A couple of weeks ago I was speaking to a good friend of mine, who also happens to be my little boys’ football coach Simon Clifford. Simon is a brilliant football coach and has been helping my boys develop their football skills for a number of years now and he is doing a PHD in Sports Science as such he reads a lot. However, rather than focus on their development this time he wanted to give me a little bit of friendly advice which I am never averse too. He said if there was one book that I had to pick up and read it was “Stillness is the Key” because it had changed his life. Now that is a big statement for one book and so it did make my ears prick up.
I have read a number of self-help books and business books mainly because I believe you need to keep training yourself to learn more and always continue to develop and remain open-minded.
So I have been reading this book for a while now and although it is a self-help book it’s not as challenging to read as some of the others that I have read previously.
This book is all about taking a moment out, appreciating and enjoying life – stop chasing the social media, stop watching the news media – stop believing the hype. We can all survive with food, water and shelter. It is a book based on the basic human needs and principles and it is brilliantly refreshing as it has so many excellent examples of how other people have benefitted from this approach.
The author seems to use real life experiences, rather than the just the usual old clap trap that successful business people often pump into their memoir texts. Halliday is a best-selling author and I can see why as he catches the imagination with how he approaches each of his different theories of the human mind with clear examples of when people had found some kind of stillness in their lives. He uses famous examples like Winston Churchill painting, and even brick laying, to find his stillness whilst the world around him rages.
The general premise of the book is that stillness is the key to everything. It is the key to peace of mind and the fundamental key to happiness, the key to success and even to creativity. I have read previous books that highlight getting into your creative flow, but this book has really made me stop and think.
- Why as an entrepreneur am I always chasing the next contract?
- Why do I constantly look to grow and develop?
- Why aren’t I ever 100% happy with everything I have right now?
These are big questions but I think we (or me in particular) get into the habit of chasing the next rainbow and dream because we must develop, innovate and move forward or we are moving backwards. However, that said, I have used this book and theory and now meditate fairly regularly and have done yoga every single day since the first lockdown. The point I am making is stop chasing the dream and start enjoying the reality – life really isn’t that bad at all whether we are locked down or not. Life is great – let’s appreciate it.
Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.
