There are a lot of self help books but a book like ‘Who will cry when you die?” is only one. Beautifully written by Robin Sharma contains 101 tips and advices for living. I really enjoyed reading this book because the language was very beginner friendly for someone like me.
Summary –
We live our life carelessly and waste our most valuable resource TIME in useless activities that maybe worrying, sad, over-thinking, depressed and distracted. you see we have only one life and we need to make the most of it this is what everyone says. Here in this book “Who will cry when you die” Robin Sharma goes one step ahead and gives real steps to implement in our life out of these 101. If you apply even 15 in your life then your life can be better by at least 50% this is my claim.
Here I am listing my top 10 tips from the book –
Discover your calling –
We humans are not like any other species to just be born – survive – procreate – die. We need a purpose for our existence however simple it may. Discover your calling find something that you want to leave as a legacy after you die. Something that you will do again if you are given a chance to relive your life. Don’t just exist.
Start your day well –
Don’t carry burden of yesterday
How the rest of your day will be is decided in the first 30 minutes after you wakeup. That is will you be happy, sad, depressed, lazy or productive for the day is affected in the first 30 minutes of the day so starting the day in the best possible note is very important. I have implemented this in my life as in the first 1hr of my day I take a walk, Listen to good music, Watch a very informative/inspirational TED Talks, write down a good quote that I remember. All this activities starts my day with a very positive and energetic vibe.
Take more Risks –
A ship in harbor is safe but it is not what it was built for
This is my most favorite quote that says to take risks. Every extraordinary person is extraordinary because of the risks they took in life. we are very afraid of taking such steps because of failure but if a decisions didn’t have the failure element in it then it cant be called as a risk. You see playing safe can only take us so far. It is the challenge that we take and the resolve to be successful in it is what makes us lively. Even if we fail that is most of the time we would have learnt a lot.
Get up early –
“Get up early!!!” is what my father has shouted at me for the most of my life. I never understood the reason at that time but after practicing waking up early I can see the benefits myself. But now I have been waking up from past 5 months following are the benefits that I have received from waking up early.
- More time for me to enjoy the day.
- Supercharged with morning freshness.
- Time for exercise.
- More productive in my work.
Remember the rule of 21 –
The rule of 21 is the most important rule for making any habits. Research shows that any good habit can be formed in 3 weeks i.e. 21 days and similarly any Bad habits can be broken in 21 days you just have to practice for 21 days. With this I have very easily formed habit of waking up at 6am everyday, reading everyday for 30minutes,Learning a new language for 30 minutes and writing this blog for 2 hours. So the rule is simple even if you hate it just keep going on for just 21 days after that it will start happening on auto mode. for more read my another book on making good habits Atomic Habits.
Stop complaining and start living –
You miss 100% of chance that you don’t take.
We should stop complaining about everything and start living Instead of saying I don’t have time just wake up an hour early. Instead of saying my job sucks get up skill up and search for better. Stop blaming your parents, boss, friends for all the shit that happens to you Instead take responsibility and take charge of your life. Author Robin Sharma of this book “Who will cry when you die?” says This is the best time to live in and a lot of things to be grateful for so make the most of it.
Get good at asking –
He who asks may be a fool for 5 minutes. He who doesn’t is a fool for lifetime.
A Chinese proverb
You don't know something? ask. Want to go on a date with someone? ask Want a second free scoop of ice cream? ask
Believe me I was very bad at asking and used to be in myself. Because of not asking my doubts I made a fool out of myself in exam. Because of not asking and making things clear I wasted a lot of hours at my job and for the Same reason I never asked my crush out.
We don’t ask because we are afraid. Afraid of failure. Afraid of getting rejected and Afraid of making a fool out of ourselves. but guess what it does not help and it is ok. First few times it will be uncomfortable and the answer maybe NO! but you will start getting better with time.
You see when you ask you at least have a chance of getting what you want.
Use your commute time –
You can always make more MONEY. What you can’t make more of is TIME.
If you are like most people then you commute in Bus/Train for at least an hour daily and in my case it is more than 2 hours. Over the months and years this is a lot of time that could be put to good use but is wasted it in watching movies, stupid YouTube videos.
Instead we can read good books, quality music, learn a new language, develop a skill or anything else just don’t waste it in watching an episode of anime.
This wise investment of your commute time will bring great returns speaking from personal experience.
Don’t finish every book you start –
I had bought a lot of books before as well out of which I really liked some and few bored me to death but since I had paid for those books I made myself suffer by reading the complete book. Only now I understand that it is completely fine to skip a book if the book is getting boring or I have got the message and the author is forcing extra pages. because most of the books just have a core idea that can be explained in a single page but author had to make a book so he keeps filling pages.
Had this book “who will cry when you die?” not interesting I would have left it too. The author writing style and genuine tips got me to continue reading
So its fine not to complete the whole book and no reason to feel guilty about it.
Live a life –
Live your life there will be ups and downs but accept it as a part of life learn from it and move on. Enjoy the beautiful journey of life don’t just focus on the destination. So don’t just be born and die enjoy life with all happiness and pain, all success and failure. Be an adventurer and explore!!!