2 months to go before saying bye to 2024, there are a number of great books that I would like to share with you in one go. These are food for your soul and if you are willing to learn and take the advice to heart, the effect can be profound and transformative. Are you ready? Let’s roll.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
I had seen this book recommendation more than I cared to mention. But for some strange reason, I didn’t bother to read it till a few months ago. This is probably the most difficult and deep book out of everything else here, however, this definitely worths your time and effort.
It officially is a spiritual book about enlightenment. I guess not everyone of us wants to be a monk or a nun on a day-to-day basis. That’s fine. I am in business and I can’t be too zen, or I’ll loose my edge. But like I said before, you read a book, you take away the essence that resonates with you the most, that’s the power of reading.
My takeaway is to live in the moment, not in the future, not in the past; but THIS VERY MOMENT. In fact, we have a very similar saying in Chinese and in different cultures about living in the moment; the concept sounds easy but how to actually achieve it is a whole other story. This book solves my mystery. Living in the future usually brings anxiety, think about how many times you think about the future and you end up worrying and get almost hit by a panic attack? On the other hand, living in the past is useless because it is history, no matter how many times you think about your happy glorious days, they don’t matter in a way because you are not having those moments now. Both future and past eat away your energy – the energy to do something NOW.
The book don’t discount your plan for the future, but your future is made up of now, so it urges you to give your full energy to whatever you do at the moment. After reading the book, I keep reminding myself to live in the moment and stay in the moment, I do find myself to be a lot calmer and I can give my full energy to the task on hand properly. Such a great read and I would recommend everyone to take the time and read this.
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
If you want true motivation and inspiration, you need this book and probably David Goggins in your life. Can’t Hurt Me is David’s true life story, he came from nothing, beat against the odds to be in Navy SEALS (best military team in the U.S.), challenged himself to different sports, even got a Gusiness record.
I could finish this book in literally 2 days but I took my time to enjoy the essence in the book, so it ended up taking me a good few months to finish. I read it whenever I needed that dose of superhuman strength and motivation.
If a random guy can beat against the odds to achieve what his mind sets out, why can’t the rest of us right? There are times we want to chill, there are times we think the situations are too difficult, there are even times our sane minds tell us “maybe” it’s time to give up. But the most important thing is it’s always your call. What do you say? What do you want to do? Do you want to just give up? OR do you want to stay in the game, beat against the odds, and find your rhythm again?
“Don’t stop when you are tired, stop when you are done.” – is David Goggins’ spirit and way of life. I think many of us could use that sentence to ask ourselves to keep going when the tough times seem too rough.
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
Keep doing what you are doing; stay disciplined when things don’t seem to improve is difficult and this is when this book comes in. It talks about Compound Effort (The Slight Edge). I am sure many of us heard of compound interest before and the idea is the same, just that this time around, it’s not money we are talking about, it’s our effort.
The author mentioned that if we keep doing the things that we are doing day in and day out, we won’t see any changes at first, but the effort will accumulate and with the power of time, it’s going to explode at some point. Most people give up before the results come in.
It’s like retail business in 2024, we put in so much effort but we don’t seem to see that light at the end of the tunnel. Quite honestly, I have only 2 choices: to give up or to keep going. I chose the latter. Just like my YouTube channel, I have been on it for over 10 years and the growth is slow, sometimes I do wonder if people got sick and tired of me, yes doubt creeps in, but at the end of the day, I told myself, “I have come a long way, and I love this, just keep going, it might just be the next step you take to unlock the damn door.”
Usually when we think about success, we think about that one product, that one invention, that one strategy, that one thing sweeps the world by surprise… and we tend to ignore all the baby steps behind the scenes. This book reminds us just that.
The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
Both of these books are along the same theme so I talk about them together.
We know human are actually working on two levels – conscious and subconscious levels. I am not going into lengthy details about the two, you can find some great YouTube videos or books about that. But what we don’t realize is that we are our biggest enemy. No, I am not joking!
Our subconscious mind holds our belief system and that belief system is a build-up from years and years of limiting beliefs from society, parents and media etc. So each of us actually have a happy threshold and we don’t even know about it. Once we get close or get past that happy threshold, we tend to sabotage our happiness ourselves, we might create argument with someone to take the joy away, or we might worry ourself sick so that we don’t feel happy anymore.
Crazy shit right? Yea, when I first read it, I was like, “NO WAY! We want to be happy!” However, when the shock was over, I thought about the topic some more and I could see where the author were coming from. Just ask yourself: have you ever get worried about a promotion or an exciting opportunity or a trip that you have been longing for? You should be happy but somehow you are not? If the answer is YES, go ahead and have a read.
Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen
The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer
Again both of these books are along the same lines, so I group them together. Both books are about that voice in your head. That voice sometimes narrate what’s going to happen next, that voice sometimes ask you not to do certain things, that voice chatters away all the time. Yes that voice!
I got that voice A LOT and I used to treat it as my best friend because I thought it was me (part of me anyway). I believed that voice represented my intelligent brain and it came out all the time to give me great advice in life. Then one day I started to doubt that voice.
“How come it tend to give me the bad scenario all the time?” “How come it just wouldn’t shut up?” “How come a little tiny incident would be blown out of proportion and causes me anxiety? “ Voila, thanks to that voice.
That voice might create more hinderance than success if you really believe everything you think. You can’t silence that voice (I still can’t) but understanding where it comes from would help you to change your perspective and know how to deal with it. That’s when these two books come in handy.
Right my love, I hope your life is wonderfully beautiful that you don’t need to read any of these in your lifetime, but the reality check is shit happens from time to time and the shit happened is usually the greatest lesson in disguise. I do believe one of the greatest ways to learn is to read, it trains you to be focused and it gives you different insights. Usually you can find a lot of answers if you are willing to look. Be prepared for life and its adversity, have a read and I am sure these books would give you the dose of understanding you need in life.
