding also brings us peace. Life is on our side, and we will never step into a season without life preparing us for it adequately. Everything you do now in your younger years, is for the benefit of your older self. That sounds like a beautiful love letter to me.

We leave you with this self-reflective exercise

Kaizen is a compound of two Japanese words that together mean ‘continuous improvement’. This is the art of self-leadership and here is the exercise:

Make a list of all your strengths, this purely with the intention of laying a positive, feel - good foundation. Then make a list of all your weaknesses, the things that are holding you back from thriving. Tackle one at a time, create a game plan of how you will challenge yourself and turn them into strengths, or at the very least, something you have become good at. Slowly but surely, those tasks will frighten you less, because you have intentionally confronted and overcome them.

We hope you enjoyed this book as much as we did.

Feel free to pop us a dm with a book you would love for us to read as a collective.

We will be announcing the book for the month of April on the 16th of March 2023!