2024 is likely to be a tumultuous year. We have the opportunity to build a community that will help steady us on our paths to meaningful lives by learning from each other in a “sane and cheerful way.”
How? Mindset Shifts U will launch during the week of January 28th with the first in a series of explorations of great books.
If you are a paid subscriber, you automatically have the opportunity to participate in a process that will help you create a deeper, more meaningful life.
This is not an ordinary book club since we will work with each book over weeks, allowing us to meet our challenges by considering timeless wisdom.
As we read and consider the ideas of great thinkers, we automatically gain insights into our problematical mindsets—mindsets that interfere with being a good partner, a good parent, having a meaningful career, and enjoying life. Seeing our blocks, we can shift our mindset. Awareness is a great cleanser.
We’ll begin with Meditations by Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, broken into manageable reading assignments.
I recommend the translation by Robin Waterfield because its extensive footnotes help to clarify the material. The Gregory Hays translation is outstanding, too.
Aurelius wrote his Meditations for himself, never dreaming humanity would still read them thousands of years later. He sought to learn from experience by observing how he, not others, fell short of living by his highest values.
The first session will cover the introduction and notebooks 1 and 2 of Meditations. (Hayes uses the term books).
I will begin a thread each week with a brief commentary. You are encouraged to add to the thread by sharing your favorite ideas and quotes from the reading, asking questions, or responding to other commenters. The more readers who actively engage with the material, the more valuable the learning experience will be.
Aurelius frequently chided himself to align his actions with his purpose: “You need to make sure the part you play doesn’t resemble the worthless and ridiculous.”
The time we have is short was often on Aurelius’s mind: “Imagine that you’ve actually been dead and that you haven’t lived your life up to the present moment, and then treat what remains of your life as a bonus and live in accord with nature.”
Aurelius understood the value of subtracting the barriers he, not others, had placed in the way: “Dig inside yourself. Inside you, there’s a wellspring of goodness, which is capable of gushing all the time, as long as you keep digging.”
Following Meditations, we will work with other classics by authors such as Viktor Frankl, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and F. A. Hayek as well as contemporary authors such as Drs. C. Terry Warner, Cal Newport, David K. Reynolds, Alex Pattakos, Chris Niebauer, Russ Harris and Pia Callesen.
Each book or reading will be selected to increase our understanding of how, in our personal lives and in society, we can thrive. Inquiring into the nature of Reality is the most highly leveraged transformational activity.
We will be learning to subtract our internal barriers to a well-lived life. The series will help clarify our personal values and purpose. The series will lead us to see the societal conditions under which humanity flourishes.
If you have been reading my Substack for a while, you know there is a connection between inner freedom of the mind and outer freedom in society.
You become a more effective freedom fighter when you gain more inner freedom.
While teaching at the university, a single 3-credit course cost nearly $3000. If you are not a paid subscriber, you can become one for less than 20 cents a day.
Your return on your investment by reading and engaging great ideas will likely exceed, by many times, your return from arguing on social media.
If you have the means to become a Founding Member, you will be offering special support for this project. As a thank you, Founders receive a signed copy of my book, The Inner-Work of Leadership.
Are you still skeptical that participating in Mindset Shifts U will be transformative? Admittedly, in this limited format, I can’t deliver a live classroom experience, but if even 10% comes through, you will benefit from an exceptional learning opportunity for pennies a day.
In my decades as an award-winning professor, I designed unique learning experiences for my students.
Former students in my MBA leadership classes attested to the personal growth from working with material that subtracts internal barriers to flourishing. I’m honored to share a bit of what they anonymously had to say about my courses:
“I have never participated in anything in life, let alone a class, which has touched the very core of my existence. With appreciation for affording me the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“I can honestly say I’ve ‘learned’ more in this course than all my other MBA courses combined. Additionally, through the deep thought and meaningful dialogue used to acquire these lessons, they’ll not soon be forgotten.”“We all have a few courses from high school, college, and/or grad school that stick with us over time, haunt us even. These classes, whether because of the passion of the teacher or the vibrancy of the material, continue to feed us years after we have taken them. This was just such a class for me and for many of my fellow students.”
“While I risk sounding cheesy I want to take this opportunity to thank you for helping me recognize that there was a better person already inside of me. That it wasn’t going to be a self-help book that changed me or made me better, but rather becoming more of who I truly am underneath was what I was looking for all along. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for guiding me to the beginning of a life-long journey.”
“What a great course. I cannot say enough about what I have learned during this time. What has struck me the most about the course is not the material that I have learned, although that has been outstanding, but the fact that I learned more about myself in these few short months than I have in the last ten years. I can truly say that this class alone has been more valuable to me than the rest of the MBA curriculum.”
“This was absolutely the best class that I have ever taken. It is not even a comparison, in fact, since this was so drastically different from anything else. There should be more of this in education. Thanks again. It is clear that you put your heart and soul into teaching which I appreciate greatly.”
“This class has been the most useful and enlightening class I have ever taken. Much of my learning by way of formal education has been applicable to many areas of my life particularly in basis knowledge and employable skills. However, none has had such a profound impact in as to make change regarding my way of thinking. I will reflect back on the many things learned, forever.”
“Whoa, what can I say? This class has taken me on a wild ride that I will never forget. It has quelled fears and questions that I have lived with my whole life. I know that what I take from this class will live on with me for the rest of my life.”
“This class has been the most thought-provoking class I’ve ever attended. The ideas presented are not just ‘interesting or neat’ things to think about but are potentially life-changing.”
“Dr. Brownstein, it has been a life changing experience for me to have had the honor of participating in your class. The readings you assigned raised my awareness and helped me to identify my ego. They made me think, analyze, cry, and search the very depths of my soul. I am eternally grateful to you for your dedication to teaching and illuminating this fantastic world for me and for the hundreds you will touch in your journey. Thank you.”
“Wow! That’s how would describe how the insights that I’ve gained from this experience have affected me. I say ‘experience’, because this has not been the normal MBA course – it has been an ‘experience’. An experience that I have enjoyed and will always remember.”
“This class is exceptional in facilitating tangible shifts in thinking and self-awareness… (and) is a life-changing experience for those receptive to its teachings.”
“Thanks for your guidance on this incredible journey to the center of my being!”
“Thank you for the experience, words cannot express what I took away from this class. I cannot tell you the amount of growth and self-knowledge your classes have brought to me.”
“The principles we learned temper my thinking every day. I see my thinking (biases) (judgments) so much more clearly. Your thinking is fresh and genuine, practical and understandable.”
“The synthesis and personal reflection involved are things that I have never really experienced before, certainly not in the science world where there is often no mention of the whole person. I have begun a process that is changing my view of life in general.
Are you interested in this learning opportunity? This is an opportunity that will help you stop spinning your wheels. Your support of my work is deeply appreciated.
Congratulations Barry, this is wonderful!!
Ann Tomoko Rosen sent me. I've wanted to know more about stoicism so have ordered the book and look forward to this dialogue. Thank you for the chance to study these topics.