Vishen Lakhiani argues we follow inherited rules about careers and education that don't serve us. He proposes three questions instead: What experiences do you want? How do you need to grow? How can you contribute to humanity? This reframes goals around what matters to you, not external metrics.
Chapters
Do your homework to get good grades, get good grades so you get the dream job. Work your butt off from nine to five so you climb the career ladder, get the fancy title, get the fancy car, and then you've made it. The first thing I ever did in my professional career was getting fired from Microsoft. I was 22 and in what everyone perceived to be a phenomenal job working for Bill Gates. But in reality, I was miserable. I was trying to live the perfect life based on a set of rules that most of us internalize growing up. The problem was I wanted a sense of meaning sooner. I was beginning to realize that all of these rules that we internalize growing up are all part of a shared subjective reality. Statements like financial success equals happiness or that you need a college degree to be truly educated are merely assumptions that we assume to be facts. But they are not facts. They are bullshit rules that we adopt generation to generation. Sometimes these rules no longer apply. And the moment you start to realize this is often the moment life truly begins. Every single one of us has the power to set the rules to shape the reality we live in. Life has infinite possibilities outside the bullshit rules that we grew up internalizing. Maybe for you happiness doesn't look like a stable job. Maybe for you Marriage isn't a 20 year commitment. Maybe education doesn't look like a traditional classroom. And when we erase the expectations we adopted without thinking, we are left with the opportunity to ask better questions. The first question to ask yourself is what experiences do I truly want to have in life? These are the experiences that provide you with endless inspiration, joy, motivation. They are the things you would do anyway if you are not paid to do them. The second question is how do I need to grow if I want to create that business that can change the world? What habits, what skills, what knowledge do I need to grow into? The more conscious work we put into our growth, the more we expand to be able to do more in the world. And that's when we often realize growth is a goal in itself. And now we ask the third question. How can I contribute to to humanity and the world if I were so lucky as to be this man or woman who had all of these experiences, who has grown to be this remarkable individual, how then do I give back to others? When you're asking yourself this third question, keep in mind whatever gifts you give to life, life will gift you back. Asking yourself the three most important questions is an exercise in goal setting. It's just not the tradition form of goal setting we are used to. They are not rigid or time sensitive or simple to measure, but they are the absolute backbone of what creates an extraordinary life. Because once you tap into the things coming out from your core, the things that truly put you here, you no longer care about being productive or being successful. You become completely you. It.
