just like this cup, you seem to be full of your own ideas. And how
can any more go in. . . until you first empty your cup?"
I was struck by the truth of his words. He was right. My many
years in the conservative legal world, doing the same things every
day with the same people who thought the same thoughts every
day had filled my cup to the brim. My wife Jenny was always
telling me that we should be meeting new people and exploring
new things. "I wish you were just a little more adventurous, John,"
she would say.
I couldn't remember the last time I had read a book that didn't
deal with law. The profession was my life. I began to realize that
the sterile world I had grown accustomed to had dulled my
creativity and limited my vision.
"Okay. I see your point," I admitted. "Perhaps all my years as
a trial lawyer have made me a hardened skeptic. From the minute
I saw you in my office yesterday, something deep inside me told me
that your transformation was genuine, and that there was some
sort of lesson in it for me. Maybe I just didn't want to believe it."
"John, tonight is the first night of your new life. I simply ask
that you think deeply about the wisdom and strategies that I will
share with you and apply them with conviction for a period of one
month. Embrace the methods with a deep trust in their
effectiveness. There is a reason why they have survived for
thousands of years — they work."
"One month seems like a long time."
"Six hundred and seventy-two hours of inner work to
profoundly improve every waking moment of the rest of your life
is quite a bargain, don't you think? Investing in yourself is the best
investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life,
it will improve the lives of all those around you."