The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed on Your Own Terms

Your life did not just happen. You experience life exactly as you have fashioned it. If you are unhappy with where you are, you can deconstruct the parts you don’t like and build them up again. That is a statement on my website. And now there is book that shows you exactly how to craft a life that is ideal for you. Vishen Lakhiani is a computer engineer – or was one! – so he thinks in terms of ‘hacking’ processes to get more done and better and faster. And he asked an intriguing question – can you ‘hack’ your life? “Yes, you can,” he concluded and he built Mind Valley into the leader in the personal growth industry and one of the coolest offices in the country in an Inc. magazine reader’s poll in 2012. And in the process he custom built his life. In The Code of the Extraordinary Mind he shows you how you can do the same. There are lessons in his life-story. He joined Microsoft in the days when it was the tech company to join and was spinning out millionaires like cotton candy. It was most miserable period of his working life. The problem was that he wasn’t doing what turned him on. He was following the programming of South Asian parents who held that the way to get ahead is to become an engineer – doctor is also acceptable! – and get a job with a ‘good’ company and stick with it for a few decades. That brings us to Lesson 1: There is a ‘culturescape’ in which you live that dictates how you think about life, marriage, job, career and huge chunks of what constitutes your life. In that culturescape are many bulls**t rules – abbreviated to ‘brules’ – that both make your life miserable and hold you back. Accidents of birth dictate whether you are Christian or Jewish or Muslim and the family, culture and educational system that affect you. This is your culturescape and it has its rules – don’t marry someone outside your community, don’t eat certain foods, don’t mix with certain people etc. Many of these rules actually help you live a sane, fulfilled existence. But many are arbitrary and propagated unthinkingly. And these can be a source of great pain to you and a bane on society. The first part of the book defines culturescapes and brules and how to identify the unhelpful ones and eradicate them from your life. Then we get to the really interesting part – how do you re-engineer your life so that you are happier and more productive? Lakhiani posits that you can ‘bend reality’ by which he means that you can have such a startlingly different view of what happens to you that life is never the same again and outsiders walk away wondering if you are quite right in the head. The only way to explain this is by an example. In his early days he hit a brick wall. Mind Valley was stagnant. Sales would not rise and the hours were punishing. His life was on hold. He had young children he barely saw. Bank savings dwindled and layoffs loomed. He acted confident in front of his staff but deep inside felt like a fraud and a failure. That’s when he got a ‘bending reality’ insight. Stop postponing your happiness. Your thoughts and beliefs do create your reality, but only when your present state is joyful. He thought he didn’t have much to be happy about but came up with a process – described in the book – that revealed how much was super in his life. Sales trebled in months, payroll exploded and his company was recognized in an Inc. reader’s poll. There are tons of powerful insights. Such as why conventional goal setting is a pathway to despair. Most persons set ‘means goals’ such as becoming department head, or earning a particular amount, or reaching a career objective. And then spend inordinate time and effort to achieve those goals. All of these are means to an end. A better way is to set ‘end goals’. These are joyous in and of themselves. Becoming CEO is a means goal. I will learn something that excites me each week is an end goal. When you craft well thought out end goals and live your life to reach them, you come alive. And your life is transformed. The key lesson you learn is that you do not have to seek validation from outside by attaining normal goals. Your validation comes from inside through self-fueled goals and actions driven by deep inner love. The wonderful paradox is that when you don’t really care about external validation, you frequently get it in spades.

Let me start by saying that I didn't go into this book with a totally blank slate. I've been an avid follower of Vishen Lakhiani's work for a couple years and a monthly subscriber to both his MindValley programs, Consciousness Engineering and Soulvana. Basically, whatever he sells, I will buy. And no, I don't mean that in any mindless, "I swallowed the Kool Aid" kind of way. Quite the opposite as his philosophy falls into the "question everything" camp. And by that I mean EVERYTHING. Even the s*** you think you're not allowed to question. The Code of the Extraordinary Mind is an absolute must read for anyone who wishes to upgrade their life. Vishen's writing style is clear, relatable, highly intelligent and witty as hell. But beyond the ease and enjoyment of reading his work, it's the work itself that requires your attention. He breaks down a lot of common rules (and even has a catchy name for them) that we set up for ourselves. Rules that are nothing more than cultural preference, but we take them as hard fact and, in doing so, box ourselves in with limitations. Vishen lays out a clear approach for analyzing the rules we each choose to live by and questioning whether these self-imposed limitations are working for us or not. He also debunks the goal setting techniques most of us have been using our whole lives and offers a far better alternative system that breaks down goal setting and maintenance in a whole new way that would logically lead to greater fulfillment in all arenas of life. This is a bold, innovative book with real power to empower the reader to effect major changes in their life. I have read a lot of personal and spiritual growth books, but this one is at the top of my all time favorites list. Also, note that there is a multi-platform approach to this book where you can enhance your learning and application of the principles covered in the book through access to an online course and community, as well as additional resources referenced in the book that are made available to the reader at no additional cost. If you're feeling too cheap to buy the book right now or are in any way on the fence about it, please for the love of god at least google the guy, watch some of his fairly intensive content available on YouTube and see if anything he has to say resonates with you. My guess is that it will.

Great product! You won’t be disappointed!

The code of the Extraordinary Mind is a great book. Vishen has a wonderful style of writing and this book is very well written. His anecdotes are poignant and amusing, allowing you to learn while enjoying the story. The lessons are indispensable to the future of humanity. Understanding how to change cultural ideas that are no longer aiding us in our desired path is as important as he maps app on your iPhone; when lost, you can find your way back to the highway. This book is great for readers who are new to MindValley and for those who have been avid students of Vishen Lakhiani. I have learned from MindValley for almost one year. I found that the first two chapters were a nice review of lessons that were touched on during that time while chapters three through ten are new and exciting. Chapter six is life changing. I can see the results already taking place in my life (I have had the book 3 weeks).

It's absolutely one of the most inspiring book I've ever read. It talks about how you can be free from society's boundaries and live happily in your own terms, following your personal path-for-an-happy-life. It really changed my mind in a positive way, helping me a lot! I really recommend this reading. This book will arouse something in you. You won't be the same once you'll have finished this reading. I'M SURE IT'LL INSPIRE YOU.

Una forma genial de estructurar una meditación y poder generar el hábito para siempre. Todo muy bien explicado, con ejemplos y brillantemente estructurado.

This is a brilliant book. For anyone on the path of self-development, this is a good way to change your mindset and outlook to get your goals. The author, Vishen Lakhiani is great and I recommend looking at his Mindvalley.com website for more self-growth courses.

It is a Very inspiring book and method that helped me to regain belief in myself and faith in life

Some things were new...but then Im a bit of an "outlaw" BRULE is a new word to name my previous and current behavioural patterns...way to go. V