5 Learnings from “The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi that I’m going to follow in 2025

This book can change your life!

What if a single book could transform the way you think, act, and grow in life?

That’s exactly what The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi promises — a timeless masterpiece on strategy, discipline, and self-mastery that has inspired countless people for centuries.

Hi, I’m Madhav! I create blogs and videos about productivity, self-help, and programming. In this blog, I’ll uncover five powerful lessons from The Book of Five Rings that I plan to live by in 2025. These aren’t just ideas — they’re strategies that can help you conquer challenges in your career and personal life.

The fifth learning is a game-changer. It has the potential to reshape your approach to success entirely — so make sure you read till the end!

Now, let’s dive into these life-changing takeaways and explore how I’m going to weave them into my journey this year. And, don’t forget to share in the comments how you plan to use these lessons to level up your life!

Here’s a quick book summary, in case you’re interested in going through the mind map of the book before I share my key takeaways from the book. If you want to get more of these simplified mindmaps of various books, don’t forget to hit the follow button.

“The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi is broadly divided into 5 parts

1. The Earth Scroll
2. The Water Scroll
3. The Fire Scroll
4. The Wind Scroll
5. The Scroll of Emptiness

And, (as you might have guessed), this blog will also be divided into 5 sections, let’s go!

Mastery beings with understanding the foundation — The Earth Scroll

Earth symbolizes stability and foundation. Like the ground beneath us, this scroll emphasizes the importance of the fundamental principles on which everything else is built.

It reflects the unwavering need to work on strengthening the foundations of your art and keeping a firm stance — not only in combat but in daily life.

You might see people doing a lot of things, and you might feel that what they are doing is much better than what you’re doing (“Shiny Object Syndrome”).
Here, Musashi reminds us the importance of sticking to and strengthening the fundamentals as once you master the fundamentals, mastering anything else becomes much easier.

For example — When you go to the gym, you might find people doing multiple different exercises and you might get overwhelmed. Here, you can apply the principles of the earth scroll — stick to the fundamentals.
Once you master the 5 basic movements in the gym — Squats, Bench Press, Deadlifts, Overhead Press, and Pull Ups — You can master other movements faster.

Life lessons from this scroll 📜

• Diversify your skills — learn multiple areas: Familiarity with diverse skills strengthens your adaptability.
• Building strength in the fundamentals of your skill is like building a strong fortress, it will protect you: While it’s important to learn multiple skills, at the same time, you need to strengthen the foundations on which each skill is built.
• Practice, Practice, Practice! Understand the fundamental principles and practice them diligently until they become second nature.
• Make a plan to achieve your goals: Proper planning and strategy ensure long-term success

My plan for 2025

Musashi emphasizes the importance of diversifying your skills, yet he also tells the importance of mastering the fundamentals.

So, in my professional life as a software developer — I plan to strengthen my knowledge in system design. (I keep sharing videos related to software engineering on my YouTube channel, consider subscribing to it).

In my personal life, I’m learning how to play the piano, so I’m going to master the basic chords in the next few months before jumping to complex compositions.

Your plan for 2025?

If there’s one thing I truly enjoy, it’s connecting with people. Every conversation teaches me something new from their unique experiences, and I’m genuinely excited to learn from you too! So, share in the comments which fundamentals you’re planning to master in 2025 — I’d love to hear your thoughts and stay connected with you. 😊

“Adapt and flow like water, but strike with the force of a waterfall” — The Water Scroll

Water represents flexibility and adaptability. It takes the shape of any container, flows around obstacles, and remains calm yet powerful. This scroll emphasizes fluidity in thoughts and actions to navigate life’s uncertainties.

Musashi encourages us to approach challenges with a flexible mindset, focusing on the moment while staying aware of the bigger picture. This adaptability allows us to respond to situations with precision rather than reacting impulsively.

Let me take an example — let’s say you’re walking on a narrow path and you find a sharp obstacle on the road that can hurt you, what will you do?

1. Turn around and go back.
2. Ignore the obstacle and move over it no matter how much it hurts.
3. Carefully, walk through the sides and keep going forward while avoiding the obstacle.

Now — which one will you choose?

Water doesn’t resist obstacles — it flows around them, finding its way to the destination effortlessly.

Be like water!

Life lessons from this scroll 📜

• Stay fluid like water: Adjust to changing situations effortlessly.
• He who maintains calm, wins the fight, he who doesn’t, loses! Maintain a calm and focused mind, even in challenging times.
• Precision and Timing can be your greatest asset or worst enemy.
• Adaptability can be your biggest strength.

My plan for 2025

While the earth scroll teaches us to have a plan, at the same time, the water scroll teaches that being very rigid to the plan can be a big mistake.

Here are a few things that I’m planning in 2025 from the learnings of the water scroll:

1. Quarterly experiment week: Every three months, I’ll dedicate one week to stepping completely outside my comfort zone. During this time, I might explore something entirely unrelated to my profession, experiment with a new content style, or dive into a fresh, uncharted activity.
2. Monthly experiment day: One day every month for the same purpose as above.
3. 5-hour learning week: Each week, I’ll try to dedicate 5 hours to going deep into my knowledge and skills.

How do you plan to accommodate the water scroll in your plan for 2025?

“In battle, speed is survival” — The Fire Scroll

Fire symbolizes intensity, aggression, and transformation. It burns quickly and requires control to prevent destruction, but if under control, fire can be used for a lot of purposes.

The Fire Scroll is about harnessing that energy to confront challenges head-on, whether in battle or in life. Musashi teaches us that personal or professional success in moments of conflict comes not from impulsiveness, but from clear strategy and sharp focus.

Fire can destroy, but when controlled, it can also illuminate and forge something new.

In life, the Fire Scroll teaches us the art of balance — being passionate without losing control, being assertive without being reckless.

Musashi’s wisdom in the Fire Scroll reminds us that conflict and pressure are inevitable, but they can also be opportunities. By mastering the fire within us, we can transform challenges into achievements, emerging stronger and more refined.

Life lessons from this scroll 📜

• Passion and Agility: In life, it’s important to seize the opportunities passionately.
• Being passionate without losing control: Stay composed under pressure and to act with purpose. Like a blacksmith forging steel, we must apply just the right amount of heat and force to shape our outcomes effectively.
• Minimize unnecessary risks.
• Prepare thoroughly for high-pressure situations.

My plan for 2025

Your passion can be the driving force for continuous action. A few years ago I was super-passionate about writing blogs and making videos on YouTube, but I lost that habit along the way. I plan to start creating again, starting from Instagram slowly, do follow me if you want to stay updated on my journey 😁

What is that one area in your life where you want to aggressively and passionately take action? Do let me know in the comments!

“Know your enemy and know yourself” — The Wind Scroll

Wind is ever-present and moves through all things, unseen yet impactful. It symbolizes observing and learning from others, as well as staying aware of external influences. This scroll urges self-awareness and innovation while acknowledging existing practices.

In a world full of distractions and diverse opinions, it’s easy to be swept away by trends or the methodologies of others. Musashi teaches us to study these external influences — not to blindly follow them but to gain perspective

By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, we can refine our own craft, aligning it with our unique goals and values.

The Wind Scroll teaches us to challenge what we observe, embrace what proves effective, and let go of what doesn’t. True mastery lies in crafting a path that reflects your authentic self, while drawing inspiration from the wisdom of others.

Life lessons from this scroll 📜

• Know your enemy and know yourself: Study the techniques and strategies of others to improve yourself.
• Refine your skill: Recognize the flaws in popular methods and refine your approach.
• Recognize the flaws in popular methods and refine your approach.

My plan for 2025

The Wind Scroll highlights the importance of studying the strategies of others to refine your own approach. Inspired by this, I plan to follow the journeys of those who have already achieved the goals I aspire to reach, learning from their experiences and understanding how they accomplished their success.

Another important key learning in this scroll is improving through constant constructive feedback. I’ll seek feedback on various things I do and improve based on that.

What goal will you take from the wind scroll?

“True mastery is effortless.” — The Scroll of Emptiness

Emptiness represents freedom from constraints — mental or physical. It’s the space where mastery flows naturally, uninhibited by overthinking or rigid principles. This scroll highlights the ultimate state of being, where intuition and spontaneity guide actions.

Musashi emphasizes that emptiness is not the absence of action but the absence of unnecessary thought.

When we train ourselves to master the fundamentals and develop deep understanding, we unlock a state where our actions flow naturally. In this state, we no longer struggle to make decisions — they arise organically from our preparation and awareness.

The Scroll of Emptiness reminds us that real growth happens when we trust our instincts and allow ourselves to learn through action. It’s about finding simplicity in complexity, cutting through noise to focus on what truly matters.

Life lessons from this scroll 📜

• Let go! Free yourself from rigid thinking to embrace fluidity in actions.
• Emptiness is not nothingness; it’s the space where creativity thrives.
• Spontaneity emerges from deep practice and internalization.
• This scroll teaches the concept of “no-mind” — acting without conscious thought
• Mastery allows you to act without conscious effort.

My plan for 2025

This scroll is the most important amongst all other scrolls and this is why, here’s where I’ll take a few learnings and incorporate them into my writing plan.

#1: Emptiness represents the state of flow — where actions happen naturally without conscious effort. Hence, the first thing that I plan for 2025 (as I also mentioned above), I’m going to follow the 5-hour learning week rule, i.e., spend at least 5 hours a week learning something new.

#2: Let go of overthinking and act with confidence — As a content creator on Instagram, I tend to avoid creating unplanned or minimally scripted or funny/meme content, however, we all know that “raw thoughts” and meme content is also an important form of content, so I’m slowly planning to put more of my “raw thoughts” on social media.

#3: Emptiness symbolizes clarity — Another important thing that I’m planning in 2025 is to remove unnecessary complexities when it comes to content creation. Over-planning and under-execution is worse than under-planning and over-execution.

How do you plan to utilize the scroll of emptiness in your life?

That’s it! That was a quick summary of how you can use the lessons and key takeaways from “The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi.

If you need any help from me, don’t hesitate to reach out, I’m active on Instagram and LinkedIn -

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theleanprogrammer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavbahl/

Feel free to drop a “Hi” if you want to connect :)