Key lessons from The Road Less Traveled
- Accept that life is difficult
- Accept responsibility for your problems
- Discomfort makes you change your life
- Without discipline, we can solve nothing.
- Uncertainty makes you grow
- Courage is not the absence of fear.
- love is Separateness
- One must always believe in luck
- Honesty is freedom
The Road Less Traveled Book Summary:
The author is a psychiatrist he uses his psychological approaches to explain things helpful in life. He explains things from his experience of treating his patients. In his whole book author focuses on that all the work is to be done by you, and you only. He emphasizes being independent to solve your problems.
The author tells us the tools and tips to solve our problems mainly comprised of four things
- Love
- Discipline
- Growth and Religion
- Grace
in my opinion, the author has given many irrelevant examples which I will not discuss which are not necessary.
You may have found your passion or got your favorite things in life but on the downside, you might have lost your job or a best friend, the bitter truth you have to face every time is > Life is Difficult
But once we truly came to know and believe that life is difficult, then it seems not difficult anymore, the lesson is > accept your responsibility for your problems. they make us painful but instead of excusing and blaming someone that these problems might go off, why do we not face them and try to solve them.
Whatever you avoid them that the problems go off by themselves, I guarantee, it will not. My friend who is a doctor told me the story of many patients who came to get a quick fix for their illness but they don’t take responsibility to do the things best for their cure.
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The author tells us that we have to accept our responsibility for our problems this way we can overcome them as well as become more courageous to face them in the future.
same way discomforts make you change your life, it is the same as problems make us painful, while when we face them and solve them we are stronger than before to face other problems courageously which ultimately leads us to future growth.
Getting out of my comfort zone would create immediate suffering but leads to growth.
if you decided to achieve something whether it is your problem or any future goal and you have made a plan of how will you achieve that goal. at that moment you have to follow your plan with discipline otherwise you will leave your work or feel effortless because you will not be able to monitor what you have done and what needs to be done. in life, accept the fact that without discipline we can achieve nothing and solve nothing
suppose you are listening on media that earthquake may hit our area onwards, now you must be thinking of finding ways to safeguard yourself, your family and in that way to get some ideas and you have made some good things for that purpose. this means that the uncertainty makes you grow.
I believe that “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the finding that something else is more important than fear.
in life, we face too many problems we, of course, have to face them with courage but courage does not mean that things we should fear be also forgotten. You may take some actions with your courage but we should fear the results which may hurt not us but our beloved ones. so the lesson is courage is required to face the facts but fear of losing or hurting someone or something is stick to them also.
We always want to talk about ourselves, we want everything for ourselves alone but that’s not true everyone has its own identity other than being a lover. In my college life, I fall in love with someone I go so long in that relation that I forgot to respect her self, being a human being or being a colleague she might deserve. I thought I love her so he is all mine in every way. but I was wrong.
Even though I love her, that must be kept separate. because everyone has his separate identity. The author focuses on that love is separateness.
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Suppose you struggled hard to achieve something and you have done everything for that purpose but still unsuccessful, tell me why?. you are still failed while doing everything for that. what is the thing which still not work for your success in any situation? that is Luck.
The author tells us that one must believe in miracles means your luck is the thing that is higher than all of your efforts and strategies. if luck works you will succeed, even without any struggle or plans so far.
when you believed that luck is everything, it reminds us about God. God has created us and created for a purpose, if it is, then he must have think of our livelihood, our future and he must have planned it. that is called our luck which moves parallel to whatever we plan and perform.
if you remember in your life, sometimes you have planned everything and when started are failed. while sometimes you just think of something to do and everything goes in your favor and that happened immediately without any extra effort. What is that thing? it is luck. which author says that one must always believe in miracles.
before I explain the last lesson from this book, I tell you a real story (Note: read as being a free thinker)
One man who was an alcohol drinker, does Zina (illicit sexual relations), indulge in stealing in Madina, once appeared before the Prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him the last messenger and said that he is a bad man he wants to accept Islam but he cannot stop doing sins.
The holy prophet said, Okay, you may not stop you evil doing but do one thing. The man said, yes one thing whichever you said, then the holy prophet said. Stop telling a lie everywhere. The man said okay. and left the chamber.
After some time, man when started drinking wine, etc. he thought if people will ask me that whether I have drunk alcohol and as promised I will not tell a lie. so I will be ashamed before peoples, so he stopped drinking alcohol.
He thought the same way for Zina and stealing and the time passed he left all the wrongdoings.
the message from the story is and from the book which the author emphasizes that we should be honest with ourselves, it will make us free from everything that makes us desperate.
when until we do not speak our words are dependant on us and when we speak we are dependant on our words. the message is Honesty is Freedom.
