25 questions and 28 tips to help you become a Buddha badass

I am a huge fan of Vishen Lakhiani. His book “The code of the extraordinary mind” changed my life. It has changed the lives of other people I recommended the book to. I was looking forward to “The Buddha and the Badass: The Secret Spiritual Art of Succeeding at Work”. I do not think it is near his earlier book. It reminds me of Brian Solis “Lifescale”. 

Be courageous

What it does do, is asking several pertinent questions, Starting with courage. How courageous are you? Are you living your best life? How big is your vision? Vishen believes that the bigger your vision, the easier it gets. When you live this way, you may find that the vision is not coming from you. Instead, the universe is choosing to go through you to realise what the world needs. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. 

Questions

More questions from the book here:

1. Are your goals worthy enough of you? 
2. Do you find great joy in what you do? 
3. Do work and play become one?
4. Are you burdened or overwhelmed by thoughts?
5. Does multitasking become easy?
6. Are you able to create a positive vibe and generate energy with the people you’re working with?
7. Are all your relationships win-win, and are all interactions imbued with positivity and care
8. Are you able to tap into ideas, inspiration, and creativity on demand so that you become a source of innovation and creative output?
9. Do you see abundance emerging in all areas of your life?
10. Does life flow almost as if it’s blessed by luck and synchronicity? 
11. Does it feel as if you are held by a benevolent Universe?
12. Does what you desire, come to you with ease?
13. Do you feel as if you are supported by the universe?
14. What experiences do I want to have in this lifetime? 
15. To be the person who lives life with amazing experiences, how do you need to grow? 
16. If we are all cells, are you a healthy cell or a cancer cell? Does your work positively impact humanity? 
17. How energetic do you feel throughout the day?
18. What are the emotional states you experience on a day-to-day basis?
19. Is what you are doing on a day-to-day basis consistent with what your true purpose is
20. How easy is it for you to access flow states for optimal productivity? What do you experience in these states? 
21. How clear are you on my goals and visions for life and work? 
22. How clear are you on your life purpose?
23. How are your relationships with your team members, colleagues, clients, and customers? Are your relationships honest and about everyone winning? 
24. Do you feel surrounded by love
25. Do you believe in yourself? Are you fearless about standing up, being an original, and living your own life free of the expectations of others? The themes are similar to any other self-help book. The difference is that the author has combined these tips by also building a business around them.

The tips

Here are the tips:

1. Hard work is not the purpose in life.
2. Listen to your soul or intuition (intuition is the new black. It is your connection with the universe (reed Metahuman).
3. Know your values, both on a personal level and of the company. They should be the same. Realise that market research, data, customer surveys are subservient to your values. 
4. Examine where these values come from. Look back at the events of your life. The failures. The sufferings. The highs and the lows. They shaped your values. And these values must guide your decisions about the type of company you create and the work you do. 
5. Little ideas that tickled, and nagged, and refused to go away should never be ignored, for in them lie the seeds of your destiny. 
6. You don’t need to know how to achieve an outcome. Forget knowing HOW. All you need to know is your WHY and WHAT for doing it. Then, you share this with passion. The people you need will come to you. And they will bring the answers you need. And usually much faster than you expect. That is the genius of the Buddha mindset. It’s not about knowing every answer. It’s about believing in your idea and in the fact that other people have similar dreams and are willing to collaborate with you. 
7. Craft a vivid vision
8. Deep connection is a critical component of an engaged culture and a high-performing team. Social bonds are the number one variable that raises a person’s physical health, mental state, and day-to-day performance. Numerous neuroscientific studies show that social connection causes reward centres of the brain to light. The revolutionary findings were that social bonds have a 0.7 correlation (which is massive in the world of science) to life fulfilment. We know today that social connection is the number one thing that correlates with happiness. And as it turns out, science now says happiness is perhaps the biggest single contributor to the performance of your team. They go together in one straight line. Coworkers who report a best friend at work are seven times more engaged at work than their disconnected counterparts.
9. Aim for positive optimism. Once you awaken to the idea that the universe is benevolent and life is ultimately good, you never again revert back to your older worldview. You are permanently transformed. That doesn’t mean endless bliss. It implies a healthier, wiser way to deal with the occasional companions of sadness, grief, and loss. Positive optimism is not the rejection of sadness, but the thought, even during sadness, that the future will be okay.
10. Focus on the happiness advantage. When the brain is in a positive state, productivity rises by 31% Sales success increases by 37%. Intelligence, creativity, and memory all improve dramatically. Doctors primed to be happy are 19% better at making the right diagnosis.
11. Create social events rituals. Daily, weekly, monthly, annually. Focus on positive contagion. Moods go viral, in a similar way as the flu.
12. Practice vulnerability.
13. Apply OKR. 
14. Become “Unfuckwithable. Be truly at peace and in touch with yourself. Nothing anyone says or does bothers you, and no negativity can touch you. It means having the wisdom to be the artist of your own life.
15. Practice self-gratitude. 
16. Start co-visioning. Co-visioning is when a company (or person) takes an active interest in an employee’s (or their teammate’s) vision. 
17. Don’t focus on growth. Focus on transformation. Transformation involves experiencing a profound, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift in consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world. It is unpredictable. Slow. And Painful. The soul craves transformation. 
18. Embrace total health. Eat, move, sleep. Make it part of the company culture.
19. Meditate
20. Focus on making a positive difference for the world in what they do, have a higher bar of integrity. Take a stand. Define a BTP (read “Firms of endearment”. Become a founder-activist. Your stand is your brand. 
21. Have a “healthy disregard for the impossible. Always work on something uncomfortably exciting. 50% of your goals should have a 50% rate of failure. 
22. A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at. Be audacious.
23. The greatest people are self-managing. They don’t need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it. 
24. Leadership is, is having a vision, being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it and getting a consensus on a common vision. It’s the idea of true leaders being future-focused and not short-term focused. 
25. Operate as one unified brain. Make sure the experts across the organisation get the data, connect, and have the information they need to make the best decisions. 
26. Apply OODA. Observe-Orient-Decide-Act. 
27. Sometimes in life, you have to destroy what is merely good to allow what is truly great to enter. 
28. Create the perfect day in your mind. Journal about it. And then take a step back. What does this perfect day tell you about yourself? That perfect day will help you understand yourself and find your core identity. 

It is about your ideal identity

Vishen believes that ultimately it is about shifting your identity. It is identity shifting and not the Law of Attraction that matters. Identity shifting is when we create a massive change in how we see ourselves in relation to the world. This “Law of Attraction” thing, you see, the way most people think of it is incomplete. The world doesn’t give you what you want or desire. Instead, it gives you WHO you ARE. Your identity shapes your experience. Do not to struggle to change a habit. Instead, change your identity. Build an identity that makes you rise above the habit altogether. Be the person you secretly desire to be. 

Envision your perfect life

For example, change your identity to that of a truly healthy person. Be someone who meditates daily eats well, cares for their body, and exercises. You aren’t too busy to exercise and meditate; in fact, it’s proven that these practices give you time.  Envision your perfect life. The world will reflect to you what you truly, deeply believe you are.

Change your belief system

And finally, change your belief system. Vishen recommends the Silva method (I am a fan too). Ask the lofty questions to program yourself. For example:

• Why am I so creative at work? 
• Why am I going to be in flow today as I write my book? 
• Why do I have such badass levels of focus? 
• Why am I so clear on my vision and goals? 
• Why do I operate with such a profound sense of purpose? 

Lofty questions

Construct the lofty questions that will reinforce the shifts you want to make. Write down five to ten lofty questions. Commit them to memory and ask yourself these questions while meditating in the morning or before going to bed at night. As these questions sink in, you can add more questions. As the circumstances of your life change, modify or ask new questions. 

Makes you think

The book is a bit like Vishen Lakhiani business concept “Mindvalley”. It picks from the best. It is a lighter and practical version of “Inner engineering, a yogi’s guide to joy“. It is definitely better than Brian Solis´ book, but as I wrote, not as good as “The code of the extraordinary mind”. As with that book, “The Buddha and the Badass” will make you think. And that is all a good book should do.