Think Like A Monk

Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day By Jay Shetty

Book Summary

He spent three years at an ashram in Mumbai India living as a Vedic monk. Afterwards he took all he learned about living with intention and shared it with the world relating it to hot topics such as around relationships wellness and mental health.

You may have seen some of his videos floating around like this one.

Or tuned into his podcast on purpose with guests like Alicia Keys Klhoe Kardashian and the late Kobe Bryant. He is Jay Shetty and he shares his learnings in his New York Times best selling book Think Like A Monk Train Your Mind For Peace and Purpose Every Day

Here are the 5 big ideas from Think Like A Monk:

Big idea #1: Get out of your head

We have a lot of things happening up here and with that comes a lot of mental weight. Some consciously and a lot unconsciously. We can relieve some of it by writing. What? You have a good memory? Great. Write it down. Oh. You prefer to work it out in your dome? Nah. Write it down!

The act of writing something down makes it real and is the first step toward taking something intangible in here to the real world. For instance goals. Write them down because if you don’t you run the risk of your noggin losing it. Again there’s a lot of things going on in there so write things down and make it actionable. Do it!

Big idea #2: Be the mosquito

If you ever get negative and you think you're too small to make a difference or even the world doesn't care. Think about this. Sleeping with a mosquito.

Camping. As one would have it I was in a tent that first evening when my knucklehead did not fully zip the entrance. So the punishment came when a little pesky mosquito bugger snuck in. At first I thought I could easily ignore the buzzing. That was the first 30 mins. Then I switched on my flashlight and went on the hunt. Trying to swat it out. Nothing. It felt like hours and I was getting nowhere so I pulled my sleeping bag over my head in defeat. 

It felt like an eternity to get used to the sound and here is the kicker I used my sleeping bag as a sound cover the whole night pretty much suffocated myself to sleep.

That small mosquito made all of the difference for my first camping experience. That is a negative example but it can be applied to positive experiences as well. 

This can be applied to everything else. Habits productivity progress. Never underestimate the small little things that can lead to lasting large impact.

Big idea #3: Help by hiding ego

Don’t count the teeth in someone else’s mouth. A wise quote to follow when you're thinking about helping others. What it is trying to say is don’t attempt to fix someone else’s problem unless you have the necessary skills to do so.

Let us unpack this. Helping others is great and we should all do more of it. However we need to have both the skill and intent to truly lend a helping hand. Doing so just to make ourselves feel better or gain recognition could lead to disaster. That’s why we must make sure we are well positioned to do so. After all, if you can't swim and you see someone drowning you better not dive in or you will both go down. Listen and call for help if you're not equipped. There is no shame in asking on behalf of others. Your ego won’t make you a hero. Deadly rhymes. I know. Watch out Em!

Big idea #4: Focus for freedom

Jay says people complain about their poor memories but we don’t have a retention problem we have an attention problem.

Amen.  I love this. Jay highlights how we need to exercise our focus muscle. When we are distracted we trap ourselves from getting the most out of life as we are never really present to fully get the most out of the moment. It's also really practical. Fully immersing yourself in one thing reduces the mental energy you are splitting among others. Fire emoji please!

But the broader implications are on our relationships.

For example, have you ever been in a conversation when the other person’s phone pulls a peek a boo. They say they can multitask but you’re thinking their an assface because a load of crap came out of their talk hole.

Maybe you’re a lot nicer than I am but facts are that the hundred percent conversational attention is now split fifty fifty. My hunch is that you either end up repeating yourself then if not later.

Rude!

It's bad enough to be multi-tasking and splitting your time on different tasks between your spreadsheet, internet browser and phone chat app but when you are dividing your attention with those around you the risk is ruining relationships.

To free your mind, focus on the task at hand, the person in front of you or the memory you are making. Cement the memory to live with intention.

Big idea #5: Learn for confidence

I've always been fascinated by the one percent rule. This is the one where you improve just one percent each day to help create habits or show progress to a goal you may be striving for.

But what is one percent? How do we measure that we have leveled up?

Jay here provides a great tip especially for those of you who may not have a particular goal in mind. Learn something new each day.

Simple as that.

You know that feeling when something just clicks? Plus one percent. That light bulb that suddenly turns on? Plus one percent. 

Discovery is a way to build self esteem and self worth and that feeling alone is definitely worth more than one percent.

But don't stop there. To really understand something the next exercise is to explain or even teach it to someone else. Plus one percent + one percent!

Two light bulbs are brighter than one!

This has been a summary for Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty. If you read the book what were your key learnings what did you make part of your practice?