Intro
There is no better way to invest in yourself to gain insight and knowledge than by reading books.
You have probably heard the phrase, “Knowledge is power”, and that it can give you an advantage in life. This advantage has the ability to open doors of opportunities that will move you in the right direction because you have the right information.
According to Forbes.com the most successful people in this world invest their time in reading books, articles, newspapers etc. to increase their knowledge in certain subject to maintain that slight edge.
The fact is when you go to a wealthy persons house you will typically notice they have a library of books… because it is at the heart of their success.
Jim Rohn, an entrepreneur, author and speaker said “Poor People Have Big TVs, Rich People Have Big Libraries”
My absolute favorite way to increase my knowledge is by reading books and I am currently working on growing my library.
I have set a goal to read 30+ books a year. Now you may ask, “How in the heck do you do that?”
The answer is pretty easy…
Step 1 – Buy a book
Step 2 – Open the book
Step 3 – READ THE D*** BOOK!
Therefore, I’ve rounded up the top five books for investing in yourself so that you can learn the secrets of the wealthy and start creating your dream life!
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Now let’s get into this and see what my top 4 books are that I recommend…
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Summary
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, the titan of the self-help genre, is a best-selling book of all time and a foundational guide to the Law of Attraction and the role of the subconscious in transforming your life.
In Hill’s own words: “The major reason why I wrote this book on how to get money is the fact that the world has but lately passed through an experience that left millions of men and women paralyzed with the fear of poverty.”
With this reason in mind he turned it into the Laws of Success, a succession of steps to achieving success through mind power. As part of his research, he interviewed over 500 self-made millionaires to uncover the secrets behind their success.
This book delivers on both title and content which makes it a must-read for investing in yourself and using the power of your mind to transform your life!
“The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.” – Napoleon Hill
Main Points
Engage The Subconscious
In order to connect with our subconscious, you must learn to use strong emotional states to relax and make it impressionable. To master those states you must first learn to create them or hijack them.
You can engage the subconscious by creating strong emotional states (i.e., passion) to consciously trigger, internally or externally, strong emotions (e.g., happiness, faith, fear).
You can also create emotional states without emotional triggers. I do not recommend this because you can easily lose control, with catastrophic costs.
How do you master strong emotional states once they’ve arisen? The secret is in learning to hijack them through substitution and sublimation.
In substitution, we maintain an emotional state’s brightness while we alter its color at will. Substitution can be the most effective method when a new emotion subverts the source of an old one. For example you can smother a cycle of hatred with love.
The second way is hijacking existing emotional states through sublimation. In sublimation we maintain brightness and color but alter the focus of action. For example, you can learn to channel any emotion – desire to anger, into any action… from work, or athletics to art.
Desire goes beyond simply wishing for success. It is the combination of wishing and the belief that you will achieve success. The final piece of desire is backing up wishing and belief with a sense of purpose. Without purpose, the desire remains a wish.
Directing The Subconscious
Visualization is used to communicate to the subconscious in a language it understands, which is sensation.
When does visualization occur? It happens when you imagine events and outcomes so realistically that you can feel them.
This is a common technique used in meditation and performance psychology. Unfortunately most of us are surprisingly bad at it… but with lots of practice you can improve rather quickly.
Setting the Subconscious up for Success
Once you have the subconscious engaged and directed, the next step is to get out of its way and support it.
Hill gives seven ways the conscious mind can set the subconscious up for success:
- Stepping Back
- Listening
- Problem Solving
- Learning
- Training
- Reassuring
- Protecting
By far the most important point in this list is the first… Stepping Back. Listening to our subconscious starts with stepping back… which is very difficult by the way!
Learning when and how to step back is a lifetime of work in itself.
For more on this topic, I recommend starting with The Headspace Guide To Meditation and Mindfulness or The Power of Now.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Summary
What do highly effective people have in common? Their perceptions of the world are different than the majority of people.
The explains the seven habits of how to undergo profound self-transformation by changing our perceptions… which in turn changes us in the process.
The book explains the reason we aren’t effective in our search for success because the way we perceive problems… not the problems themselves.
The main reason we struggle to succeed is because we look for short-term solutions to long-term problems, which is a byproduct of wrong perceptions.
“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.” – Stephen Covey
Main Points
Be Proactive
You cannot sit around waiting for success to happen or fall out of the sky.
Covey breaks down how to create success in our lives. The main method is you must be proactive. By taking action and changing situations we don’t like we will effectively produce a better result.
“To be effective in creating success, you must be proactive. You cannot sit around waiting for success to happen.” – Stephen Covey
Think Win-Win
For the most part most human beings run their lives with a scarcity mentality… meaning we think there’s not enough.
Since everyone wants a piece of the pie there isn’t enough to go around… so we live by the scarcity mentality which states “I am going to get mine before everyone else”
However the opposite is true! We much operate from an abundance mentality.
When we shift to this type of thinking you will see that by creating a win-win situation, where everyone gets a little something, you will see your influence increase.
Sharpen the Saw
You must continuously sharpen the saw in four key areas of your life
These four areas are:
- Physical
- Spiritual
- Mental
- Social/emotional
By continuously sharpening the saw in these four areas and practicing the seven habits outlined in the book you will begin to change yourself… the most important asset.
Finally, in addition the book stresses the important of sharpening ourselves to serve others which makes us highly effective individuals.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Summary
This is by far one of my favorite book when it comes to investing in yourself.
Written by former salesman, author, and public speaker Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, the book is filled with several personal stories from Dale himself and gives practical tips for applying these principles to your life.
The whole premise of the book is to show how making friends is much more effective in influencing people than rehearsing a sales script.
Carnegie explains that influencing people to get what you want isn’t about making your offer attractive or persuading them; it’s about making friends.
Therefore the book doesn’t list specific sales tactics for closing a sale, rather it lists principles for developing meaningful relationships.
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie
Main Points
To Be Interesting, Be Interested
I think you will agree that most people want to be interesting to others, so they try to find ways to appear interesting to others.
However, the reality is the majority of people aren’t concerned with you… but rather they are concerned with themselves.
Therefore, in order to be interesting, you must be interested in other people. The more questions you ask about another person and genuinely seem interested in them, the more they will return the favor.
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie
Don’t Condemn or Criticize
When we criticize others, it puts them on the defensive because they feel attacked. The next time you want to criticize someone when you have a question or don’t understand, the best approach is to rephrase your question.
For example, instead of saying, “Why are you doing that?” rephrase your question to, “That’s an interesting way of doing that. I would’ve never thought of that.”
By taking this approach you open up the room for discussion with the other person without them feeing attacked. Therefore, they are more likely to explain themselves without getting defensive and you better understand their reason with empathy instead of imparting judgment.
Remember Names
A person’s name is the sweetest word in their vocabulary.
Therefore, if you make it a point to remember names this will make you a lot more friends.
The reason why is because remembering someone’s name takes the relationship from a stranger to an acquaintance. In addition, remembering someone’s name makes them much more likely to do a favor for you.
Be a Good Listener
For the most part people passively listen to others only to respond when it’s their turn.
The problem with passive listening is it makes you look self-absorbed because you’re only voicing your opinion and not listening to the other person’s opinion. Instead, try active listening.
When you are an active listener you are focused on listening to the other person’s point of view without thinking of your response.
The art of active listening looks like nodding your head, validating what the other person is saying, and making direct eye contact.
Unlock Your Potential by Jeff Lerner
Summary
The world has changed significantly in the last twenty years. The opportunities that drove the choices of previous generations simply aren’t available for young people today.
Jeff Lerner’s new book, Unlock Your Potential, is the story of how he went from being a broke jazz musician to escaping the corporate world through digital marketing by generating over 100 million dollars in revenue.
Why are we working harder for someone else’s dream than our own? – Jeff Lerner
Jeff dropped out of high school at 16 because he didn’t want to climb the corporate ladder and become a slave to the system. he wanted to create his own schedule and make money on his own terms. So, he became a piano player because he already had some musical talent.
By the time he was in his twenties, he was playing piano for millionaires and billionaires. Being the curious, he asked them what they did for a living. All of them said they owned businesses. That’s when he realized he could achieve the life he wanted through entrepreneurship.
Jeff started and failed at multiple businesses throughout his twenties, finally having a breakthrough in his thirties with my affiliate marketing business. Since then, he has generated over 100 million dollars in revenue from his laptop.
But this book isn’t just about his success story. He list several actionable tips you can take to generate the same level of success in your own life. Jeff shows how to break free from the broken system, by investing in yourself, and ultimately how to create the life you want in the modern economy.
“My mission in life is to prevent any more people from failing to achieve their dreams because they are stuck in the broken system.” – Jeff Lerner
Main Points
Creating A Clear Vision
Before you can create the life you want, you need to envision the life you want.
Creating a clear vision for your life means taking your big picture goals and breaking them down into actionable steps.
By defining your vision, your path to success becomes much clearer.
The 3 P's of Success
The 3 Ps of success – personal, professional, and physical development – are the foundation upon which you create the life you want.
- Personal Development: Your personal development consists of your social and communication skills, goal-setting, time-management, problem-solving, and overall personal betterment.
- Professional Development: Your professional development consists of taking online courses, attending live events, getting a mentor, and expanding your knowledge.
- Physical Development: Lastly, your physical development consists of purposeful movement and proper nutrition.
Developing these three areas is the best way to start investing in yourself, setting you up for creating success in your life.
The Importance of Investing in Your Knowledge
Investing in yourself through knowledge is critical because it’s something that no one can take away from you.
In addition, expanding your knowledge gives you access to opportunities because you have more information than you did before.
For example, by reading a book about taxes and how to reduce them, you now know how to minimize your taxes. Many people don’t take the time to learn new information, causing them to stay the same.
However, by investing in yourself through knowledge, you’re giving yourself an advantage over others.
