Common sense(which is not so common). Review on Discover Your Destiny with the Monk who Sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma

Iconfess that I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. I read iton holiday and began by expecting and hoping to read an insightfulstory. For the first few pages this seemed to be the case, however thebook then changed direction.

Inmany ways the author of a book designed to help people change, what areoften termed ‘self-help’ books, faces a dilemma. For the help to besuccessful it has to be self-help, that is it has to come from withinthe reader. The use of stories or parables that awaken understanding inthe reader derive their power in this way. However after reading thestory the reader is then left with the question of what to do with thisawakened understanding; how do they actually change?

Thealternative approach is to provide a change instruction manual whichprescribes changes in the hope that these then create change from whichnew understanding will follow. The danger here is that unlessunderstanding is changed, the result is the mindless application ofprescribed rituals, or the rejection of them.

Thisbook attempts to bridge these two approaches. It begins with the storyof a lawyer forced to re-evaluate life following a major heart attack.However this story quickly becomes a rather simple framework for whatis largely a monologue describing a set of self-change techniques.

Atthe point where the book transitions from a story to an instructionguide I almost gave up on the book, but was later glad that I didn’t. Ifound the pretext of the story strained almost to breaking point, butsuggest that if this is overlooked the second half of the book containssome powerful advice for personal change. I did have the feeling ofideas collected together from elsewhere, but amongst them is astructure of practical changes that have the potential to profoundlychange your outlook and achievements.

Themeasure of value of any such instruction guide rests not in what thereader is instructed to do, but in what the reader does with theadvice. For my part, a little surprisingly, I have taken a number ofthe change suggestions and am applying them. The book therefore has hada greater impact than many.

Weall come to and take from books, or any experience, somethingdifferent. I recommend this book as one that will help you identifyvalue for your own change journey.