126 Words of Wisdom from “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma
Stay focused on your purpose; the Universe will take care of everything else.
I found a soothing read in “The Monk who sold his Ferrari”, it’s a business and self-help fable about a renowned Lawyer who sold his high prized possession and went in search of true, long-lasting success and happiness.
The story is believed to be derived from Sharma’s personal experience after he quit his legal career at age 25. It’s an inspiring story embedded with innumerable nuggets and a good read especially at trying times like this.
The Monk who sold his Ferrari is one of Sharma’s publications, published in 1997, and reportedly sold over 3 million copies as of 2013. He is also the author of “The Leader who had no title” amongst others.
It’s a good book for anyone who has hit rock bottom or anyone who feels stuck and feels like their life is slipping away uncontrollably. The book is split into 13 chapters but I put the nuggets in 8 headers; mind-mastery, failure, success, self-mastery, positivity, growth, Sages of Sivana’s 5-step method of reaching objectives and Sages of Sivana’s rituals of radiant living.
I’d recommend reading the book to enable you to understand the reasoning behind every nugget herein. Get the book here. This summary has been written to help refresh your memory about the book in line with Fair use and the link is not an affiliate link.
Mind Mastery
Begin to live out of the glory of your imagination, not your memory.
Expand your imagination, things are always created twice: first in the workshop of the mind and then, in reality. This process is called ‘blueprinting’.
Awaken yourself to the power of your own mind to make things happen. Once you do, the universe will conspire with you to work magic in your life.
Words are the verbal embodiment of power.
The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. If you have become a negative thinker, this is because you have not cared for your mind and taken the time to train it to focus on the good.
Always remember that concentration is at the root of mental mastery.
The mind can accomplish extraordinary things.
To liberate the power of the mind, you must first be able to harness it and direct its focus only to the task at hand.
The moment you concentrate the focus of your mind on a singular purpose, extraordinary gifts will appear within your life.
Once you are concentrating your mental power and energy on a pursuit that you love, abundance flows into your life, and all your desires are fulfilled with ease and grace.
Either you control your mind, or it controls you.
Under the grand laws of Nature, the mind can only hold one thought at any one time.
When an undesirable thought occupies the focal point of your mind, immediately replace it with an uplifting one. Your mind is a giant slide projector, with every thought in your mind being a slide. Whenever a negative slide comes up on the screen, take swift action to replace it with a positive one.
Weak minds lead to weak actions. A strong, disciplined mind, which anyone can cultivate through daily practice, can achieve miracles.
If you want to live life to the fullest, care for your thoughts as you would your most prized possessions. Work hard to remove all inner turbulence. The rewards will be abundant.
Thoughts are things, material messengers that we send out to influence our physical world.
If you hope to make remarkable improvements in your outer world you must first start within and change the caliber of your thoughts.
The mind works through pictures. Pictures affect your self-image and your self-image affects the way you feel, act, and achieve. If your self-image tells you that you are too young to be successful or too old to change your habits for the better, you never will achieve these goals. If your self-image tells you that life is rich with purpose, excellent health, and happiness are only for people from backgrounds other than your own, this prophecy will ultimately become your reality.
When you run inspiring, imaginative pictures through the movie screen of your mind, beautiful things start to happen in your life.
Einstein said, ‘imagination is more important than knowledge.’
Spend some time every day, even if it is just a few minutes, in the practice of creative envisioning. See yourself as you want to be, whether this means serving as a great judge, a great father, or a great citizen of your community.
Mentally rehearse the way you will govern your actions when a similar scene unfolds on the canvas of reality.
Your mind has the magnetic power to attract all that you desire into your life.
If there is a lack in your life it is because there is a lack in your thoughts.
The mind must have a great deal more potential than most of us are currently using.
Every second you spend thinking about someone else’s dreams you take time away from your own.
Fatigue is a creation of the mind. Fatigue dominates the lives of those who are living without direction and dreams.
The mind is like a fertile garden and for it to flourish, you must nurture it daily. Never let the weeds of impure thought and action take the garden of your mind. Stand guard at the gateway of your mind. Keep it healthy and strong, it will work miracles in your life if you will only let it.
We each think about 60,000 thoughts on an average day. By writing out your desires and goals on a piece of paper, you send a red flag to your subconscious mind that these thoughts are far more critical than the remaining 59,999 other ones. Your mind will then start to seek out all opportunities to realize your destiny like a guided missile.
The human mind is the world’s largest filtering device. When used properly it filters out what you perceive as unimportant and gives you only the information you are looking for at that time.
The mind is the ultimate treasure house of power.
Those who keep their minds open to new concepts — those whose cups are always empty — will always move to higher levels of achievement and fulfillment.
No experience is inherently painful or pleasant. It is your thinking that makes it so.
Methodically search for and then destroy every fear that has secretly slid into the fortress of your mind. This alone will give you enormous confidence, happiness, and peace of mind.
When you nourish your own mind and your own spirit, you are really feeding the Soul of the Universe.
Will is the king of mental powers.
When you master your mind, you master your life. Mental mastery starts with being able to control every thought that you think. When you have developed the ability to discard all weak thoughts and focus only on those that are positive and good, positive and good actions will follow. Soon you will start attracting all that is positive and good into your life.
When you control your thoughts, you control your mind. When you control your mind, you control your life. And once you reach the stage of being in total control of your life, you become the master of your destiny
Words are great influencers. Words are the verbal embodiment of power. By filling your mind with words of hope, you become hopeful. By filling your mind with words of kindness, you become kind. By filling your mind with thoughts of courage, you become courageous. Words have power.
Your will does not have a mind of its own. It waits for you to give it instructions that will spur it into action. The more control you exert over it, the more powerful it will become.
Wage war against the weaker thoughts that have crept into the palace of your mind. They will see that they are unwanted and leave like unwelcome visitors.
Be brave and set no limits on the workings of your imagination.
Failure
Every event has a purpose and every setback its lesson.
Failure, whether of the personal, professional, or even spiritual kind, is essential to personal expansion.
There are no mistakes in life, only lessons.
How can you really know the joy of being on the summit of the mountain unless you have first visited the lowest valley?
Failure is not having the courage to try.
Failure tests us and allows us to grow. It offers us lessons and guides us along the path of enlightenment. The teachers of the East say that every arrow that hits the bull’s eye is the result of one hundred misses.
Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured.
Success
Success on the outside means nothing unless you also have success within
Quick fixes do not work. All lasting inner change requires time and effort.
The less you focus on the result, the quicker it will come.
The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all your energy towards doing it.
Your passion must, in some way, improve or serve the lives of others.
Victor Frankl; ‘Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued. It must ensue. And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.’
As you strive to improve the lives of others, your own life will be elevated into its highest dimensions.
He who serves the most, reaps the most, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. This is the way to inner peace and outer fulfillment.
Goal setting will make your life magnificent. You will never be able to hit a target that you cannot see.
Know your outcome.
You master the art of goal-setting — and goal-getting — by starting off small and getting good at accomplishing little feats prepares you for realizing the big ones.
Discover your calling and you will start to experience the ecstasy of an inspired life.
Happiness comes through the progressive realization of a worthy objective. When you are doing what you truly love to do you are bound to find deep contentment.
The very moment you decide from the deepest core of your being that you will raise your life to its highest level. In that instant, you will be a changed person, one set on the course of his destiny
Small victories lead to large victories. You must build on the small to achieve the great.
You have set a goal and you have realized it. This feels good. The trick is to keep setting the mark higher and raising your standards continuously.
Self-Mastery
Self-mastery and the consistent care of one’s mind, body, and soul are essential to finding one’s highest self and living the life of one’s dreams. How can you care for others if you cannot even care for yourself? How can you do good if you don’t even feel good? How can you love people if you cannot love yourself?
It is only when you have mastered the art of loving yourself that you can truly love others. It’s only when you have opened your own heart that you can touch the hearts of others.
There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn, and advance along the road of self-mastery.
The boundaries of your life are merely creations of the self.
Persistence is the mother of personal change.
Worry causes your precious mental energy and potential to leak, just like air leaking out of an inner tube. Soon, you have no energy left. All your creativity, optimism, and motivation have been drained, leaving you exhausted.
Once you find your purpose, life becomes much easier and far more rewarding.
When you figure out what your main aim or destiny really is, you will never have to work another day in your life. Your work will be play.
Shake up your life a bit. Get rid of the cobwebs. Take the road less traveled.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to regularly move beyond your comfort zone. This is the way to lasting personal mastery and to realize the true potential of your human endowments.
Take the time to reflect on your life regularly. Even ten minutes of focused reflection a day will have a profound impact on the quality of your life.
Saying that you don’t have time to improve your thoughts and your life is like saying you don’t have time to stop for gas because you are too busy driving. Eventually, it will catch up with you.
Never forget that there is power in silence and stillness. Stillness is the stepping stone to connecting with the universal source of intelligence that throbs through every living thing.
Those who are truly enlightened know what they want out of life, emotionally, materially, physically, and spiritually.
Clearly defined priorities and goals for every aspect of your life will serve a role like that played by a lighthouse, offering you guidance and refuge when the seas become rough.
Stay focused on your purpose. The Universe will take care of everything else.
Self-mastery is the DNA of life mastery.
When you dare to get out of your circle of comfort and explore the unknown, you start to liberate your true human potential. This is the first step towards self-mastery and mastery over every other circumstance in your life.
When you push beyond your limits you unlock mental and physical reserves that you never thought you had.
Within you lies the sun, the moon, the sky, and all the wonders of this universe. The intelligence that created these wonders is the same force that created you. All things around you come from the same source.
An abundance of willpower and discipline is one of the chief attributes of all those with strong characters and wonderful lives.
I learned that time slips through our hands like grains of sand, never to return. Those who use time wisely from an early age are rewarded with rich, productive, and satisfying lives. Those who have never been exposed to the principle that ‘time mastery is life mastery’ will never realize their enormous human potential. Time is the great leveler. Whether we are privileged or disadvantaged, whether we live in Texas or Tokyo, we all have been allotted days with only twenty-four hours. What separates those who build exceptional lives from the ‘also-rans’ is the way they use this time.”
Being an excellent time manager doesn’t mean that you must become a workaholic. On the contrary, time mastery allows you more time to do the things you love to do, the things that are truly meaningful to you. Time mastery leads to life mastery. Guard time well. Remember, it’s a non-renewable resource.
Growth
Never regret your past. Rather, embrace it as the teacher that it is
When the student is ready, the teacher appears
When you feel centered and alive, you are in a much better position to be a better person.”
From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher
To savor the good, one must know the bad
Once you find out what your life’s work is, your world will come alive. You will wake up every morning with a limitless reservoir of energy and enthusiasm. All your thoughts will be focused on your definite objective.
Stop being so practical. Start doing the things you have always wanted to do.
There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self
If you want to improve your life and live with all that you deserve you must run your own race.
A burning sense of passion is the most potent fuel for your dreams. Reclaim the joy of waking up every morning full of energy and exhilaration. Breathe the fire of passion into all that you do. You
Never be reluctant to ask even the most basic of questions. Questions are the most effective method of eliciting knowledge
It is only through improving one’s self that one could ever hope to improve the lot of others.
Once you have identified what your weaknesses are, the next step is to face them head-on and attack your fears. Fear is nothing more than a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness.”
You are at your best when you are moving forward. The key is not to make your happiness contingent on finding that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
To transcend pain, you have to first experience it
True life change is spontaneous.
The quality of your life ultimately comes down to the quality of your contribution
By elevating the lives of others, your life reaches its highest dimensions
Positivity
Stop judging events as either positive or negative. Rather, simply experience them, celebrate them, and learn from them. Every event offers you lessons. These little lessons fuel your inner and outer growth.
Be patient and live with the knowledge that all you are searching for is certain to come if you prepare for it and expect it
The very fact that you have a desire or a dream means that you have the corresponding capacity to realize it.
British novelist ‘One must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle — and a mystery.
Only those who seek shall find.
See setbacks as opportunities for personal expansion and spiritual growth
Lasting happiness comes from steadily working to accomplish your goals and advancing confidently in the direction of your life’s purpose.
The happiness you are searching for comes through reflecting on the worthy aims you are dedicated to achieving and then acting daily to advance them.
There is no chaos in this universe. There is a purpose for everything that has ever happened to you, and everything that will happen to you. goals.
Finally, always remember that what lies behind you and what lies in front of you is nothing when compared to what lies within you.”
Never forget the importance of living with unbridled exhilaration. Never neglect to see the exquisite beauty in all living things.
Today, and this very moment is a gift.
When you have taken the time to build a strong character full of discipline, energy, power, and optimism, you can have anything and do anything you want in your outer world.
When you have cultivated a deep sense of faith in your abilities and an indomitable spirit, nothing can stop you from succeeding in all your pursuits and living with great rewards
Start to live with unbridled energy and limitless enthusiasm. Watch the sunrise. Dance in a rain shower. Be the person you dream of being. Do the things you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you tricked yourself into believing that you were too young, too old, too rich, or too poor. Prepare to live a soaring, fully alive life.
When you improve yourself, you are improving the lives of all those around you.
When you have the courage to advance confidently in the direction of your dreams, you begin to draw upon the power of the universe
Life gives you what you ask of it. It is always listening.
The universe favors the brave. When you resolve, once and for all, to lift your life to its highest level, the strength of your soul will guide you.
The past is water under the bridge and the future is a distant sun on the horizon of your imagination.
The most important moment is now. Learn to live in it and savor it fully.
We all have something that we are meant to do. Your genius will shine through, and happiness will fill your life, the instant you discover your higher purpose and then direct all your energies towards it. Once you are connected to this mission, whether it is being a great teacher of children or an inspired artist, all your desires will be fulfilled effortlessly. You will not even have to try.
The Sages of Sivana’s five-step method of reaching objectives and fulfilling life’s purpose
1. Form a clear mental image of the outcome. Imagine the outcome when you wake up every morning. The clearer the mental picture, the more effective the process will be. The mind is the ultimate treasure house of power and this simple act of “picturing” goals would open the gateway to the actualization of the desire
2. Create positive pressure to keep you inspired. No one likes to look like a failure, once you make your goal known to the world, there will instantly be pressure on you to work towards its fulfillment since
3. Attach timelines to your goals. To breathe life into a goal you must attach a precise deadline to it.
4. Imbibe the Magic Rule of 21 in creating new habits. For a new behavior to crystallize into a habit, you must perform the new activity for twenty-one days in a row. There is tremendous power in a ritual. when you insert any activity into your routine by doing it the same way at the same time every day, it quickly grows into a habit.
5. Go for it; don’t hesitate to launch for anything that you want dearly
The Sages of Sivana’s “Ten Rituals of Radiant Living.”
1. Ritual of Solitude This involves nothing more than ensuring that your daily schedule includes a mandatory period of peace.
2. The Ritual of Physicality It’s simple. The Ritual of Physicality is based on the principle that says as you care for the body so you care for the mind. As you prepare your body, so you prepare your mind. As you train your body, so you train your mind. Take some time every single day to nourish the temple of your body through vigorous exercise.
3. The Ritual of Live Nourishment.
4. The Ritual of Abundant Knowledge It centers on the whole notion of lifelong learning and expanding your knowledge base for the good of yourself and all those around you.
Knowledge isn’t power, knowledge is only potential power. For the power to be manifested, it must be applied. Most people know what they. The Ritual of Abundant Knowledge is all about becoming a student of life. Even more importantly, it requires that you use what you have learned in the classroom of your existence.”
5. The Ritual of Personal Reflection The sages were firm believers in the power of inner contemplation. By taking the time to get to know yourself, you will connect to a dimension of your being that you never knew you had.” By looking at what you are doing, how you are spending your day, and the thoughts you are thinking, you give yourself a benchmark for measuring improvement. The only way to improve tomorrow is to know what you did wrong today.
6. The Ritual of Early Awakening The ten-minute period before you sleep and the ten-minute period after you wake up are profoundly influential on your subconscious mind. Only the most inspiring and serene thoughts should be programmed into your mind at those times.
7. The Ritual of Music.
8. The Ritual of the Spoken Word The practice of reciting mantras in recite morning, noon, and night is immensely effective in keeping you focused, strong, and happy. You are what you think about all day long. You are also what you say to yourself all day long. If you say that you are old and tired, this mantra will be manifested in your external reality. If you say you are weak and lack enthusiasm, enthusiasm, this too will be the nature of your world. But if you say that you are healthy, dynamic, and fully alive, your life will be transformed. You see, the words you say to yourself affect your self-image and your self-image determines what actions you take.
9. The Ritual of a Congruent Character This ritual requires you to take daily, incremental action to build your character. Strengthening your character affects the way you see yourself and the actions you take. The actions you take come together to form your habits and, this is important, your habits lead you to your destiny.
Do the right things. Act in a way that is congruent with your true character. Act with integrity. Be guided by your heart. The rest will take care of itself. For now, remember that you must do little things every day to build your character. As Emerson said: ‘Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as to think.
10.The Ritual of Simplicity. This ritual requires you to live a simple life. As Yogi Raman said ‘one must never live in the thick of thin things. Focus only on your priorities, those activities that are truly meaningful. Your life will be uncluttered, rewarding, and exceptionally peaceful.
Unless you reduce your needs, you will never be fulfilled. You will always be like that gambler in Las Vegas, staying at the roulette wheel for ‘just one more spin’ in the hope that your lucky number will come up. You will always want more than you have. How can you ever be happy?
Yes, expand your dreams. Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness. This is your birthright!
I hope you were able to catch up on words that might have slipped your mind while you were reading the book?
Don’t forget to share with someone who needs this and leave me a comment if this was helpful.
