Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Stay calm.
冷静なままでいよう。

 

‘Busy’ is written in Japanese with the ideogram meaning ‘lose one’s mind.’

In Japan people often say, especially in a business environment, “Don’t be busy, otherwise you are going to lose your mind. Stay calm no matter what happens.” Ironically, this phrase is also used as an excuse to dump many tasks on you – people don’t want you to get mad at them.

Not a few Japanese people unconsciously believe that ’being busy’ is equal to ‘losing your mind’ — or ‘mindless.’ The fact is — it is completely possible for us to be mindful while we have many things to do, as many productive people all over the world do every day.

Find out ONE thing that matters most right now. Focus on the ONE thing and get it done. Then repeat.

This will keep you from losing your mind even when you are extremely busy. We have to stay calm for the sake of ourselves, not anyone else.

 

 

Suffering is optional.
苦しむか否かは自分次第。

 

One of my best decisions in my life is to stop reading self-help books that have been published in the last 100 years.

Instead, I go back to the classic books and writings — including the ones written in the era of the Roman Empire. These books tell us that, even thousands years ago, we humans had the similar sufferings as we have now. And that millions of self-help books published recently are not a silver bullet.

In our life, there seems to be always something that we could suffer from. Even though we live in developed countries. But if we consciously see things around us — we will notice that nothing really suffers us. They just exist or appear in front of us, and we just choose to be suffered from them.

We can always live without choosing to be suffered. And that’s the ultimate self-help approach.