As I work towards finishing my first book, I’ve been thinking about the books which have had the biggest positive effect in my life. There are too many to name, but if I had to narrow it down, here are the four that I would pick.
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1.) The Primal Blueprint – Mark Sisson
The magic of this book is that it removes willpower and self discipline from the health and fitness equation. If you adopt the principles, you gradually start to get pleasure from eating and exercising the way our bodies and genes are designed for.
Although not written for diabetics, this has made managing type 1 diabetes feel close to effortless, and reduced my insulin intake from about 30 units each day to 2 or 3.
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2.) The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
Pressfield’s masterstroke here was to personify “resistance” and make it a tangible enemy that you have to do battle with every day in order to do your most important creative work.
An idea that stuck with me:
The hard part isn’t writing. The hard part is sitting down to write.
And another:
“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” — W. Somerset Maugham
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3.) The Power of Now – Eckharte Tolle
I read this when I was 19 and was thrown into a full blown “satori” experience that lasted for a few days. Everything suddenly became vivid and “HD”, and it felt like I had dropped a lifetime’s worth of emotional baggage.
Key takeaway:
“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly — you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over.”
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4.) The 4 Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss
Don’t be fooled by the title. This isn’t about only working four hours a week and travelling the world as a digital nomad. It can help you do that (if you want to), and I’ve met many entrepreneurs for whom this is a reality.
In my view, Ferriss’ book is better thought of as a “call to adventure” and an invitation into the extraordinary world — if you’re familiar with Joseph Campbell’s concept of the Hero’s Journey.
Before I read it, I was on the default path that society had laid out for me:
School > Uni > Job > Mortgage > Retire, etc, which I wasn’t particularly thrilled about.
After, I began imagining possibilities for my future, and I don’t think I would have started my first business without it.
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What about you?
Which books have had the biggest positive impact on your trajectory?
If you have 30 seconds spare, leave a comment here with your top 3-5.
