I just finished reading "The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die" by John Izzo(Ph.D.) It’s a really good book.
The title itself is interesting. This book is based on a Canadian TV series in which author John interviews people who are more than 60 years old and are recommended by someone as a wise person. Its interesting concept. Particularly in west where elders generally don’t live with youngsters, youngsters don’t get benefit of wisdom that comes with age and life.
In this book, John has interviewed more than 200 people with different background such as "Town Barber" to biologist to nurses to businessmen to housewives to painters to actors to lots of other people belonging to different religions, faiths, politics. but he came to following 5 secrets which were common for the happy people in their life.
1) The 1st secret: Be true to your self
2) The 2nd secret: Leave no regrets
3) The 3rd secret: Become Love
4) The 4th secret: Live the moment
5) The 5th secret: Give more than you take
This is book of self discovery. At the end of each secret there are questions that lead you to thinking like
a) Am I following my heart right now? What would it mean for me to really follow my heart right now?
b)What step would I take in my life right now if I were acting with courage, not fear? What might I do differently right now if I were living from the perspective of an old person on the porch looking back at my life?
c) How am I responding to the setbacks in my life right now? Am I stepping forward or retreating?
d) Did I make room for friends, family, relationships this week? Did I allow things to be more important than people?
e) There are two wolves in each person, one is evil wolf of anger, envy, sorrow, fear and other wolf is a good wolf of love, joy, hope, peace, serenity. There is a fight between these two wolves inside me and do you know who wins? "THE WOLF that I CHOOSE to FEED". so which of my wolves did I feed today/this week?
f) Did I act with love towards myself? Did I engage in negative self talk? Am I planting flowers or weeds in my sub conscious mind?
g)Did I take every pleasure that was available to me? What am I grateful for about today?
f) Did I live in the present today? or did I let tomorrow or yesterday steal the day’s happiness?
g) Did I make the world a better place in some small way like a smile, a hug or kind words or actions?
h)Was I kind generous, giving?
Lots of thought provoking ideas.
A good book to be read and re-read anytime any page.