subject: Get a Guru – Get a Life [print this page] Get a Guru Get a Life Get a Guru Get a Life
There's a proverb that says, "What you don't know cannot hurt you." That proverb should not be taken literally. In most cases, ignorance is not an asset. The more that we know, the more effective and prepared we are to meet successfully life's challenges.
That is especially true when it comes to the art of success. Man is not born with a user's manual. Each and every one of us has to write his own user's manual. There are two ways of doing that. It can be done through trial and errors or we can take the advice of someone, a guru, who has studied the subject for years and benefit from his wisdom and experience.
Now there is a little problem as far as gurus are concerned. The reputable ones will cost you a fortune and those who are not qualified can do you more harm than good. However, when you stop and think about it, that's not really a problem.
Every reputable guru has written books that are not expensive and most of them have given videoconferences that can be seen for free on the Web. If you are willing to put in the time an efforts, those books and videos can give you all the information that you'll ever need to have the fruitful and happy life that you dream of having.
Virtual gurus differ from bona fide ones in that its student must also assume the teacher's part. In other words, if we really want to learn and assimilate exactly what the guru has to say, simply reading his work will not do it.
The reason for that is that the guru's true mission is not to teach, it's about personal transformation. In the self-improvement world, learning is useless if there is no transformation of the individual, changes in the way that the world is seen and drastic changes in the thought process.
Self-improvement is, above all, about character. It's about changing the way that a person act and react in daily life. It has nothing to do with slick tricks to influence people or about get rich scheme. It's about improving the individual.
That is why simply reading a guru's book is useless. The body of knowledge that it contains has to be carefully studied, weighed, parsed, questioned and dissected. The messages that the book contains must be subjected to the scrutiny reserved to a lover's parting letter.
We don't read a guru's book, we try to get under his skin and see what his heart and mind contain. We want to know what makes him tick, why he said what he said, how it can be applied to our own life and most of all how it can change our life.
Working with the book and not with the guru might be challenging but it's more thorough and complete. The reason for that is simple. We can work at our own pace; spend as much time as we need on any particular point or on the complete body of work.
Personally I have spent over 4000 hours over a ten-year period on Anthony Robbins' book, Awaken the Giant Within. Previous to that study, I had attended over 100 seminars on self-improvement but I can honestly say that I got more out of that one book than I did out of all those seminars.
Successful living requires the guidance and expertise of mentors or gurus. Luckily, experts in that field can be found no farther than your local bookstore. There are three books that are considered classics and these are: 1) Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins, 2) Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and, 3) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.
If you don't have a copy of these books, go and get one and start creating your own guru. It could be the best and most rewarding thing that you'll ever do in your life.
