A review by mqreads
The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus into Your Life by Thomas M. Sterner
5.0
I highlighted quite a lots sentences during my first read. And when I went back the second time to revisit and planned to transfer them to my laptop, I ended up reading the book cover to cover again. I did so because I realized that although I might have absorbed the wisdom from the author the first time I read it, I have quickly forgotten most of them just in a span of a couple months, Just as the author mentioned, "There are not that many ideas in this book; just a few, and they have been there for us to discover. But they slip away from us in our daily lives so easily. They need to be studied over and over again from different angles so they become a natural part of us", "You need to keep reviewing these ideas so that you can hang on to their clarity and perspective. Otherwise, life steals them away".
The biggest take away for me is the mindset shift of goal setting. When the goal is to finish something, I get anxious, impatient, and I can't wait to get it done and get it over with, so I can arrive at a delusional better reality, my mind is fixated on the result, and I'm not enjoying the process as I inevitably see it as the blockage in my way to achieving the result. But, if I make the goal to be "to pay attention to only what I am doing now, as long as I am doing just that, I am reaching my goal in EACH and EVERY moment".
I have applied it as I was rereading the book, I noticed myself getting impatient with reading, as I kept thinking finishing it quickly so I can move on to my next book. After becoming aware of this thought, I redirect my energy into staying present with each current word, sentence, page I was reading, and surely as I went it through page by page, the book was finished, and time was my friend that brought me to the finishing line. I have also applied it to my work, when my program doesn't work the way I want it to be, instead of setting the goal of finding the bug in my code(the result), I devote my energy in staying in the process of exploring and hypothesis-testing my program(the process), and the result takes care of itself, and I was removed from the suffering of self-judgement and frustration.
I am grateful that I picked up this book and I will be keeping this gem in my shelf. As the life stealing those wisdom away from me, I won't fear, as I will return to it, with a new perspective, and regain the serenity and the mindfulness.
The biggest take away for me is the mindset shift of goal setting. When the goal is to finish something, I get anxious, impatient, and I can't wait to get it done and get it over with, so I can arrive at a delusional better reality, my mind is fixated on the result, and I'm not enjoying the process as I inevitably see it as the blockage in my way to achieving the result. But, if I make the goal to be "to pay attention to only what I am doing now, as long as I am doing just that, I am reaching my goal in EACH and EVERY moment".
I have applied it as I was rereading the book, I noticed myself getting impatient with reading, as I kept thinking finishing it quickly so I can move on to my next book. After becoming aware of this thought, I redirect my energy into staying present with each current word, sentence, page I was reading, and surely as I went it through page by page, the book was finished, and time was my friend that brought me to the finishing line. I have also applied it to my work, when my program doesn't work the way I want it to be, instead of setting the goal of finding the bug in my code(the result), I devote my energy in staying in the process of exploring and hypothesis-testing my program(the process), and the result takes care of itself, and I was removed from the suffering of self-judgement and frustration.
I am grateful that I picked up this book and I will be keeping this gem in my shelf. As the life stealing those wisdom away from me, I won't fear, as I will return to it, with a new perspective, and regain the serenity and the mindfulness.