Know thyself | Five Minutes on Mondays: Finding Unexpected Purpose, Peace, and Fulfillment at Work

This book is a quiet gem | Five Minutes on Mondays: Finding Unexpected Purpose, Peace, and Fulfillment at Work | Alan Lurie

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	• Five Minutes on Mondays: Finding Unexpected Purpose, Peace, and Fulfillment at Work Alan Lurie FT Press, 2009 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Five Minutes on Mondays

These are amazing essays on life, attitude and tolerance.
They are inspirational and enjoyable.
Alan Lurie is a gifted thinker and writer.
Can I give it 6 Stars?

Know thyself

Alan Lurie has served us all with this selection of life lessons. Although set in the business mileau, Lurie reflects on areas in which we interact with our fellow man. Anyone who reads Five Minutes on Mondays will be struck by the universality of the very human themes. There is a consistent realization for the reader that this lesson is for me, this insight is valuable to me. Lurie has a gracious and generous spirit that flows through his essays, and each is intended to bring one to an inner reflection on what is really important in life. Read the book to savor and digest what is good in the human spirit. Share the lessons in the book to enhance the quality of the lives of those you love.

jk::

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This book is a quiet gem

Five Minutes on Monday is quiet gem. I have not seen it on any lists, but it should be. The author is an architect turned rabbi turned manager. He brings a wide breadth of knowledge and experience to his quiet Monday insights. The book is a compilation of Monday morning talks a business team. While many of the insights come from the Jewish tradition, they are peppered with stories and concepts from philosophy, science and other religious traditions. The tone of the book is very soft, encouraging reflection on the deeper meanings of the ideas.

The topics range from justice to creativity to resolving conflicts to being authentic while facing fears and cultivating happiness. Quiet and powerful. I started to just read through the book, but found that randomly opening it and reading a bite-size section was better. There is an index that is very helpful in finding pertinent themes. Even the short highlighted quotes are useful. For example, I just randomly opened the book to this one:" With experience and guidance, we discover that mistakes can, in fact, often be turned around and transformed into a positive growth experience."

The chapters are short since each was a short Monday talk. I recommend reading one at a time, perhaps daily, and spending some time with the thoughts presented. Again, it is a quiet gem. It does not loudly shout about transformation, the power to change or our need to heal the planet. The truths are simple, direct, and applicable to individual life. The chapters left me thoughtfully inspired...a nice feeling.

I recommend this book to anyone in a leadership position needing some insight, anyone wanting to deepen their daily reflective practice, anyone wanting some quiet inspiration, and anyone interested in applying Jewish (or other) philosophy in a mainstream setting.

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Take five minutes with this book every day

Five Minutes on Mondays appeals on so many levels. The messages are profound, but the anecdotes are the mundane dilemmas we face every day - - which makes the profound messages easy to digest, understand, and absorb. Alan Lurie's delivery also makes it pleasant and never preachy. It is implicitly (and explicitly) clear that he struggles with all of the topics discussed, just like you and me. It gives me hope in corporate America that there is a company launching each Monday with moral truths. I recently read (and loved) Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely. One of Ariely's experiments in "behavioral economics" demonstrated that people behave more ethically when they simply state something ethical before temptations set in...for example, reading the Ten Commandments made the subjects in the experimental group less likely to cheat when the opportunity was presented to them. I wonder what impact Five Minutes on Mondays will have on the employees in Alan Lurie's work team, exposed to these interesting and personal moral teachings at the beginning of the work week. Sounds to me like an opportunity for another experiment in behavioral economics ...

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Both inspiring and thought provoking

Alan Lurie is a Rabbi and thus - I presume - has spent many hours pondering deep philosophical questions and thinking about the meaning of life. It shows. While he may not have any answers for you, he does have questions and observations that will knock your own thinking machine off its habitual paths and and get you thinking about your own life and dilemmas in fresh ways that enable you to discover the answers you are seeking.

For example, he tells the story of the philosophy professor who posits that the true test of any philosophical belief itself is paradoxical. In other words the belief must be internally self-contradictory. Initially this seems perverse, even stupid. As you begin to ponder the implications - and he helps you travel some of this path - you realize that this is actually very profound. In fact, there are entire schools of Eastern practice based on wrestling with the conundrums of paradox utill the thinking mind simply gives up. That opens up the way to a deeper form of knowing and is the point of the exercise.

And he has the droll tale of how all of us are graduates of MSU - making stuff up. And this is precisely what we do. We tell ourselves stories all the time and start believing in those stories and they gradually construct the world we live in. Change the story you tell yourself and your world alters.

There is much wisdom here. This is not a book to be read. Take it like a vitamin pill - a small dose every day.

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Five Minutes on Mondays is a gold mine of enrichment!It is an easy read with a deep and profound impact." Martin Rutte, Chair of the Board, The Centre for Spirituality and the Workplace, Saint Mary's University, co-author of New York Times business best-seller, Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work "Lurie's wise and wonderful book should grace every karmic capitalist's bookshelf. He reminds us that finding a sense of meaning and purpose in what we do may align us with unimagined success and a profound awakening to who we are." Chip Conley, CEO, Joie de Vivre Hotels "Read Lurie's suggestions to elevate your spirit--then bring that spirit to your work. The promise is; both you and your client will be more fulfilled, more satisfied, and more engaged in your business relationship." John King, Senior Partner, CultureSync, and coauthor of Tribal Leadership "Five Minutes on Mondays is a book of savvy and surprises. Lurie offers a tasting menu of wisdom, counsel, insight, psychology, and wonderful stories. But be warned, these little servings will last on your palate far longer than the five minutes it takes to consume them." Peter Pitzele, Ph.D., author of Our Fathers' Wells: A Personal Encounter with the Myths of Genesis and Scripture Windows: Toward a Practice of Bibliodrama "Lurie's book is a gem--a must-read for anyone who works at their faith and believes in their work. Business professionals of all kinds and from all religious traditions will find Lurie's light touch and real-world applications helpful as they strive to succeed without selling their soul." David W. Miller, Ph.D., Director, Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative, and President, The Avodah Institute Imagine the leaders of one of New York City's top real-estate firms coming together every Monday morning to hear!the moral and spiritual thoughts of a Rabbi. Imagine them returning, week after week!coming to eagerly anticipate those five minutes as a moment of uncommon peace in the world's most brutally competitive environment. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall? To hear the paths Alan Lurie traced for his listeners, how he helped them bring together their spiritual and business lives, the sacred and the profane? Five Minutes on Mondays compiles these talks for the first time, sharing Lurie's deep and profound inspiration on the challenges we all face--at work, and in life. Lurie draws on millennia of philosophy, theology, and science to help us answer our deepest questions, comfort our deepest yearnings, and become better people--more connected to each other, and to the Greater Purpose. / Prosper while keeping your integrity / Balance faith, honor, and ambition / Use your workplace as your moral and spiritual "gymnasium" / Find deeper meaning and purpose in your work / Face your fears and failures, and keep going / Gain real respect--and give it / Live one authentic life--at work, and everywhere else

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