Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring

Introduction: Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring

As an avid reader I sometimes find books that transcend time. They are filled with timeless concepts and ideas. Here are five such books: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin, The Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy by Miyamoto Musahi, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and the Analects of Confucius. here are some timeless ideas worth exploring.

Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring: Jonathan Livingston Seagull Five Great Ideas

1. You are perfect and unlimited
2. Never stop learning and practicing and striving to understand more of the perfect invincible principle of all life
3. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body too
4. Practice to see the real person, the good in every one, and to help them see it in themselves
5. Look with understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly

Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Five Great Ideas

1. Develop a Code of Conduct for the way you live and work, so that when situations arise you know how to respond
2. Provide useful information to your clients
3. After making the first $1 million, it is easier to make the second
4. Before going into partnerships, develop contracts with clearly defined expectations and exit clauses to protect all involved parties
5. History is filled with mistakes, learn from them

Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring: The Book of Five Rings Five Great Ideas

1. Lay your plans with true measure and then perform the work according to plan
2. If your strategy doesn't work change it. When you're in a deadlock change your technique. Abandon efforts that do not work, think of your situation in a fresh spirit
3. You must train day and night to make quick decisions
4. Do what you have to do, even if it means doing it alone
5. Everything is difficult at first

Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring: The Secret Garden Five Great Ideas

1. “You learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they stay in your mind forever…”
2. “The beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen.”
3. Make life meaningful by doing work that you are passionate about. Live each day as if it were your last
4. Everyone wants to be liked, appreciated and wanted. People also want to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves
5. To receive compassion you have to be compassionate and to earn respect you have to respect others

Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring: The Analects of Confucius Great Ideas

1. Confucius said, “Those who are born with the possession of knowledge are the highest class of men. Those who learn, and so readily get possession of knowledge, are the next. Those who are dull and stupid, and yet compass the learning, are another class next to these. As to those who are dull and stupid and yet do not learn; they are the lowest of the people.”
2. The philosopher Yu said, “When agreements are made according to what is right, what is spoken can be made good. When respect is shown according to what is proper, one keeps far from shame and disgrace. When the parties upon whom a man leans are proper persons to be intimate with, he can make them his guides and masters.”
3. “To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”
4. The Master said, “Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”
5. The Master said, “When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?”

How could you integrate or implement some of these concepts into your work and life?

Have you read?

Review of the Autobiography of Benjamin Frankin
The Way of Strategy – Review of the Book of Five Rings
Review of the Analects of Confucius

 Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions) The Book of Five Rings The Secret Garden (HarperClassics) The Analects (Penguin Classics)

Photo credits: Avil Beckford