Taking time out to think about life is understandably not easy, let alone motivating ourselves to do so.
We can get really caught up with our life commitments, ambitions, worries, desires, fears and even distractions. I speak for myself too!
From the website Inc. they featured an article about how Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Oprah Winfrey, all use the “5-hour rule” weekly to not only sustain themselves but to stay laser focus and on top of their lives.
Essentially, it is about putting aside 5-hours every week to delve into reading, reflection and experimentation. It can be 1-hour every day or one 5-hours a day in the week, or anything that works best for you. Just 5-hours a week! Try it.
It is always about learning from the best, and picking out what works for you so that you can be your best! Speaking of best…
Dominic de Guzmán, one of the best scholarly minds in the early 13th century, born in Spain, practised “reflective reading” and “walking in solitude”.
It is said, when Dominic goes into the quiet to read, he appeared to move from inspirational reading to quiet communication with himself about his reading, to meditation, and contemplation.
And when he goes for walks, he walks alone; he takes what he read with him on the walks, while listening to everything around him at the same time – the cars in distant traffic, sounds of industry, sounds of nature, sound of his footsteps, breathing, and even the sensation of his heartbeat.
For ourselves, maybe we want to take 5-minute every day to try to recall something inspiring we read, and take a walk with it into the deepest part of ourselves and listen? May it lead you to take meaningful actions in your lives!
Contributed by Nicholas Gabriel Lim