I’ve cross-posted on Tim Feriss’ 4 Hour Work Week blog before, and this one caught my eye. AJ Jacobs is a professed agnostic of Jewish heritage, who decided to try and follow the Bible literally for a year - and document the results.

I’d say most of us do underestimate the power that behavior has to shape thought. It’s astounding. I watched it happen to myself. For instance, I forced myself to stop gossiping, and eventually I started to have fewer petty thoughts to gossip about. I forced myself to help the needy, and found myself becoming less self-absorbed.

I even watched it happen with prayer. After a year of praying, I started to believe there’s something to the idea of sacredness. It was remarkable. So if you want to become someone different, just start acting like the person you want to be. It’s like that business motto – ‘fake it till you make it’ – but it works on a spiritual and ethical level as well.

Much of the book is humorous, and many things interpreted more literally than I would have done (such as wearing a prophet gown and not cutting any hair for a year). I posted a few comments, and some of them got longish - have a look, it’s an interesting thread.

Posted in Faith, Life, Reading & Listening