60 Lessons from 59 Years of Life - by Robin Sharma

 

It’s a quiet morning at the farmhouse as I write you this message. I just got home from 6 weeks on the road and I’d planned not to do any writing today to have a break. Yet I just needed to write you this.   Please take the 5 minutes it’ll take you to read this message fully to the end. I promise you the lessons I share below will be well worth your attention.   So much to share with you! First, I submitted the revisions to the edited manuscript of my new book last Tuesday. It’ll be available this coming April. For everyone asking, I’ll have a pre-order page up as soon as I can (I’ve never done that before with any of my books yet many have asked for it so I’ll do it).   I really can’t wait for you to read it. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever written. It’s been a year of devotion to this work. A year of refining and calibrating and working extremely hard to make it simple.   I did the rewrite at the same cottage on a vineyard in South Africa where I wrote key parts of The 5AM Club. I worked every day, without a day off, for 31 days. I’m not saying I’m special (I’m not!) and certainly not advocating overwork, at all. The reality is that I had a publishing deadline and I was committed to making it.   Here’s a pic of the manuscript:

This road trip took me to various places including Mauritius, Cape Town, Rome and London. I met many new people, had many wonderful conversations and fulfilled the deep longing within all of us humans to be nomadic.   This Autumn will be very full with many keynotes for excellent organizations, new digital course shoots and various media appearances so I’m going to do my best to lay low and savor these last weeks of summer here on the farm.   In London I spent a morning at Hatchards, the magical bookshop. I bought 15 books on topics ranging from finance and economics to self-help and metaphysics. Total bill? £168. I know of no finer investment than investing in books and one’s learning and growth. After a year of work on the new book, this was my reward. Books.   Anyway, I never wish to waste your time and because I’m sort of depleted from the travel, intense writing and creative effort, my phrases might be clunky. Sorry for this.   And my communication might not be as efficient as usual. Yet, like I said: I needed to write you this message. Not only to update you but to share with you 60 lessons I’ve learned over the 59 years of my life.   Please share them with others if you feel they are worthy. Ok. Let’s go!   1. Peace of mind is 1000x more valuable than material possessions.   2. If you’re bored with your life partner after the early stages of the romance are over, you have the wrong partner.   3. Your external prosperity is a reflection of your self-identity. This is a simple line yet a major idea.   4. Getting into your fittest self is a complete game-changer (as is fasting, daily meditation, nature walking and prayer).   5. Life grows better as you serve more people.   6. Most people are really really good. Your job is to make them feel safe enough to take down their guard and to show you their light.   7. Some people are bad. And if you’re not highly careful, they will hurt you a lot.   8. Wishing people a great day is a tool that just might—incrementally yet steadily—raise the world.   9. Never feel guilty about buying books, taking courses and developing your self. Realizing your promise is the main purpose of life.   10. Live well beneath your means. Leverage is dangerous. Unexpected events happen.   11. If you’re the most successful person in your neighborhood it’s time to move to a new neighborhood. Seriously.   12. Success without soulfulness is a waste of time.   13. Solitude is the new status symbol.   14. Be humble. Showing off is bad form.   15. Treat your parents with respect. You’ll miss them when they are gone.   16. Getting up at dawn and spending an hour making yourself wiser, calmer, stronger and deeper is one of the best habits a human being can install. If you haven’t read The 5AM Club yet join the millions of people doing so by getting your copy here.   17. Keeping a daily journal is a powerful way to produce clear results, process through painful times and record the beauty of a human life.   18. Success lies in a masterful consistency around the fundamentals. Don’t complicate things. Just do the right things, day after day, and—over time—magical things will happen.   19. Be unreasonably generous to people in need.   20. The excellence of your evening ritual determines the exceptionalism of your morning routine.   21. The news, studied in moderation, is helpful to spot opportunities and to navigate the future. The news, as an addiction, is toxic.   22. Your best work is always done when you are alone. And without your phone.   23. Tragic events never happen for your failure but always for your fortune. Sometimes this truth only becomes clear after years.   24. Few things are as important as living the way you want to live.   25. Great sleep is an amazing blessing. Work on maximizing yours.   26. Travelling is a beautiful education. Don’t wait until you’re too old to do it.   27. In business, the one who helps the most humans wins.   28. In business, a major goal is mastery of your craft. And because it’s so hard to do, very few do it. Which makes it a giant opportunity for you.   29. Patience is a force-multiplier.   30. No risk, zero reward.   31. No ask, no get.   32. Our flaws make us special and our scars show we had the guts to live deeply versus timidly.   33. Tell your family members you love them. A lot.   34. Build excellent life systems. Don’t leave elite performance to randomness. I’ve done a Mastery Session on how to x100 your productivity. Go ahead and watch it here.   35. It’s incredible how little one needs to be happy.   36. A great family life is a gigantic key to having a healthy business and financial life. Conflict at home is a huge creativity, productivity and vitality drain.   37. Worrying about your legacy is a pursuit of the ego. Worry about living each day richly, honouring your values and helping others. Ironically, this will give you a good legacy.   38. Dogs make life better.   39. Be kind. And remember that kindness is not weakness. Unless you make it into a weakness.   40. Never compare yourself to others. It’ll destroy your happiness and most of what you see of others isn’t really real.   41. Read for at least an hour every day. All of the billionaires I mentor read for a few hours daily.   42. Never retire. It’ll make you old.   43. Make time to be alone often. If you’re always in the world you won’t find the silence to hear your truth. And to be led by your instinct.   44. Remember that other people’s opinions are nothing more than someone else’s opinion. And that often they are wrong. Don’t let them limit you. Please.   45. Pray.   46. Walk.   47. Breathe.   48. Nap.   49. Laugh.   50. Working hard is getting a bad rap. Of course, sleep and rest and renew. Yet no masterpiece was ever made by a lazy person.   51. You can’t produce at world-class if you don’t know what world-class looks like.   52. A lasting source of happiness lives in usefulness. Nothing that you can get in the world will ever make you feel as good as doing good.   53. Having 3 great friends is one of life’s greatest gifts.   54. Life’s simplest pleasures are its best ones.   55. Thinking about the shortness of life is a superb way to live each day more fully.   56. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Think about all the emperors and kings and queens and conquerors that now, no one remembers. 57. Your relationship with yourself determines your relationship with your spouse, kids, friends, coworkers, customers, neighbors, strangers and the world. Work harder on improving this than on anything else.   58. Remember that every single person you meet matters, deserves respect and is special. We need more people lifting others up than tearing others down.   59. Never lose your hope. Your time will come.   60. Life is too short to miss out on the magic.   Ok. Wrote these with a lot of openness and respect for your genius and happiness.   Please do share them with the people you live with and work with. I think these 60 lessons will remind people about what’s most important.   Peace. Bye.   Robin