This book revolves around the theme of how to interact with others, from beginning to end, serving as a significant axis.
When contemplating how to live in this world, how many people do you think can live without any relationships with others?
Even if they use money as a means,
Money itself exists because there are people who receive money and people who pay money.
In other words, how we interact with others, and relationships themselves, become the most significant challenge we face in living in this world.
(The Japanese version blog is here)
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- How to Make People Happy
- It’s Natural for Life to Go as Clear Planned
- Dreams: The Only Way to Find Unreachable Goals Now
- The Magic of Narrowing Life
- The Key to Self-Growth: Expressing Your Own Thoughts in Your Own Way
Can you make people happy?
How to Make People Happy
How do people perceive their own personalities?
Some may think of themselves as having a friendly personality.
Others may feel they have a reserved nature.
However, this book explains that everyone inherently possesses all types of personalities.
People select a limited number of these personalities and identify with them.
People Strive to Become the Person Others Perceive Them to Be
This book explains this concept using the example of the power of selfimagin.
and call it the title.
When someone receives the title of “kindness,” they become even kinder, while someone labeled as “melancholic” may become even more reserved. How one is perceived by others greatly influences the formation of their personality.
However, even kind individuals know they aren’t solely kind.
Similarly, even reserved individuals remember moments of genuine laughter from their childhood. This is because the personality seen now is just a small part of one’s inherent qualities.
If you’re a person, you can make others see you as “warm,” “kind,” and “reliable” because you can bestow titles. When engaging in conversation, a simple statement like “You’re truly considerate, aren’t you?” can lead the other person to respond with gestures of kindness.
We possess the ability to give others things beyond imagination.
Wouldn’t you agree that the exchange received by those who can bestow titles becomes quite rich?
Just imagining that the people around you carry titles like “warm” and “kind” can bring relaxation.
By engaging with others, you can create opportunities for them to change. This book suggests that what the world lacks today is people who can give good “titles.”
It’s Natural for Life to Go as Clear Planned
While successful people may view outcomes and events as natural consequences, this book explains that for many, success is merely a stroke of luck.
Consider a young boy who dreams of becoming the best soccer player in school.
What does he need to achieve this dream? It’s likely something along the lines of “practising more meaningfully than anyone else at school.”
Imagine a balance scale. On one side, place the title “best soccer player in school,” and on the other, place what’s needed to balance it.
When the dream is realized, the scale is balanced. Knowing what I desire and what I need to balance it, and understanding how much effort is required, are crucial. This understanding allows us to accept balanced outcomes as natural results, not luck.
Taking action based on this understanding, as action is what we can do now, leads to a series of actions that ultimately yield results.
Finding Unreachable Goals Now is the Only Way to Dream
If you don’t have a dream, every choice you encounter in life becomes eliminative. This can also be understood as all choices being confined within constraints and limitations.
Because choices without dreams entail walking paths that are only accessible to oneself, it means navigating within the constraints of the paths available to you.
However, pursuing a dream can be seen as breaking through those walls.
It’s never an easy path, but accomplishing something beyond what you can currently do is never possible without a dream.
This is because only when you understand the goal of your dream can you determine what aligns with it, allowing you to take action.
The Magic of Narrowing Life
With dreams come barriers. And you’ll have to find and execute practical means to overcome those barriers. However, the means are just that—means. It’s not necessarily true that anything goes once you’ve reached your destination. Remember that both your goals and dreams are built upon the foundation of your life.
For example, when aiming to become a flight attendant, what becomes just as important, if not more so, than becoming a flight attendant itself, is what kind of flight attendant you become. How you overcome those barriers and reach your goal is crucial.
Focusing too much on the means can cause you to lose sight of the true meaning of your dream. Wouldn’t you think that striving to become a flight attendant who provides reassurance differs significantly from simply striving to become a flight attendant?
The so-called shortest route isn’t necessarily the easiest path to achieving your goal; just because it’s the easiest doesn’t mean it’s the path to success.
Whether you have a goal or not, whether you have a dream or not, what you can do is only what you can do right now.
Having passion for the present and living earnestly is more fundamental to life than how efficiently you live. While having a clear goal and not forgetting it are important, living fully in the present moment is even more crucial.
The Key to Self-Growth: Expressing Your Own Thoughts in Your Own Way
In the original story of this book, the protagonist grows through interaction with a letter writer, progressing the narrative. But what enabled the protagonist to grow in the first place?
According to the book, it’s because the protagonist has been developing their own opinions through interactions with the letter writer.
Developing one’s own thoughts, expressed through one’s own methods such as writing or drawing, is a significant reason for the protagonist’s growth. By expressing these thoughts, one can fully internalize them as their own.
In reality, words and others’ thoughts can be understood in various ways. It’s only when one draws their own lines within the words and thoughts of others, and transforms them into output, that the downloaded information becomes installed like software and begins to operate.
“Expressing Your Own Thoughts in Your Own Way” is the entire process of self-growth, and perhaps the most crucial aspect of walking through life. One could even argue that life itself is synonymous with self-growth.
Summary
So far, we’ve covered:
- In “How to Make People Happy,” we discussed the power of titles.
- In “It’s Natural for Life to Go as Planned,” we explored the importance of the pathway to goals.
- “Finding Unreachable Goals Now is the Only Way” delved into the richness of a life with dreams.
- “The Magic of Narrowing Life” touched on having a passion for life.
- Lastly, “The Key to Self-Growth: Expressing Your Own Thoughts in Your Own Way” highlights what’s necessary for continuous self-growth.
The book I discussed in this post is “The Letter Writer: Ten Letters That Changed My Job Search.”
The story of the book revolves around conversations through letters, but for the purpose of this discussion, I’ve focused on what I personally found important, thus omitting the narrative.
The depth of the original content of the book and the passion of the author are quite different from what I’ve written here.
It’s a highly recommended work, and very easy to read. I hope you’ll consider picking it up.
I hope I’ve been able to provide some assistance, even if just a little.
With heartfelt gratitude,
kiyo.