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Well, the first part of the book is more like 5 stars. I really liked the stories. It was more down to earth in my opinion. The last part was more theoretical or philosophical and it was hard for me to stay focused.

So, all in all 4 stars.

Some powerful quotes from the book:

"When man is living, he is soft and pliable; when he is dead, he becomes rigid. Pliability is life; rigidity is death, whether we are speaking of the body, the mind, or the spirit. Be pliable."

"What you do (teach, play sports, feed starving children, enforce the laws, write books) and who you are (a parent, a spouse, a partner, a mentor, an artist) is not as important as how you express your “what” and your “who” in everything you do."

"It takes work to make your insides match your outsides."

"And so it is with life. Life can be joyful and sad. Beautiful and ugly. Exciting and terrifying. And yet, these are the extremes of the whole experience. If we resist one half of the experience, we may never reach the heights of its rewards or the contentment of its balance. But when we strike a balance within the interplay of these extremes, we find peace and harmony. We find ease."

"The “Be Water” quote begins with the prompt, “Empty your mind.” This first request is perhaps the most important one in our process because it sets us up for everything that comes next. My father believed that this act—of leaving behind the burdens of one’s preconceived opinions and conclusions—had in itself a liberating power. In fact, if this step is the only one you actively work on for a while, you will expand your life considerably."

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral, which always is as it is.”

"Oftentimes it happens that I don’t see an experiment through, and then there’s information in that as well. Did I not stick to it because it wasn’t working for me? Or did I stop because it was too hard or because I had some sort of blind spot or blockage that I ran up against? The possibilities for learning and growth are endless if you’re prepared to dig in."

"A teacher, a good teacher that is, functions as a pointer to truth but not a giver of truth."

"What impulses do you need to control, and what controls do you need to loosen?"

"Are you trying only to best someone else or win the prize? Or are you interested in your own process of growth? Competition categorizes everything and everyone into winners and losers rather than collaborators and cocreators. It separates us from self, and it pits us against one another."

"If someone insults me, I can choose to be insulted, or I can choose to hold that person in compassion because they are obviously struggling with something themselves, or I can choose to express myself to them, or I can choose to walk away. I can choose to make that insult mean that the world is a terrible place or I can choose to make it mean that there’s a lot of healing to do in the world and wonder how I can do my part. I am the creator of my experience. I get to choose."

Hard to rate this one. I can make an argument for giving it one star AND five stars.

On one hand the chapters are usually very short, they contain some stories and also some good or even great advice.

On the other hand, there is no red thread or at least I couldn’t see it. A lot of the chapters are pretty repetitive. One decision from one person was describes as courageous or even heroic because there life was at stake. This made me feel both, boggling and excited.

I picked the book up, because I want to become more courageous. This booked helped me to dive deeper into this topic and answer the question:„What does it mean to be more courageous FOR ME?

I took some 70 notes. Here are my TOP3:

„Courage, he said, was the midpoint between two vices—cowardice being the best known, but recklessness being equally dangerous.“
Courage in itself is not always better. It’s no one-way street.

„A person isn’t brave, generally. We are brave, specifically. For a few seconds. For a few seconds of embarrassing bravery we can be great. And that is enough.“
It’s not possible to be courageous ALL THE TIME. Sometimes you are not courageous and that’s totally ok.

„Courage is not something you declare, like bankruptcy, it is something you earn, that becomes part of you. Just as a writer becomes one by writing—and a great writer by writing that which is worth reading—“courageous” is a superlative paid for over the course of a life of courageous decisions.“
Increase your courage „account“ just like your bank account. Interest will do it’s wonder. :-)