RDF Book Club – Code of the Extraordinary Mind

by Vishen Lakhiani

Code of the Extraordinary Mind is an insightful and exciting self-help book, written by personal growth entrepreneur, Vishen Lakhiani. The book encourages you to question your views and beliefs. Are they your own, designed to serve you and help you achieve your goals? Or, are they obsolete beliefs instilled by your family, culture and education, unsuited to the type of life you want? The book proposes a set of “laws” designed to help you redefine your core principles and become happy in the now, while setting goals that contribute to your future happiness.

So many people feel stuck with their day-to-day. For me, personally, I was holding onto individual and spiritual beliefs from my childhood that didn’t always make the most sense to me and my life. The only purpose they were serving was to make me feel guilty when I didn’t always adhere to them. Living with guilt can make you feel stuck and undeserving of success and happiness. So, you lose your vision and the energy to pursue your goals and passions. Additionally, the guilt brought on by my deep-seeded beliefs was only driving me further away from my spirituality. Something that seemed counter-intuitive.

Code of the Extraordinary Mind walks you through the process of examining everything you think you know about things like love, education, spirituality, work and happiness, to sort out which beliefs are actually what he calls “Brules” (short for bullsh*t rules). See, Brules are unknowingly passed from generation to generation, so you shouldn’t blindly follow them. You should only follow beliefs that are genuinely yours. When you choose what to believe your life is yours to control. As the author explains, “The key to being extraordinary is knowing what rules to follow and what rules to break.”

The author makes such a great point that while we rush to upgrade to the latest devices and system updates for our new phone or computer, we rarely give the same attention to upgrading our own models of reality and systems for living. Which is unfortunate because such enhancements are critical to our personal and professional success. Culture isn’t static – it lives and breathes.

This book helped me to see that some of my views, beliefs and habits that I thought were my own, were actually programmed by my background. This realization has inspired a new personal journey of recreating myself and redesigning my core principals. I am now moving forward on a path towards happiness instead of living in a hole of guilt. I know the process is not going to be an overnight accomplishment. But, just giving myself permission to question my values has already lifted such a huge burden and sparked inspiration in me. In the words of Vishen Lakhiani, “Your true greatness comes when you focus on finding your quest.”

Written by Destiny Van Rooy

Destiny is our Client Experience Coordinator. She has extensive experience with much of our behind-the-scenes legal work and knowledge of the criminal case process. Her background helps our business and client service continue to grow simultaneously, by making sure that the human element of the legal experience is not lost on the good people we represent. Destiny moved to the Northwest from Arizona, promising to never look back. She’s fully embraced her new life in Oregon and loves riding her bike around Portland. She also loves meeting new people, dancing, crafting and catching live music shows with her husband, London.