‘The everyday hero manifesto: activate your positivity; maximize your productivity; serve the world’ by Robin Sharma
Who should read this book?
If you are someone who spends time pondering how to live a more fulfilling, healthier, and happier life, Robin Sharma’s “The Everyday Hero Manifesto” might be a good choice. This book spans an array of topics, from personal development to professional excellence, neatly packaged into 101 tiny chapters. It’s designed for anyone looking to inject a dose of wisdom into their daily routine.
Why you should read this book (or not)?
I found this book to be a comprehensive compilation of life’s great lessons. While many of the ideas presented were familiar to me—echoes of concepts I’ve encountered in other readings—it was refreshing to see them distilled through Sharma’s unique perspective. He seems to have, in a sense, taken a leaf out of several other books, weaving these ideas into the fabric of his distinctive narrative style.
The book’s accessibility is one of its strong points; it’s straightforward and earnest. However, some chapters might strike a seasoned reader as somewhat “fluffy.” Considering Sharma’s background as a respected businessman with a realistic approach to life, it is most interesting to understand how he views this world and its challenges.
My 2 key takeaways
- Change Your Life: Use Positive Words – The power of affirmations and positive speech cannot be overstated. Sharma emphasises the transformative impact of choosing your words wisely, a reminder that our dialogue with ourselves and others shapes our reality. He clearly applies this principle throughout the book.
- Rise Above Toxicity and Criticism – Encounters with negativity and criticism are part and parcel of life. Sharma offers advice on how to handle these challenges, focusing on maintaining your dignity and fostering your growth. This resonates as I reflect on my aspirations and journey in light of my own organisation, Ithaki.
Interesting extracts
“Mrs. Greenaway taught me that every human being is born into some form of giftedness. She explained that each of us can be astonishingly good at something, and are born with special strengths, remarkable capacities and dignified virtues. She told me that if I remembered this, worked really hard and stayed true to myself, good things would happen and great blessings would follow.”
“Victims are prisoners of can’t. They relentlessly tell you why an ideal can’t succeed, why an enterprise can’t work and why an ambition can’t happen. Beneath can’t lives fear. Fear of failing, fear of not being good enough, fear of not deserving victory, fear of being criticized, fear of getting hurt and fear of the imagined responsibilities of success. All world-builders and change-leaders are experts at using the language of hope, the vocabulary of execution and the dialect of freedom. They avoid being infected with can’t.”
“In my own life, I regularly use the technique of autosuggestion to re-order my vocabulary toward greater positivity and creativity. Very early in the morning, while my sub- conscious mind is most available to receiving instructions, I’ll recite mantras such as ‘Today I am showing up with enthusiasm, excellence and kindness’ or ‘I am so very grateful for the day ahead and all its beauty, joys and excitements.’ During the day, should my mind and heart drift to a hurt of the past or some negative self-talk that dis- honors my best, I’ll quietly whisper, ‘We don’t do this anymore’ or ‘Let’s not go there.’ (…) Re-ordering your vocabulary toward leadership and exceptionalism is one of the simplest yet most potent ways to escalate your confidence, performance and impact in the world.”
“Twenty-five hundred years-or so-ago, Aristotle articulated The Golden Mean Doctrine, which states that virtuous behavior requires one to walk the middle ground between asceticism and indulgence. To take the path of moderation between excess and deprivation. To avoid being an extremist in any dimension of one’s life. (…) All I’m saying is this: in a civilization that makes us feel guilty, damaged and demeaned unless we are perfect, successful and running eighty-three advanced performance practices a day (with checklists to record our execution around each one), maybe-just maybe- we should make peace with balance. And be okay with Aristotle’s “middle way,” embracing the pleasures of this special world when it’s the right time to love them. Life’s just too short to be all rigid and machine-like, right? Makes me think of the marathoners who’ve dropped dead of a heart attack, as well as the nonnas who had two shots of grappa each night and lived well past one hundred. I sometimes wonder if the positive neurochemistry that’s generated by doing things that make you happy (like a “cheat meal”) is a far better pursuit than the superhuman strictness and überperson uptightness that likely produces more cortisol, which corrodes our vitality along with our longevity.”
“People do rise to meet your expectations of them. Often. Yet not always. Some people among us are very badly damaged. They have, generally through no fault of their own, been traumatized by harsh events, scarred from terrible tragedies and enormously injured by unexpected treacheries. They deserve our understanding, our empathy and our good wishes. Yet this doesn’t mean it’s in your enlightened self-interest to make them your business partner or your buddy or your spouse. Because people who are hurting badly commonly hurt people badly. And those in severe pain can cause you severe pain. Such people are pretty much guaranteed to devastate your creativity, suck your productivity and drain you of your energy. Because they can’t stop being themselves. For you to wish that the red flags were green lights is just wishful thinking. And foolishness. Sure, you can keep seeing their best and loving them. Just do it from afar. Enduringly successful human beings trade in the truth. Even when it disappoints them.”
“Working through your micro-trauma and any macro-trauma will also increase the quality of your health beautifully. Trauma and the daily stress response it hardwires into your system make crisis- oriented living your default, which in turn reduces your immunity and increases inflammation, making you more susceptible to life-threatening conditions such as diabetes, heart attack, stroke and cancer. Process through your emotional pain and you restructure the architecture of your Heartset to produce less toxicity and more of the wonderful neurochemistry that will improve your physicality. And extend your longevity.”
“To be a benevolent person (or leader, creator, maker) is to do what you do in purity; For the right reasons. In complete integrity. Mostly for the good of other people. (…) And yet you’ll ascend into higher reaches of your triumphantly happy nature, enter the Edens of your most glorious nobility and experience the Nirvanas of your most sacred success when you give primarily for the sake of giving. Not getting.”
“If it is hysterical, it’s historical. In other words, the size of any overreaction to any particular situation in real time indicates the depth of the much earlier emotional injury.”
“To be more precise: positive thinking doesn’t really work (and last) unless certain conditions are put in place for it to work (and continue). Allow me to give you some context for these unorthodox statements. I’ve read a lot of the classic (and not-so-classic) books on how to reframe setbacks into setups, reperceive hardships into advantages and reprogram troubles into triumphs. I’ve honestly learned a lot from these works and sincerely appreciate the wonderful efforts of these authors to help those experiencing challenges. Yet something never felt quite right to me with their recommendations to look for the reward within the problem, to be grateful for all the good you still have during painful periods and to move ahead as quickly as possible from a crisis, without giving the worry any more energy. Yes, to lead a happy, serene and inspired life, we can’t dwell on our misfortunes. On this we agree. And it is a complete waste of time to stay stuck in the past, obsessing over a scenario that disappointed you. Nothing good will happen if you refuse to let go. But it never made sense not to deal with what is. It never felt right not to acknowledge how I was feeling when my heart was hurting and my feelings were sinking during a rough spot. And to just race straight into positive thinking without honoring (and then processing through) the emotions that the difficulty generated. Manipulating my thinking without embracing and staying with my authentic feelings seemed fake, forced. Like pure denial.”
“If your masterwork doesn’t upset, provoke, anger and trigger the majority of citizens in society, perhaps it isn’t really masterwork. (…) If you do your job well – producing masterwork that shatters the way things have been done and takes the field by storm by destroying tradition – critics will hate all over you. (…) As a matter of fact, product that is truly masterful is so ahead of its time that it takes a ton of time for it to catch on.”