This post was originally posted on FaceYourGoliaths.com
The books you read will shape your destiny. I can say that from personal experience.
Recently I was the speaker for a local group of business professionals. I was talking about my day job. I’m self-employed as a web designer at ESGgraphics.com.
I shared with these business professionals how books influenced my life and how they helped me to build the life I wanted of helping people, whether they are in a small business, non-profits, or are trying to become full-time creatives.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
Since today marks the half way point in 2017, I thought I’d share 3 books that you can read in a weekend that can change your life in the last half of the year.
Real Artists Don’t Starve
I have written about Jeff Goins’ most recent book Real Artists Don’t Starve here.
In addition to the lesson I wrote about how “Thriving Artist Collaborates with Others”, I also wanted to share one more lesson.
Becoming Your True Self
We live in a world that is full of fake people. Those that pretend they are more than they are.
People can only hold onto that lie for so long until they are discovered. When they are found out, they lose people’s trust and respect.
Losing trust and respect will cause you more in the long-term than being honest.
There is no greater pain than living a lie when the truth is buried deep inside you.
Often we are told to fake it till you make it. But that’s not true.
You need to believe it until you become it. The more you believe it, the more others will believe it, which will, in turn, allow you to believe it even more. That will help you become it since transformations can take a while and be difficult- but worth it.
Jeff tells us “The reason many of us never self-actualize is because it’s easier to play a role in life than it is to become our true selves.”
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How To Do It
- Take time to reflect of who you are (what roles your are in now)
- Define who you want to be
- Claim that is who you are
- Determine the steps do you need to get there
- Set 90-day goals to start your journey to becoming your true self
It will most-likely be difficult, but you won’t regret it.
The Little Things
Andy Andrews is one of my favorite story tellers. He creates stories that are entertaining and also teach timeless principles.
I own most of his books, both his fiction and non-fiction.
Andy Andrews’s latest book, The Little Things: Why You Really Should Sweat the Small Stuff challenges that decades old adage.
I wrote about one lesson I learned for his book at You Need To Sweat [the right] Small Stuff
Today I want to share another.
Earlier this spring, the Motley Fool wrote an article entitled “10 Incredible Financial Statistics That Sum Up the Average American”.
A few of those stats were eye opening. According to the article, the average American household with debt owed $132,529 and only had 5. The average a 401(k) balance of $96,288. For those collecting Social Security, 21% of married couples and 43% of single retirees, Social Security contributed 90%+ of their income.
Average is not what we should aim for; extraordinary is.
Chapter 11 of his book is entitled “A Little Thing. . . like being differnt” addresses our need to leave average and ordinary behind us and become extraordinary.
Comfort, acceptance, and assurance are life’s rewards that the average person demains immediately. The extraordinary achiever, however, choose to work without any of them for a time in order that his family might enjoy vast helpings of all three for generations. [emphasis added]
Andy Andrews continues by explaining that extraordinary achievers compare themselves to their potential and not to other people.
Andrews provocatively states that “average people compare themselves to people.”
I am reminded of the Dave Ramsey quote that “if you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”
We must continue to become our true selves by knowing what we want to become and then compare where we are with our potential.
Mindset
A few months ago I was introduced to a book written by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
Her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, was released in 2007 and was a culmination of years of her research.
She discovered a simple but profound idea, there is tremendous power in our mindset.
Dweck puts forth that there are two extremes in our outlook, a fixed and a growth mindset.
Those with a fixed mindset believe that abilities are fixed. We can only grow to the level of “giftedness” we were given at birth.
The growth mindeset believe that abilities can be developed and are “limitless”.
For most of my life, I was a fixed mindset person.
The good news is that I learned that my fixed mindset (and yours) can change and become more growth orientated.
For my, all it took was 3 little letters. Those letters are Y-E-T.
The table below described my thought process before reading the book and after.
When I finished the book, nothing magical happened but something amazing did. Because of those three little words.
| Fixed Mindset | Growth Mindset |
| I’ll never be creative. | I feel really dissatisfied with my current level of creativity. |
| I’m just not good at writing | I haven’t learned how to do write effectively YET. |
| I’m just not good at ___________ | I haven’t learned how to do ___________ YET. |
I am not where I want to be; YET. I am not going to fake it till I make it. I am going to believe it until I become it because my abilities are NOT fixed. I can, and will grow.
Our mindset will shape our view of our true selves and what we see our potential to be.
Conclusion and Promise
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
― Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
If you click on the link and purchase it at Amazon I may receive a commission. I stand behind my book recommendations. If you don’t like the book, I mean you hate it, I offer my 100% Guarantee (just click to read more about it).
