A friend of mine recommended this book: 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene and I read a few reviews of this book. I also watched some YouTube recommendation videos of this book. I was impressed and bought it.
I just read the preface of the book and I admired it so much!!!! I felt it can't be read in one stretch. Its important to pause and think through its relevance to our personal life. On the same lines... I also think it cannot be reviewed in one stretch.
I intend to write this book review in parts. Below is part 1, which is my review of the first few pages of the preface of the book.
I have taken a few days to relate the ideals to my life and add a line to express my personal relevance.
I also felt this book helps you to build your will power. In order to balance any tendencies of aggressiveness, I will be reading another book in parallel: Tales and Parables of Ramakrishna by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. I will be reading that book also in phases and will write its review also in parts.
Book Review Part 1
Below are 6 ideals that are like a preparation for building the strategies. In my opinion you should memorize them, keep repeating it to yourself, pickup a few scenarios in your own life and apply them. Relive these scenarios in your mind as if you have perfected the below points. Observe how the situation would have been different if you had handled it differently. Also catch yourself bending to your old patterns that have failed you.
You will know your strengths and weaknesses with better clarity. Reaffirm that you will keep these learnings and respond to life with your elevated perception and maturity going forward.
Extract from the book:
Six fundamental ideals you should aim for in transforming yourself into a strategic warrior in daily life.
1. Look at things as they are, not as your emotions color them.
When you have success, be extra wary. When you are angry, take no action. When you are fearful, know you are going to exaggerate the dangers you face.
I have often fallen to the trap of emotional dramas. I easily believe apologies, tears, sad stories of loneliness. Empathy is good heart. But a good heart getting carried away by deceiving emotional traps can soon become traumatic. Even people who are truly apologetic or depressed, tend to manipulate based on their bias or self favouring. This includes our on mind. Practicing to see things as they are is very important first step.
2. Judge people by their actions.
People who accuse you of being unfair, for example, who try to make you feel guilty, who talk about justice and morality, are trying to gain an advantage on the chessboard.
This is such an important point to inculcate. When we fall, there will be people who will throw stones at us. Their intentions are clearly visible. But more dangerous are those who come to you with sympathy. Their swords are not visible. Their words sound soothing. When they are close to you, they can see your weak spot. In my view it's our own mistake of exposing our vulnerabilities that attract such people.
3. Depend on your own arms
In the middle of a crisis, your mind will find its way to the right solution. Having superior strategies at your fingertips will give your maneuvers irresistible force.
This is like a self defense or a vaccination. When you depend on no one and train yourself to handle any downsides, it empowers you emotionally and makes you fearless. Apply this, especially to your financial life. Financial independence opens many doors of opportunity and keeps most of your insecurities away.
4. Worship Athena not Ares
Ares is brutal warrior but Athena is strategic and wins without bloodshed. Your interest in war is not the violence, the brutality, the waste of lives and resources, but the rationality and pragmatism it forces on us and the ideal of winning without bloodshed. Like Athena, you are always one step ahead, making your moves more indirect. Your goal is to blend philosophy and war, wisdom and battle, into an unbeatable blend.
For this point I reviewed both my success and failures in life. Lack of strategy is the main reason for letting the success slip away, especially where I felt, I missed it with a small gap. But even the success, had I employed a better strategy, I would have done exponentially better.
5. Elevate yourself from the battle field
Keeping your overall goals in mind, it becomes much easier to decide when to fight and when to walk away.
We all experience this situation when we are caught off guard. We never anticipated such a twist. There was blindspot and we were hit inevitably in life. Real reason I realise is because I was too involved and allowed to be hijacked emotionally by the clutches of the problem. Had I zoomed out and had the bird's eye view, I would have not missed the blindspot. It was not hidden, I failed to spot it early. If I could distance myself emotionally I would have protected my goals, the path and myself.
6. Spiritualize your warfare
The greatest battle of all is with yourself—your weaknesses, your emotions, your lack of resolution in seeing things through to the end. You must declare unceasing war on yourself.
This is self explanatory. Keeping our virtues and values is very important. I have experienced this many times: I would have felt life failed me, relations disappeared, I was hit only because I refused to let go of my virtue. But in the long run when I connect the dots, I am what I am because I didn't let go of my virtues. Its not my weakness, it's my strength. It had always protected me in the long run. All the pain and loss were worth it.
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