Life’s Greatest Lessons: 20 Things I Want My Kids to Know, is written by an award-winning teacher of San Francisco University, Hal Urban. He is the author of seven books – all with an emphasis on good character. Life’s Greatest Lessons is his first book and was selected by Writer’s Digest as the Inspirational Book of the Year.
Life’s Greatest Lessons is a wonderful book on self-development. It comprises of 20 principles that will help individuals to shape themselves in their best version. All the topics are gathered from the lifetime teaching of both the children and adults. The book also helps in finding the best in ourselves and others. Best in its simplicity, Life’s Greatest Lessons, helps us all to understand the true meaning of success, impacts of positive thinking and fun on our personality and growth. In the very first chapter of the book, “Money is not everything”, Hal Urban talks about the importance of money in our life. He regards money essential for living not for success because money can’t buy us success. Success is achieved through consistent hard work and struggle. The absence of money is not a reason to restrict ourselves from the struggle for achieving what we want. But, if we have money in excess, we should use it for the betterment of living beings. It will be helpful for others as well as for us. “The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness” – M Scot Peck
The second and third chapters are about life-a struggle. Here Urban considers life a pain. But I have variance in this regard. We can’t call life a pain; it will be an injustice as we are not bound to face pain every time. We can call it a struggle, an unending struggle because we need to do struggle and take action for achieving very small things in life. When we accept life as an unending struggle then life becomes simple, enjoyable, and stress-free. Life is also fun; we should enjoy each and everything in it. Fun in life is very important for enhancing our creative abilities because more seriousness in life kills our creative being. So, we should accept life as a struggle. We should struggle for fun every day in this unending struggle of life. In the fourth and fifth chapters, Urban emphasizes the importance of positive thinking and positive actions in life. He says that we can’t control the bad circumstances of life but how we respond to these difficulties is the matter of our own choices and actions. So, we should use this liberation for our success. We should have a positive mind-set about life because we get what we think of, either success or failure. In the sixth and seventh chapters, he talks about the role of habits and habits of appreciation in our life. He says that man is known by his actions and actions are the result of our habits. So, we should opt for positive habits and replace our bad habits with positive ones. Furthermore, he regards the habit of appreciation as the main source of sustainable happiness. So, we should appreciate what we have in our life rather than mourn what we don’t have.
In chapter eight, nine, and ten, he says that if you want to live a happy life, you should add respecting others and speaking the truth in your habits. Further elaborating it, he says that respect is the only thing that we get the same as how we give. And being truthful with ourselves and with others is the main factor that plays in our success. Furthermore, he says that we should use positive, attractive, and respectful words for others. It makes people happy and enhances our respect in society. In the last ten chapters, he talks about goals, hard work, and sacrifice, the value of time, self-respect, failure and simplicity in life. He says; we can’t get anything until we build a strong faith that we can achieve. When we desire anything, imagine it, and build strong determination to achieve it, then our whole body starts to work on making it a reality. Along with this, he talks about setting defined goals in life. Here defined means properly elaborated concerning time and venue etc. He says that if you know your goals properly and you have a direction to achieve them, then the only thing that you need to do is to take action and work for your dreams and then no one can stop you from achieving what you want. As Denis Waitley has said;
“Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.” Furthermore, he says that setting goals and working hard for them are equally important for success. We can’t get anything until we work it, it’s very clear. Hard work pays off success and success gives further successes and energy to work more and more. And remember, nothing can be achieved easily and without sacrifice. So, we must be prepared to sacrifice for our dreams. Additionally, he talks about a very precious thing that is time. All the humans are blessed with two great things, time and ability to think, despite their caste and creed. So, we must use these two things efficiently for our success. Besides that, he regards failure as a part of success because it shows us new ways to get what we want. And in the concluding paragraphs, he says that goodness and truthfulness are the key factors for success and happiness. So, this book is more than a friend for youth. I suggest you all grab and read it. It’s a good guide for individuals.
The writer is a blogger and a student at the University of Engineering & Technology.
He can be reached at [email protected]