The Monk who Sold his Ferrari

Author – Gabriella Goddard

If you regularly resolve to change and just as regularly hoist the white flag for those resolutions, then “The Monk who Sold his Ferrari” by Robin S. Sharma may be just what you need.

The central character is Julian Mantle, a highly successful lawyer, who one day in court, has a massive heart attack brought on by the stress of his life. After recovering he travels to India to discover himself and make sense of his life. Some years later he returns to see his old assistant, John, to share with him the learnings he has acquired. He is now transformed, looking much younger, fitter, and healthy.

Julian reveals to him that on his journey he met the Sages of Sivana who provided answers to his questions and that he is now compelled to share their wisdom with as many people as possible. The novel focuses on the conversation that takes place between the two of them.

A central theme of his message is that “the mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. If you have become a negative thinker; this is because you have not cared for your mind and taken time to train it to focus on the good.” John is encouraged to visualise and to dream and Julian reminds him of what Jonas Salk said about dreams; “ I have had dreams and I have had nightmares. I overcome the nightmares because of my dreams.”

Throughout their conversation a wide range of Eastern spiritual wisdom is blended with modern Western methods to transform your thinking and performance. I was very impressed with the range and simplicity of the techniques on offer and would therefore highly recommend this if you are really ready to succeed with your resolutions.