The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee

The book basically describes concepts of how Bruce Lee lived his life, and John Little shows how you can apply them to your life. The main concept in the book is to 'be yourself'. It is about easing up, and not adding complication to things that should occur naturally, such as in breathing. Do we think about how we breathe, and how to take a breath in and how to breath out? No, it is a natural process, and works its best when done naturally.
The primary concept Bruce applies is the empty mindedness concept. Instead of theorizing how to drink each time he drank, ie. hold a cup, tip it slightly, sip, Bruce says to learn to do this naturally. As in, you might have to learn it mechanically at first, but to truly drink or do anything successfully, you have to integrate it into a natural process, without you thinking about it. A quote that I made to sum the book up: "A man's purpose is to find himself and then become totally unconsious of himself."

A story used to illustrate that example is one of a centipede. If a centipede thought about all 1000 of its legs, and which one should go in front of the other in order to walk, he would be forever stumped. This applies to other areas too, such as fighting, etc. If you always think about how to throw a punch each time you threw one, you wouldn't be trusting yourself, and your thoughts would slow you down, it probably would be too late to throw the punch anyhow.

The book is about freedom, as in using what works for you, and not following in his or any other person's footsteps. How can you be unsatisfied when your goal in life is to learn about yourself? Among the only goals in life that can't be achieved is learning about yourself. This is, why in fact Bruce didn't leave an extremely extensive journal of all his techniques, because he wanted everyone to find themself, as he got to where he was at by not copying anyone else. He particularly disliked styles, because it prohibits true expression. A style only lets one to get good to the epitome of that style, yet learning and developing is ever constant. You don't use elementary math for high school algebra, as you don't use fighting skills that were developed for hand to hand combat in a war with guns.

My favorite part about the book was in accepting yourself. If you accept yourself, then you won't worry about what other people will think of you, or what to do here and there. Everything is much more natural and A LOT more stress-free for me. I read this book in about 3 days, and learned more from it than any other book I've read, and hopefully it can inspire you all as much as it has me. A few days prior to reading the book, I was struggling with an idea on how to do things. I let my mind clutter my head with excessive thoughts that prevented me from doing things such as speaking my desires or anything else that was on my mind. Reading the book, I've learned to accept myself, and I stopped being so self-conscious and act on my natural self. I've been able to speak freely now, and act a lot more freely, and because I've learned to accept myself, others are more accepting of what I do. This does not mean to be like animals, and act on emotions, but it does mean to act on what YOU believe, and in the end, become unconscious of yourself, which allows you to act fluidly, and truly express yourself.

A great part about this book is that it doesn't use inflated diction to show how smart the author is, and goes straight to the point. The content matters the most, and this book delivers in spades, unclouded by excessive wordings. Buy this book if you want to learn to live by your true self, and in the process, become more confident in yourself. If you found all the things I've put in the review about the book interesting, check the book out for more detailed understandings and other concepts on how to live positively. With all my heart, I definitely recommend this book, and although you may not get as much from the book as I did, who knows what you may get? Understanding is simple, yet tough.. a short process, yet eternal.