The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success

MTR

MTR

Was watching an interview yesterday with Deepak Chopra, fascinating person. I think he has written over 15 books, many best sellers. He actually started off as a Doctor, working in one of the largest hospital in US.

Has anyone read the above book??

Wonder why we always relate success to how much money someone has made, I do anyway. After reading this paragraph below, I want to read more.

"There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. Moreover, success is a journey, not a destination. Material abundance, in all its expressions, happens to be one of those things that makes the journey more enjoyable. But success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being and peace of mind".


MTR::)
 
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*bit long, attempting to put a few thoughts into a few paragraphs, I sound 100 in this but it was over a period of about 4-5 years*

I grew up in a moderate yet religious family.

Wealth was seen as a means to an end and not a measure of success. Looking back I feel quite fortunate for that upbringing.

I personally see a huge gap in happiness when speaking with an investor who invests for a larger purpose than themselves or see it as a game, and those who invest with a focus on the accumulation of monetary wealth or for egotistical purposes.

My journey (although a culmination of various experiences) started after seeing a window fall out of a building 10 stories high and nearly kill a kid in Peru. I looked up and could see all these buildings constructed all around me and realised how people would cut corners for a profit so turned my attention to quality and affordable construction. Investing was a by-product of learning about the construction industry.

Somewhere along the line I started gauging my success by how much I had in my bank account and it took some pretty serious shaking up in my life to get my head back on track. I wanted to create affordable housing yet found myself evicting tenants who couldn't afford the rent.

My focus on the accumulation of monetary wealth really mirrored my happiness. The more I focused on the money and not the 'end goal,' the less happy I was.

I would buy 1 house, I wanted 2. I got 2, I wanted 3. I got 3, I wanted 5. Yet I wasn't any happier other than the short lived euphoria of each purchase. I only became present that I'd forgotten it was a game I'd created for myself.

One of my mentors asked me point blank: "What will you do once you retire?". I responded with starting a family, be more involved with community work and start a business. He then responded "then why are you not doing it now?".

I'd completely forgotten life was a journey and the sole purpose of my existence wasn't to reach some magical end goal where all my dreams would suddenly come true. I realised I didn't need money to do what I really wanted (humans have an amazing ability to make things happen out of thin air), and started noticing I, like many of my investment peers were being driven with an obsession to prove to the world they could take care of themselves (or something along the lines of proving something).

Now I invest because, investing is fun, and creates opportunities for personal growth. I enjoy sharing my learning's with friends, and networking with like minded individuals to work on projects for community improvement. Life's pretty good these days, peaceful, and fulfilling.
 
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I don't look at wealth as the only measure of success - plenty of folks have become very wealthy by accident and not effort or skill.

Completion of tasks attempted is one of my own internal measures...don't like unfinished or unsuccessful projects or ventures.

Parents often measure part of their success in life in how their children turn out to be as they grow up, and so on...what influence they've had on their kids.

My kids think I'm a crazy idiot, so I've done well there. :D

How many friends they have is another measure for some.

Postcode address is another, which school is another and so on - mostly material stuff.

But I want to be wealthy so I can have loads more time, loads more fun and options for loads more time and fun.

One of my successes is that to date I have been very healthy and relatively sickness free most of my life...probably a lot of luck in that though.
 
MTR said:
Was watching an interview yesterday with Deepak Chopra, fascinating person. I think he has written over 15 books, many best sellers. He actually started off as a Doctor, working in one of the largest hospital in US.

Has anyone read the above book??

Wonder why we always relate success to how much money someone has made, I do anyway. After reading this paragraph below, I want to read more.

"There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. Moreover, success is a journey, not a destination. Material abundance, in all its expressions, happens to be one of those things that makes the journey more enjoyable. But success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being and peace of mind".


MTR::)
Click to expand...

In theory yes to all of above and I totally agree
But in practice, how many of us can achieves this?
 
I tried reading it once. It's crap. But then, I'm not a spiritual person in the slightest.

To me, there are only two 'laws' to success: Focus and Perseverance. There you go, I've just summed up every self help book ever written in one sentence.

I prefer to read James Altucher's blog and listen to his podcasts. This is a guy that has succeeded and failed several times. I'm more inclined to listen to James, because he doesn't hide behind his successes, he's quite open about his failures too and what he learned from them.

He's a breath of fresh air amongst the airy-fairy 'self help' gurus and Oprah-fied nonsense that sounds good but doesn't actually say anything.

MTR, you would do far better by reading biographies of people you admire as opposed to reading the latest regurgitation of Think and Grow Rich.
 
BayView said:
Parents often measure part of their success in life in how their children turn out to be as they grow up, and so on...what influence they've had on their kids.
Click to expand...

*this is a personal view, and not aimed at anyone in particular*

Other than how happy a kid is, I feel everything else can be quite a false indication of success.

At face value, a superficial person can have a quality education, plenty of money, lots of friends and live in a great postcode. Which by most accounts is a successful person. Yet be incredibly miserable and unfulfilled.

Some may say it is because they should focus on others. I have met plenty of people who give their all to community work yet do it because they really enjoy being praised as being selfless, or feel they HAVE to do it, condemning themselves for enjoying lifes simple pleasures along the way.

I have had so many friends who gauged success on how much women like them and what they had, yet it just led to one broken person creating another broken person.

I feel the only way to gauge my childs success is on the quality of the relationships they build and their level of happiness (not to be confused with enjoyment in a hedonistic sense). Wether they achieved top marks in class, live in the best house, have lots of friends is trivial and simply a bonus.

I suppose more accurately as MTR quoted "good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being and peace of mind".
 
I find most of Deepak Chopra stuff crap.

Suggest these good books to name a few:
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Power vs. Force by Dr. David Hawkins
Road Less Travelled by Dr. Scott Peck
 
nhg said:
I feel the only way to gauge my childs success is on the quality of the relationships they build and their level of happiness (not to be confused with enjoyment in a hedonistic sense). Wether they achieved top marks in class, live in the best house, have lots of friends is trivial and simply a bonus.
Click to expand...
Agree; it's about their development as a quality human being that I am interested in.

A top marks student is not the yardstick - it's the endeavour and effort - and often very gifted students need to make very little effort and still cream the exams. Seen that plenty of times.

Happiness, good manners, respect, courtesy, ambition, effort, integrity, honesty, generosity, sociable, self esteem and pride, etc - these are the things I look at in kids....all available to them through their parents.
 
MsAli said:
I find most of Deepak Chopra stuff crap.

Suggest these good books to name a few:
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Power vs. Force by Dr. David Hawkins
Road Less Travelled by Dr. Scott Peck
Click to expand...

Hi there
read most of these, favourite Road Less Travelled
Contacted library they have a copy so will give it a go and report back:)
 
ok180 said:
Success is 100k dollars passive income per year! :D

Join the 100k club or GTFO!!!!
Click to expand...
Absolutely :D

Recently I saw this on facebook.
"
If you want to walk Fast,
Walk Alone.
But
If u want to walk far,
Walk Together.
- By Ratan Tata"

Somewhat that hit me as I generally prefer to work on my own so others don't slow me down.
 
devank said:
Absolutely :D

Recently I saw this on facebook.
"
If you want to walk Fast,
Walk Alone.
But
If u want to walk far,
Walk Together.
- By Ratan Tata"

Somewhat that hit me as I generally prefer to work on my own so others don't slow me down.
Click to expand...

Who you walk with is the question. What if that person is slowing you down or too fast?
 
allsuccess
good question, I had to cut off a relationship/friendship because I thought this person was dragging me down, a one sided friendship in other words.
 
MTR said:
"There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. Moreover, success is a journey, not a destination. Material abundance, in all its expressions, happens to be one of those things that makes the journey more enjoyable. But success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being and peace of mind".
Click to expand...

I agree that money isn't the only measure of success, but neither are those listed in bold.

Many brilliant scientists, mathematicians, inventors, polymaths, writers, philosophers, artists, humanitarians and world leaders had poor health, dysfunctional relationships, iffy psychological dispositions and no peace of mind. Yet, in my opinion, they were more successful than the vast majority of us could ever dream of being.

The grandest success, to me, is contributing something great to humanity. I will never do any such thing because I am an ordinary human being. Others have an entirely different definition of success.

Everyone has their own idea of what success means. To say 'monetary success isn't the only measure but <insert> is' is rather egocentric.
 
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