The Untethered Soul

The Untethered Soul helps guide people through spirituality to understand the insignificance of emotions, of that inner voice to help guide to the decision of happiness.
Events are constantly swirling around our world, whether we’re in the world or not, and it’s up to us on how we manage the feelings and emotions behind these events.

  • Be able to open your heart and let negative past experiences flow through you.
  • Be cognizant of emotions. Understand them.
  • Be sure to remove the thorn. Don’t pretend to just live with it. If someone doesn’t say hi… who cares. There’s billion interactions. Don’t let that one affect you. It’s small.
    We are just taking up space in the middle of source system which is infinite. It’s up to us whether or not we want to enjoy that experience. Each moment as an opportunity to either choose to be happy or unhappy.
  • You don’t grow unless you challenge yourself. Those that remain unchallenged, shrivel and die.
  • Quietly watch the mind. You cannot control it. Just peacefully watch. Fall behind the noise and watch and release. Relax and release. Don’t get involved. Don’t stop it. Just watch.
  • Pain is how the body communicates to you. Emotions are the way the kind communicates along its neurotic thought. It tries to solve problems that don’t exist.
  • We can control the way we handle these events. We choose to be happy or unhappy.
  • Death is the ultimate teacher. Death allows us to be able to see the value of life. Death can take away everything that we’ve gained. It also allows us to see what we should value and hold on to. Live life as if death is nearby.
  • The extremes are where we cannot live. Find balance in between. We cannot live at 900 degrees or -60 … we find balance at 75 in the middle. This is the yin and the yang. Like a hurricane, live in the eye of the storm.

 Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

An interesting “listen” for sure, on a man who drastically influenced our modern world. Ghengis Khan was the founder of the Great Khan/Emperor of the Mongol Empire which was the largest contiguous empire in history. His legacy was initially revelled, but as time passed, this then changed to being characterized as a barbarian. Despite this, some consider him as the best military leader in our history.
He also brought many modern ideas to this past world: 

  • Unprecedented religious tolerance as a way to build loyalty. This included Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. 
  • Low level of discrimination toward other races as a way for unity. He supposedly only killed those on the aristocratic side as POWs because he, himself, started from humble beginnings. 
  • He took the best ideas from each culture to help grow and build his force. 
  • The idea of rule by consensus within Mongol tribes
  • Culture of meritocracy, not who your parents were
  • Building of roads to support trade
  • His tactics included a lot of psychological warfare to create terror before unconquered armies. 
  • First culture to promote universal literacy
  • First international postal system
  • First widespread use of paper money
  • Reduction of the use of torture in the penal system
  • Belief in diplomatic immunity for ambassadors/envoys
  • He also never stopped to build cities. His “city” was continual moving and growing as he travelled. 

 

Steve Jobs

  • Steve Jobs had the balance of feeling abandoned (from his biological parents) and special (from his real parents who only had him.) 
    When he got older, he had a bastard daughter as well. The abandoned became the abandoner which Steve regretted. 
  • Religions are just a different door to the same house.
  • Steve jumped up two grades in school. His parents struggled but found ways to get him the best education. Steve was constantly playing pranks on people.
  • Woz and Steve met up in college. Woz was also a prankster. He loved the electrical side of the house, while Jobs was good at the business side. 
  • They quickly became best friends. 
  • Jobs worked for HP, and then Atari. He was a smelly hippy though during this time. And he demanded that Atari pay for his strip to India to find a spiritual leader. Instead they sent him to Europe to fix a few things. It worked out. 
  • 1984 was an ad that fell flat with the board. It was too risky. So, they looked for alternative options. The Ad company fibbed and said they couldn’t sell the 60 second spot. Steve Wozniak saw the ad and loved it. He mentioned to Jobs he would put up $400k to run it he’d fork over the other $400k. They didn’t need to. The ad ran, and it’s still considered one of the best ads of all time. 
  • Steve Jobs also led Pixar to where it is today. He really pushed Toy Story and kicked off a lot of its early success. 
  • Then there was Apple Stores (which they felt would flop), iPods and the music industry, iPads, iPhone, iCloud, and the list goes on. Steve made a big dent in the universe. 
  • This was a great book. Jobs was an incredible character here who continually broke rules, and wanted to own the full product from hardware to software. 
  • He focused so much on the detail and getting it write from launch. Making sure everything was perfect. 
  • “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
  • “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
  • “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
  • “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
  • “Creativity is just connecting things.”
  • “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

The 5 Second Rule

With a few weeks left in 2020, I wanted to listen to something that would help at work, and this was a great one. Mainly the whole them of the book is really taking 5 seconds to act. 5…4..3..2..1 GO! what’s the goal, and what’s the decision. Let’s do this. 

  • Do things that energize you. But to do that, you need time to be curious.  
  • Small moments turn into big changes. 
  • Each time you wake up, do it. 54321 GO!. Get on your feet. This will then change how you approach problems. 
  • Disconnect from your emotions. Worry does not help. Being uncomfortable does not help. Take action. 
  • The longer you think about it; the less likely it will happen. 
  • Our bodies want us to stay exactly where we are. No better; no worse. That’s the feeling to keep the same. And not moving forward will kill you. Embrace that feeling and move it ahead. 
  • It’s not the big stuff that defines your life. It’s the small stuff. 
  • When having tough conversations or giving a presentation, you may think it’s uncomfortable feelings. Well, we need to rename that. It’s not anxiety. It’s not nerves. It’s excitement. 
  • Worrying about something does not help at all. It actually takes away from your life. So redirect it.  54321 GO!  Remove it and think of something else.
  • Each day we should show everyday acts of courage.
  • A great life is made of small steps. 
  • Have a quit time. You’ll be more productive. 
  • Remove distractions. Plan day before checking email. The average CEO works 20 minutes at home before going into the office since its free of distractions. Remove apps; it kills your time.