Two Books That Taught Me How to Live (And How To Die) — Transcript

I want to share two books with you. These are two books that on the surface could not be more different from one another.

If you watched my last video, I gave you a health update and I talked about my heart condition, and in that I kind of ended with a question of how can it be, why could it be worth it to try my best and give it my all and try to live up to my potential, whatever that means, when I know that I'm just going to die in the end, right?

When I've got this incurable heart condition, why, you know, why bother when it doesn't really matter at the end of the day?

And I think these two books have a very interesting dialogue on those kind of concepts, those existential questions.

Because you may or may not have a heart condition like me, but you absolutely are going to die like me one day, and so these are questions that everybody struggles with and wrestles with, and I think these are very important, helpful books to those ends.

So let's start with the first one, this first book teaches you how, you know, why to live well, how to live well, and the other looks at how to die well.

Which we'll get to, but The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, I think is a fantastic read for anybody, because you can see how short it is.

It's technically a young adult boxing novel, which is why I think it gets dismissed or overlooked a lot, but this is still to this day one of the most impactful books that I've ever read, because it really looks at the question of it for a young with a young character on why would I self-impose struggle?

Why would I want to implement discipline and rigidity and do all of these things that are going to make my life harder when all my friends are out there drinking, they're partying, they're getting with, you know, with women and having fun, why would I do this to myself? And it kind of creates an argument or a case for the importance of that.

And obviously, the title is The Contender, and that's kind of the core thesis is the answer to that question is not the accolades and the, you know, we're goal-oriented towards trying to be the champion.

It's asking the question of what does it mean to be a contender first, what value is in being a contender and what that builds within you, goes back to that video that I did that really welcomed a lot of you to the channel, and thank you so much for subscribing and sharing and being here, but that video about the most dangerous mindset that I see, where I talk about, you know, the inability to struggle and to work, uh, work through the difficulty of starting something new and not being very good, and what that teaches you and what what inborn things are bred out of that kind of toil.

This is what that book looks at, and there's a sequel called The Brave, and there's a scene in it that is, you can call it a twist or a reveal, whatever it is, it is to this day one of my favorite scenes, if not my favorite scene ever, because it heightens, uh, and enriches the philosophy of this first book, which is that there is a point to putting yourself through that self-discipline and trying to build a better version of yourself, not out of any, uh, self-hatred or any goal orientation towards seeking validation, but simply for the inborn respect and love you have for yourself, and for what it can mean for you for yourself, but for those around you as well, because connection and community are massive in this story and in this one.

Tuesdays with Morrie is the second book I want to recommend, uh, recommend to you today, and this is a story, I think it might be considered fiction, but this is non-fiction as well, because it's based on the author's real experience of the series of conversations he had with a professor of his as the professor was passing away from ALS.

And this book, like I said, looks at how to die well, and it looks at really what matters at the end of the day, when we do strip it all back, when it is the end of the line, when we can't take anything with us, it looks at, you know, uh, the important questions in life and the important priorities that we should be having.

And one of them is definitely, again, connection, community, and those people around you, because really, and I I recommended the books, I'll stop there, I'll just kind of give you a couple words here and then I'll leave you, but really at the end of the day, what I've been thinking about a lot is, yes, I I want to live purpose-driven, I do, because I think it would be so boring and I would get so depressed if I didn't have a goal, a target, something that I was aiming for.

If I wasn't being a contender and putting myself in the ring, so to speak, I would get so bored, but with this Tuesdays with Morrie kind of philosophy and mindset, I know that I can't take any of it with me, and that it's a lot of it's just ego of like wanting this or wanting that, but for me, that's why it doesn't matter the, um, outcomes anymore so much.

I've let go of so many of the things that I used to grasp so tightly on, I just feel like really at the end of the day, it's going to be who's carrying my casket and what do those individuals have to say about me?

Other than that, it's just noise, it's just in the way and just isn't worth it, um, to get worked up about.

So, I guess I'll leave it there, I hope these books are, uh, helpful to you, I hope you do check them out and you get something out of them, Tuesdays with Morrie by, uh, Mitch Albom and The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, I think these books make a good double feature and, uh, one that hopefully you weren't expecting.