Ещё один подарочный селф-хелп от МИФа. Нескучный, ничем не удивляющий, но напоминающий о некоторых важных вещах.

The theme is rather complicated. Nevertheless, the author managed to come up with practical tips and exercises that will bring you closer to your life goals (everyone has their own goals, and they may change over time).

Michael Ray’s book, The Highest Goal is intended to bring his ideas and approaches to a wider audience than is possible just in the class he teaches at Stanford University. His goal is nothing short of helping his readers find and achieve their "highest goal."

The highest goal is never named, since it is different and unique to every individual. I believe it may be described as living an integral life, a principled life. Ray describes in some detail five heuristics, or as he calls them, "live-withs," that help one to begin to approach the highest goal.

The first of these "do only what you love, love everything you do." Ray describes this as the path to true prosperity. Not money, or fame, but rather, the freedom of enjoyment and space to renew and sustain the spirit through a sense of living with what is most important to you.

The second is "don't worry, just do it," and in doing so, he says we can turn fears into breakthroughs. This is partly a function of living more in the present than in the past or future. He argues (as have others) that the anxieties we have about challenges facing us are often far worse than anything likely to actually happen when we act on the challenge.

The third "live with" is to "see with your heart," thus strengthening relationships. Silence your mind and really listen.

The fourth is to get into an intuitive flow of decision making through the "yes-no" live with. Ray argues that you don't develop a balanced, dynamic life through theorizing, but rather by making decisions, minute by minute, from an intuitive sense of what is right for you. Thus, constantly, but intuitively, asking "should I do X, yes or no?" helps you get in touch with your intuition that is the best guide you have for decision making.

Finally, Ray's fifth "live with" is to become a generative leader by "participating in the flow of giving and receiving.

Some parts of Michael Ray's book resonated with me, but I'll admit that much of it was a bit too far out there for me. One of the best insights I thought he had was his frequent advice to keep a record of your experiences in trying out his counsel. That kind of discipline of reflection and thought is tremendously valuable to anyone sincerely interested in personal or professional development. Other tips and techniques that he recommended also made sense to me, and I believe that most people will find something impactful in his book, though like me, probably not the entire book.

I don't think that you can do Michael Ray's ideas justice in a 180 page book. From what I've read from his students, many of whom are incredibly successful and inspirational people, the ideology that Michael teaches in his Stanford course can be life-changing. I wouldn't classify this book as anything similar, but it did have a few interesting things to think about that I may find myself circling back to from time to time.