I was never a guy to read books. it was just not my thing, growing up I didn’t have the patience, and I honestly didn’t enjoy it or understood the benefits.
As I grew older, I started to try many things to make me a better person and a better business person, and reading more books was the one thing that just seemed to come up again and again.
So I decided I have to give this a try, and if you’re a person who doesn’t like to sit down and read as me, you know this can be challenging, but that all changed when I found out about Audible.
What is Audible?
Audible is an app owned by Amazon that let’s you listen to thousands of books in audio form, instead of having to read them in a physical book.
Now while some people will roll their eyes and say ” What’s the big deal, can’t you sit down and focus on a book?? ” Well, for some people, like me, I really can’t.
So apps like Audible is the perfect solution and the biggest advantage in my book ( pun intended ) is that you can listen to your favorite book while doing other things.
For example, I like to listen to my audio books while I walk my dog, this gives me 20 minutes in the morning and another 20 minutes in the evening that I learn something new and improve myself.
That’s 40 minutes almost every day! ( I don’t always listen to it, I DO always walk my dog don’t worry ).
Think about it, from a guy who didn’t read anything I became a person who reads for roughly 40 minutes every day. That’s a huge difference!
From a guy not even reading 1 book during an entire year. I now finish between 20 to 25 books every year.
Don’t get me wrong, I read a lot. Part of my day to day work is writing and reading and learning. But I always found it hard to sit down with a book and just read.
I guess I needed a solution like Audible to make me a book worm.
By the way – This video is not sponsored by audible or anyone, I just share my own personal experience and what really went down.
From the moment I started listening to books, my life started to change. I gained knowledge I never knew, I felt I improved in many many ways.
My mind actually became better, it’s like feeling your brain growing and expanding, it really does.
What did I gained from reading?
If you prefer watching the video I made about this topic, here it is:
My approach is that you usually take 1-3 things from each book. If the book is really really good, you might take more but usually 1-3 things is all you need.
Add that up to 25 books per year, and within a few short years your life can literally change. It did for me
Here are the 5 books ( so far ) that changed my life
1. The secret
Corny but it changed my mindset about what is possible in my life. It made me realize that the world is infinite and my take from the book is that when you think hard about something – magic won’t happen.
The universe won’t magically change to give you that. What will change though is you. Unconscious you will do small things all the time to try and achieve what you focus on and it will seem like magic to you, bit it was you all along.
The Secret is the ability to train yourself to focus on your goals, and do small, daily tasks to reach these goals and manifest them in to your life, when it works, it seems like magic, but you do the work, and you reap the rewards.
2. The 10x rule by Grant Cardone
After reading the secret and figuring out I can achieve what I want, this book showed me I’m not doing enough. I thought I was killing it and this book put a mirror in front of my face and made me realize I need to do 10x more.
And I did. From getting up earlier, to working smarter and harder, I was able to accomplish more during my day from the time before this book, why?
Just because it made me feel lazy, think about parents, before you have a child, you think you are productive with your day.
However, all parents will agree that once you are a parent, you suddenly realize you need to accomplish more with the same time, so you become much much more productive and suddenly, what took you 8 hours to do now only takes you 4.
That’s the power of 10X in my opinion, and Grant Cardone really knows how to push your buttons and describe things in a way that makes you think like ” Hey, I can do sooo much more than this! ”
3. Gary Vaunerchuck and all his books
While This is not 1 book per-say, all the content Gary Vee puts out really hit home with me. The hustle, the work ethic, the detailed strategies he provides.
It felt like the books were written about me, and it made me believe in myself that I can do anything if I put in the work.
What I like most about Gary and his approach is that you don’t need to be fancy, things don’t need to be perfect, all you need to do is show up, give it your best, care about what you do, and be consistent, with time you will find success, it reminds me of the 24 months for the rest of your life principal.
I ate that up and it truly changed my life, I am the hardest worker in the room from the moment I consumed Gary Vee content, and I have the patience and speed to execute and see things in the macro level. Go read his books!
4. The 5 seconds rule
This was huge, I was a delay guy, I had problems getting started with ideas or things, this book is so simple it made me laugh, but it works like a charm, when you apply the tactics in this book things become easier and it really also goes a long way in your personal life.
The idea is simple, fear feeds on time, when you have a thought in your head, your brain will try and convince you to NOT do it, it will give you many perfectaly valid reasons to back out, it’s meant to protect you, your brain is not here to dream so to speak, in an evolution point of view, you brain needs to protect you and drive you away from anything that is NOT your every day familiar life.
You need to fight this inner voice that doubts you, and the best way I learned how is by the book the 5 seconds rule, fear feeds on time, when you take time out of the formula, fear has no power.
The 5 seconds rule teaches you to act NOW, don’t wait, don’t let your inner voice talk you out of it ( within reason obviously, don’t go jump of the roof just because you had that thought )
But within reason, when you want to do something, count from 5 to 0 and just do it.
5. 12 rules for life
This is a different one. But my take from it was to love my life, some of the stories in this book are hard to listen to, but I think the author wanted you to listen, and realize that what you have going on is easy compared to what other people have to deal with, this book reminds me that my problems are not really hard, and as long as I have good health, Nothing can stop me.
Things seems bigger than what they really are, that issue at work is not that big of a deal if you compare it to a health problem, waking up at night because your baby is crying is NOT a big deal when you realize that some people lost their kids before their time, put life in perspective and go live it.
When you combine the gratitude mentality with the 5 seconds rule and 10x action and a mental state that the universe is helping you with the Gary Vee work ethic. Nothing can stand in your way.
Obviously I’ve read a lot of amazing books besides these, but that’s for a followup article
Please leave a comment below with some books that changed your life