Lesson 1: Accept What You Are Able To Do And What You Are Not Able To Do
Accept the past as the past, without denying it or discarding it; learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others; Don’t assume that it’s too late to get involved.
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
- Mitch Albom
Lesson 2: Don’t Put Your Values In The Wrong Things
We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives. I think we should talk about that.
“We’ve got a form of brainwashing going on in our country,” Morrie sighed. “Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that’s what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. We repeat it — and have it repeated to us — over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has not perspective on what’s really important anymore.
“There is a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need,” Morrie said. “You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don’t need the latest sports car, you don’t need the biggest house.
“The truth is, you don’t get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction?
“Offering others what you have to give.”
“Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.”
Lesson 3: Build Your Own Little Subculture
Here is what I mean by building your own little subculture, I don’t mean you disregard every rule of your community. I don’t go around naked, for example. I don’t run through red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things — how we think, what we value — those you must choose yourself. You can’t let anyone — or any society — determines those for you.
It’s the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It’s just what our culture would have you believe. Don’t believe that.
“The problem, Mitch, is that we don’t believe we are as much alike as we are. White and blacks, Hindu or Muslim, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.
We all have the same beginning — birth — and we all have the same end — death. So how different can we be!
