Based on Rudolf Steiner's Book: How to Become Better—A 7-Day Plan

AVAlexander Volchek

But some things have lasting value for your whole life, forever. And the greatest, most genuine practices in life are simple. Today, I'll show you these practices. I'll give you a powerful principle. Again, look at every area of your life, everywhere: when you talk with partners, contractors, customers, or colleagues. Together, they will lead you not just to development, not just to greater scale, but to the highest development. It's an inner freedom you want to touch at least once. What if that freedom became as simple as a habit? That would mean you'd feel it all the time. Today, I want to talk about seven practices, one for each day of the week, that you can do throughout your life. It's surprising, but we're constantly searching, observing, looking at practices, texts, meditations, or assignments that help us truly move forward, develop, perceive more broadly, hear more, and reach certain goals. But we constantly want to replace these practices with new ones. Yet some things have lasting value for your whole life, forever. You can always stay with them. You don't have to spend your time testing a new practice, spend your inner strength on doubts, or spend enormous resources studying something.

And the greatest, most genuine practices in life are simple. Today, I'll show you these practices. Rudolf Steiner taught them in his School of Michael in the early twentieth century. I'll read you part of the text and make sure to provide it below this video. You'll always be able to find it if you're listening in audio form, because this material will also be available as an audio podcast or published as an article on besolid.com. You'll be able to find the text. For each passage, I'll show you what it means, what it's about. And this is important: after going through all the texts, I'll give you a powerful principle explaining why you need this in life. When we see a text, we think we need it for spiritual development or for personal growth. I'm going to give you a daily practice for your entire life. It doesn't matter what area it is: family, professional development, your business, work within your team, your health. It doesn't matter. You'll be able to apply this practice immediately and with focus. At the end, I'll explain how to check whether you're living it.

Let's start with Friday. Friday: striving to learn as much as possible from life. Nothing passes us by without offering a chance to gain experience that's useful for life. If something has been done incorrectly or imperfectly, it becomes an opportunity to do something similar correctly and perfectly in the future. Observe other people's actions with the same purpose, but without a heartless gaze. Do nothing without looking back at experiences that might help you make and carry out a decision. You can learn a great deal from anyone, even a child, if you're attentive. This exercise is called right memory: remembering what you've learned from your experiences. Again: right memory in the family, with your wife, children, or husband. Right memory at work, with your boss, employees, or colleagues. Right memory in business. Right memory when you rest and when you work. Right memory always. Right memory. Saturday: pay attention to your ideas and thoughts. Think only significant thoughts. Gradually learn to distinguish the essential from the inessential in your thoughts, the eternal from the transient, truth from mere opinion. When listening to those around you, try to become completely calm inwardly and set aside all approval, and especially all negative judgments, criticism, and rejection.

The same applies to thoughts and feelings. In your thoughts and feelings, give up all negative judgments of your loved ones. This is what's called right opinion. Pay attention to your ideas and thoughts. Right opinion. Right opinion at home. Right opinion at work. Right opinion when you're walking. Right opinion when you're watching television. Right opinion when you're writing a book. Right opinion when you're cooking. Right opinion when you're making a purchase in a store. Right opinion. Sunday: decide to take even the smallest action only on the basis of well-founded reflection. Every thoughtless act, every meaningless action, should be kept away from the soul. You must always have carefully considered grounds for all of this, and you must absolutely refrain from anything for which there is no significant motive. If, however, you are convinced that your decision is right, you should hold to it with inner steadfastness. This is what's called right judgment, made independently of likes or dislikes. Notice: independently of likes and dislikes. It doesn't change with your mood. If you're convinced your decision is right, you hold to it. Otherwise, you remain in a state of inquiry. Decide to take even the smallest action only on the basis of well-founded reflection.

Again, look at every area of your life, everywhere: when you talk with partners, contractors, customers, or colleagues. When you sit down to watch a movie. Absolutely everything. Monday: speech. Only what has meaning and significance should come from the mouth of someone striving for higher development. In this sense, all talk for the sake of talking, for example to pass the time, is harmful. Avoid the usual way of talking randomly about all sorts of things. At the same time, you should by no means withdraw from communication with your loved ones. It is precisely in that communication that speech should gradually become meaningful. Speak to everyone and answer everyone, but thoughtfully, considering your words from every angle. Never say anything without a reason. It's better to remain silent. Try to speak neither too briefly nor too wordily. First listen calmly, then reflect. This is also called right speech. What is happening to us, to our right speech at home and at work? What happens to our right speech when we can't say anything to someone? What happens to it when we make disorganized excuses, say something, or try to get something across? How are we doing with right speech?

How are we doing with right speech when we talk at work but don't communicate at home? How are we doing with that? With right speech? Tuesday: outward actions. They should not interfere with our loved ones. When you're moved to act by something within you, by your conscience, you should carefully consider how that impulse could best serve the common good. How it could best serve people's lasting, eternal happiness. When you act from within yourself—

On your own initiative, you should consider the consequences of your actions as thoroughly as possible beforehand. This is also called right action. How rightly do you act in your life? Do you truly act with awareness at every moment? Like this: without interfering with your loved ones. Wednesday: arranging your life. Live in accordance with nature and spirit. Don't squander yourself on outward bustle. Avoid everything that brings restlessness and haste into your life. Don't hurry too much, but don't be slow either. Regard life as a means for work toward higher development, and act accordingly. In this sense, we also speak of right perspective. Again: right perspective everywhere. Thursday. I'll explain now what this has to do with the days of the week. Thursday brings all these days together. Human aspiration. Your aspiration. Be careful not to take on something beyond your strength, but don't turn down what you are capable of doing. Rise above the everyday and the fleeting, and set goals and ideals connected with humanity's higher duties. For example, seek to develop through these exercises so that later you can give those around you greater help through action and advice, even if not in the immediate future.

Everything we've said can be summed up like this: let all these exercises become habits. At first, you can begin working within a single day. In fact, you can take one exercise, Friday's, for example, and use it every day of the week, or stay with it every day for a whole month. Then take the next exercise in a new month or a new week. Later, move toward doing this exercise every Friday, that one on Saturday, that one on Sunday, and that one on Monday. Eventually, though—and this is the exercise of life—all these exercises become your own habits. By habits, I mean that in every action, every word, every opinion, every judgment, and every perspective, you live and act from truth, from what's real. Whether it's your view of the plants outside, your thought about another person beside you, a conversation with someone in a store, or a discussion of a new business with your partner. Right memory, right opinion, right judgment, right speech, right action, and right perspective, taken together, will lead you not just to development, not just to greater scale, but to the highest development.

It's a movement with an entirely different perception of life. It's an inner freedom you want to touch at least once. What if that freedom became as simple as a habit? That would mean you'd feel it all the time. Subscribe to the channel and like the video. Save this video; it's worth watching again. Even when you have the exercises written down as text, this video will help you align yourself with them and tune into them. You need to choose a stretch of time now to begin living within this space. It doesn't have to be your whole life. If it's difficult, give yourself a month. If it's a little easier, take three months. If you have a little more freedom, take five or ten years, or don't limit yourself to a period at all. Because no one in the world could say that these words don't contribute to human development. See you next time!