Phase 1: Compassion This phase is about feeling connected to others and feeling a sense of kinship with and kindness toward all of life, which we discussed in Chapter 10. In this phase, you express your intention of extending greater compassion and love to an ever-widening circle of humanity, starting with your family and friends and then widening all the way to encompass the planet. Compassion practices make you a better human being, and some studies have found that men and women found compassion or kindness to be one of the most attractive qualities in the opposite sex (so this might improve your love life, too).

A great set point here is to read at least two books per month. 7.

Learning is what you get from school. When it comes to classes like history, geography. and algebra, schools teach you facts and ideas — most of which you’re going to forget. This is LEARNING. But true growth comes from something else. Something much more powerful than learning. It’s called TRANSFORMATION. When you learn a fact you can forget it the next day. But a transformation is when your entire worldview shifts. When a transformation occurs there is an opening for a new way of seeing the world. It’s a complete shift in perspective. A transformation causes an exponential jump in who you are as a person. It may jolt you and rejig some of your long-held beliefs and values.