I did it again! I completely ignored my towering ‘to-read pile’ and picked up the most random book I came across in the library. I feel like nearly every book review is starting off like this.
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Do I know Jay Shetty? Yes .
Am I a fan or anti-fan of him? No.
I know he was a monk. I occasionally listen to his podcast ‘On Purpose’ when there’s a guest I’m curious about, but that is about it.
The reason for picking up this book was solely due to it’s blurb. He writes ‘as far as my parents are concerned, I had three career options: doctor, lawyer, or failure. Theres no better way to tell your arents that everything they did for you was a waste of time than to become a monk.’ This made me curious. I knew this was a self help book but I thought maybe it’s more of a memoir-styled self help book.
That was not the case. It was definitely 85% self help content and maybe 15% of his story. Which is why I’m not a fan of the cover being his face. If you’ve got value-adding content in your book, you don’t need to market it with your face.
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But moving onto the book itself. So overall, what are my thoughts about this book? Ok let’s break it down.
This is a book about learning to live a more purposeful and meaningful life. Did I learn how to? Yes. To my own surprise, I did take away a lot of lessons from this book.
He sections the book into 3 parts: Let go, Grow, Give.
- The Let Go section talks about how to overcome the things that are holding us down such as Fear and Negativity.
- The Grow section talks about how to figure out what your purpose on earth is and the importance of it.
- The Give section focuses on (yep you guessed it) giving. And why it is important for living a meaningful life.
The one line summary of this book is: the way to live a more meaningful like is to let go of things holding you down, to figure out your calling and to use your calling to be in service to people.
Was there anything groundbreakingly new?
No. the concepts of gratitude, overcoming fear, being in service are concepts that are well-known to be needed for living a more meaningful life. Especially so, as a Muslim.
Additionally, one thing I was let down about was the fact that at times this book felt like a book of quotes of various people, instead of his own statements. I understand the need to back up his points, etc. but when there’s whole sections which are just made up of quotes and stories of other people, it makes you wonder if the author has anything of value to add to the discussion.
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But does this take away from the book?
I would say no. Because even though all these concepts are well-known. And even though as a Muslim, these concepts should be part of our daily lives, this book sort of amalgmates it all into one place. Additionally, I particularly took away a lot from the various parables and quotes he shares.
I can understand that people might find this as an underwhelming read. This is the case if you go in looking for something groundbreaking. But I stand strongly with the fact that there is benefit to be gained from this book.
