Almost at the end now. I have to say, I didn’t think this would really make a big difference after the first couple of books, but now I am starting to feel like maybe it might. It’s snowballing. It’s like the more I actively think about what can make me a better person, the more I also try to do little things every day hoping it will make me better. The things I read affect how I interact with the world around me. I am curious if this will continue. Now, to the books!
The next book was an attempt to get more organised, as I chose Marie Kondo’s Spark Joy.
I read her first book, but I always struggled with it. I always had a tendency to just want to throw everything away, so my problem wasn’t that I was holding on to things and that my home was a mess – more the opposite. I wanted to let go of everything and when I sort through things, I tend to just not look in boxes if they have been closed long enough for me to forget exactly what is in it. I just throw it away. It’s almost like I don’t want to remember, I just want to move on to different and new things, things that are better and suit my life better. The problem is, if I throw away all my jumpers then I’ll be cold when it’s wintertime.
I think, what I really struggled with was feeling that spark of joy she always talks about. I still struggle with it now, but actually, I feel like I am starting to understand. I started with my clothes, but I am going to go through it again. I am also going to sort through everything I own and keep the things that make me feel some sort of spark of joy. It’s my summer project, actually. I have a lot of things boxed up after moving back home to my mother’s house. It’s all just stored in the bicycle shed in big and small unsorted cardboard boxes or hidden under the stairs in the basement. It’s time to figure out what from my past I want to hold on to and what I need to let go, especially if I ever want to move on with my life after everything that has happened. This book sort of reminded me that sorting through our physical stuff is also a way of sorting through our real, everyday life. I kind of feel like all those boxes is a real-life proof that I trying to just ignore my past – I can’t, though. Either I sort through my past or I let it all go. Thing is, I neither want to go cold in the winter nor do I want to ignore or forget all the good stuff that happened in my life. I want to choose what sparks joy in my life now and let go of all the rest.
I will probably re-read her other book too over the summer while working through everything. Maybe this summer project of mine will help me feel better about myself and my space and maybe that will help me become a better person?
The eighth book was a book I have wanted to read in a long time: Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung. Not an easy book to get though, but still a very interesting read. I find that Jung is far more relatable and interesting a person than I would have assumed. It was difficult for me at first to really get into it, but the more I read, the more intrigued I became by this man. He describes a time in school where he was accused of cheating by a teacher and the other students believed he had cheated too. It was strange for me to read, because he might as well have described what had happened to me in school when I was accused of cheating. It affected me deeply, as it must have affected Jung – only I reacted very differently to it. I simply gave up, thinking it didn’t matter how hard I worked because no one would believe me. If they assumed I was an idiot then I would present them with an idiot, even if I was the only one suffering.
Reading biographies or autobiographies is something people always tell me is very inspiring and can be life changing, but I never really read many. Admittedly, the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl was something I will never forget. So, I guess, I shouldn’t be surprised that this one by Jung also inspired me. It inspired me to continue reading biographies and I will try to always be reading a biography from now on. I read a biography of Jane Austen, and I am currently reading a biography of Leonardo Da Vinci (which I decided to read after reading the next book on the list How to work like Da Vinci).
I don’t know what biography I’ll read next, but I know I’ll continue reading biographies. It was incredible what people go through, how they struggle and suffer in search of happiness. These biographies and autobiographies, like this one by Carl Jung or the one by Viktor Frankl, can show us both the good and the bad of being human, inspire us to overcome what seems impossible to survive. They can show us that we have a choice to make, we are not trapped by our life, but more likely our mind – if anything at all.
Then I read Work like da Vinci by Michael J Gelb. I really enjoyed it. I have struggled at work for a long time and feel that no matter what I do, I am unable to make a positive difference at work. I work with wonderful and kind people, we work on a project that could be pretty rewarding and exciting and yet, in spite of that, I often feel people are stressed, get annoyed easily, argue more often than I am comfortable with and generally I just don’t enjoy the amount of negativity that is a part of every day at work. I don’t understand how all these wonderful people can live every day the way we have for as long as we have. But we do. I feel powerless and sad, especially because I often feel that people would rather ignore the problems or pretend, they don’t exist instead of trying to make things better. A part of me is also worried that I am just too sensitive and that this is just how everyone works. I can’t live like that; I want to be happy and enjoy my work.
So, I was very hopeful that reading this book would give me ideas on how to contribute in a more positive way and it was definitely inspiring. I think, I understand better where we might go wrong and hopefully that will make it easier to try and do things differently in the future. I was so inspired in fact, that I just read a biography about Leonardo da Vinci (by Walter Isaacson) and will soon read How to think like da Vinci (also by Michael J Gelb), because I feel there’s something there. I have to say, Leonardo da Vinci was a very, very inspiring person and in my opinion one of the most brilliant people to ever walk the earth. There is a lot to learn from someone like that.
I am nearing the end of my challenge and honestly what I feel more than anything is a change in my curiosity. I was always a curious person by nature, but this challenge has trained my curiosity and my open-mindedness more than I would have expected. I can say without a doubt, I think it is healthy for us to train ourselves and become more open to understanding what makes us different. It is making me, I hope, a more compassionate and kind human being. Even if I am not a better person than I was, I feel it is surely setting me on the right path.
