[or How to tap into your latent potential]
Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. —Archimedes
Makeovers are in vogue these days; you can get one in anywhere from 60 seconds to a few hours. This book too is about a makeover… but of a different kind. Here, I am not giving tricks and tips to make you look different. Instead, I am sharing with you ideas to make you think different—so different that you will feel transformed from inside-out. Succinctly put, this book can trigger your life’s makeover.
It’s a tall claim, I agree. You’re probably wondering how one small, slender book can help you achieve something so big. I’ll tell you how: through leverage.
I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of leverage. It never fails to amaze me that when we try to pick up something heavy, we struggle. But when we apply the concept of leverage, suddenly, lifting becomes so much easier. Have you observed how, using a car jack, we can lift a 1000-kg car with little effort? Jacks are perhaps the most common everyday tools based on the concept of leverage.
And that’s what the quotations in this book are—mental jacks. Each idea has the power, or potential energy, if you will, to lift your life to newer heights. Typical car jacks use mechanical advantage that allow us to lift cars. Likewise, the thoughts featured in this book offer us mental and emotional advantages that can help us lighten our burdens and amplify our latent forces manifold.
The ideas featured here are expressed by some of the greatest, most intelligent and most sensible individuals to have graced this planet. They are scientists, philosophers, politicians, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, artists and spiritual masters from across ages and across geography. But, their ideas are universal and timeless, as you will soon discover.
I have expanded each thought with the intent that it will inspire you as much as it inspired me. Of course, my interpretation comes through my own unique filter, which is largely made up of the fibres of my varied experiences. Having said that, I have tried to minimise any biases by avoiding going beyond the quoted idea. To tell you the truth, the temptation to add something of my own was tremendous. But I resisted, because I was conscious that this book belongs to the greats—I have merely walked on the footprints they have left behind.
Lastly, I have chosen these thoughts because I am confident of their universality. However, I would like to encourage you to experiment with these thoughts and figure out for yourself if they resonate with you. So, when you read my commentaries, it would serve you to remember what one of the featured thought leaders, the venerable Gautam Buddha said: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
Now that you’re suitably cautioned, you may go ahead and put those jacks in place. Then use the leverage to give your life a much-deserved makeover.
May the force in you amplify.