Books are an important part of human culture. They tell stories, share experiences and knowledge, and inspire new ideas. Books can be life-changing for the reader because they have such a profound impact on our lives. We all know that feeling when you finish a book and feel like something has changed inside of you–it’s an incredible experience! In this blog post I want to share with you the 5 books that have impacted me in some profound way or another throughout my life –books from authors as diverse as Paramahansa Yogananda to Timothy Ferriss.
Before I create this list, I haven’t always been a bookworm. Any time I had a book in my hand the running joke from my parents was that it had pictures in it and that’s all I was there for… I truly hated reading. I’ve graduated to really really enjoying books and it just took finding the right genre for me and that is self help books (I hate that genre title). These are all excellent books for personal growth and business and I would recommend these over every other book, they are far superior.
4 Hour Work Week
This incredible book by Tim Ferriss talks all about how he and many others who’ve read this book have created the life that they have always dreamed of. It doesn’t teach you to be a millionaire but it teaches you how to work smarter and not harder. How to create automated sources of income, outsource work, focus on the important things versus doing mindless tasks. He helps you to pinpoint what is taking up your time and to work more efficiently. It is an excellent book and although slightly outdated still gives excellent advice, tips and tricks with examples of people who have followed his tactics and created a life that they love, he gives hope to any and everyone that life is more than working 9-5 every day. I highly, highly recommend reading this book a few times! (this is my copy ^ hence the 8 billion post-its)
The Secret
Even if you’re not a bookworm this book is amazing and so so easy to read! This tiny little book holds so much information, motivation, and strategies to manifest what you want most in your life. It tells you the proper way to visualize and manifest and what to avoid when trying to bring things into your life. Your energy and your power of believing that you deserve everything is all you need and you will learn how to harness that from this book and the many experts that contributed to it. A super easy read, very easy to follow along with and so beautiful to be able to implement the advice in here in your everyday life no matter who you are.
The Autobiography of a Yogi
Okay, if you are not a book fan maybe skip this one. I feel like an idiot trying to read this book, I have to reread sentences over and over because when he began writing this book his english was not the best. It took me about a month to read 100 pages with looking up different words or rereading super deep sentences. It gets way better after chapter 16 and is a life changing book. The strides that he took for the entire world were absolutely incredible especially seeing where he started. Paramahansa Yogananda was one of the pillars of bringing the ideals and values of yoga and yogic practices to the west. His story is inspiring and it is definitely worth the struggle through the first 15 chapters!
The Code of The Extraordinary Mind
Exactly what it sounds like it would be… one of the best books for learning to think differently. This book challenges you to question everything you’ve ever known. It helps you to notice what you’ve been conditioned to believe, what outdated beliefs you hold, and how to break free of these and start thinking differently. Vishen is the founder of Mind Valley, an amazing tool to improve every aspect of your life. It is a membership based app that features experts from all walks of life coming together to help you become stronger mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually so it’s no wonder that his book is life changing as well!
How to Win Friends and Influence People
I mean… pretty self explanatory right? The language in this book is a bit outdated but a few trips to the google machine and some new quirky words to add to you vocabulary never hurt anyone. This is one of the best books to help you get a leg up in your personal life and in business. It’s a super easy read and it teaches you tons of new ways to win people over and get them to do exactly what you want by making them think it was their idea all along. I don’t think this book would be in publication for decades if the methods in it proved to be ineffective. 10000% worth the read… it’ll probably take less than a day anyways!
