BiblioTechCTech’s Book Review: Breaking down the barriers to set you free
BiblioTech
CTech’s Book Review: Breaking down the barriers to set you free
Isaac Bentwich, Founder and CEO of Quris Technologies, shares insights after reading “Untethered Soul” by Michael A. Singer
Isaac Bentwich is the Founder and CEO of Quris Technologies, a biotechnology company that harnesses technologies for drug development. He has joined CTech to share a review of “Untethered Soul” by Michael A. Singer.
Title: “Untethered Soul”
Author: Michael A. Singer
Format: Book, Tablet, Audiobook
Where: Home
Summary:
What do Tony Robbins, Ray Kurzweil, and Deepak Chopra have in common? They heap praise on this ground-breaking book, the ‘Untethered Soul’ (New York Times #1 Bestseller; now available in Hebrew), a revolutionary guide on how to combine inner-growth with successful living, written by an entrepreneur who has built and managed a world-leading billion-dollar company. It offers a fascinating look inside the ‘mechanics’ of our head and heart, helping us better understand what makes us tick, and how we can train our mind so that it ‘ticks’, better and happier.
Important Themes:
The book offers a fascinating ‘guided tour’ into the ‘mechanics’ of how our mind works, and what we can do to tap our vast inner potential. As its name suggests, the book likens us to a helium balloon, tied down, or ‘tethered’, by our own calcified patterns of negative thinking and feeling, fed by our lower-nature desires and fears. As we learn to cut ourselves free from these ‘tethers’ of negative habits, the ‘helium’ of our true higher nature, our soul, naturally lifts us. Allowing us to perform in our career at a level we could not have dreamed possible, while at the same time helping us find fulfillment and happiness within.
The author, Michael A. Singer, is an ideal guide on this ‘inner tour’ of our mind. He is no ordinary ‘tree-hugger’. Rather, he is a relentlessly logical ‘computer guy’ and a hard-nosed executive who has built and managed a successful billion-dollar company and for whom his tech career was a continuous training ground in his own inner growth.
Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s most successful technology innovators, says ‘Untethered Soul’ is a “brilliant treatise on how to succeed in life, from our spiritual quest to our everyday tribulations.” Tony Robbins says the book is a “great guide in the Art of Fulfillment and in unleashing our potential.” Deepak Chopra says it offers “more than a glimpse of eternity.”
What I’ve Learned:
What I find quite unique about this book is the simplicity with which it narrates the deepest philosophical truths about ourselves and the world around us, and how to apply these to living our life, including our life at work. As an example, the book uses the following beautiful analogy to describe our relationship with our mind and the world around us: Our mind is like a ‘house’ we’ve constructed around ourselves. Our habitual thoughts are the ‘walls’ of this house, and our memories are ‘pictures’ we hang up on the walls of this house to make it more comfortable to live in. Initially, our mind is a ‘house’ we enjoy living in; over time it becomes a ‘fortress’, giving us a sense of security of living within the construct of our well-known thoughts and concepts, likes and dislikes.
The radical invitation of the book is to see this mind-house we’ve constructed for what it is, a ‘prison’ that is restricting us from living our full potential, with the walls of our habitual thoughts holding us back rather than protecting us. This book is a well-articulated invitation to tear down these walls of our habitual thinking, so that we can live life, including our life at work – in a fuller, more fulfilling way.
I’ve been studying and teaching Meditation, Yoga and Eastern philosophy for 37 years, alongside my ‘day job’ of founding and leading disruptive technology companies. This book brought a fresh perspective that penetrated deep into my heart and soul.
Critiques:
This book will appeal to some, not to others. Perhaps try reading a free section to see if it suits you.
Who Should Read This Book:
If you are a no-nonsense, ‘fast-lane’ person, and have caught on that running faster on your career’s treadmill is not making you happier, this may be a book for you.
