Personal Growth books for my travels

When you are about to pack up everything you own and head off with only that which fits in your car, personal growth books are not high on the list.  This means you need to think wisely, once it’s in the box there is no going back.  My aim was to build a life on my terms, so personal growth in the 12 areas of my life needed to take centre stage.

First consider what you are going to be doing.  For me, the plan was to take a break.  After more than 40 years of the conventional working life I needed it!

Then, considering we only have the next 8 months covered financially and I plan to live a life of harmony on my own terms, I’ll need to learn a new way of earning. Fail and its back to the day job, filled with targets and stress...  That’s not going to see me through to being 100 and get a letter from the Queen! Ooops she’ll be 148 and I guess we’ll have a king...

So my other half said we only take important books, the books we really need.   As the plan is for her to grow her Rapid Transformational Therapy business and mine is unclear she gets the lion's share of the room in the car. Actually, correction, the cat got the lion's share, then my other half and then me... "C'est la vie" as they say in France!

SO what did I bring?

Limitless - Jim Kwik

I chose this book primarily because I needed to upgrade my reading speed. I knew I was a slower than average reader, but Jim gave me an even better motivation.  He explained that it took years of research to write a book, but as a reader you could gain all that knowledge in just a few hours...

This is a book that just keeps on giving.  It offers help for 6 main areas

• Master Your Mindset - Learn how to break negative patterns and effortlessly create new positive routines.
• Unleash Your Productivity - Vanquish the 4 "super villains" hijack your mural pathways
• Tap into Boundless Motivation - Access an unlimited fuel source to reach your goals
• Eliminate Mental Fog - Get expert techniques and tips
• Sharpen Your Focus - Be clear and become unstoppable
• Learn Anything - Read faster, make better decisions, and remember everything

That seems a lot, but there is more!  When you get the the end of the book you find a 10 day quick start plan and free online resources.

If you would like to learn with Jim click on the book's image. 10% of all my affiliate earnings go to my chosen charities. Thank You

How Not to DIE - Dr Michael Greger.

This book has a story.  I received this as a birthday gift from my older daughter. Not sure if there was an intentional message there, but it surely was one of the seeds that germinated into my mission: To live to be 100 years old, having lived a healthy active life.

The book is very much a 'How To' guide.  There are two main parts, the first section is how not to die from the current top 15 causes of death.  The second looks at all the foods that have been tested by scientists. He details the research and the results of many studies & trials. His conclusion is that there is a clear winner in the terms of our nutrition and that is fruit and vegetables.  Its not easy reading for us meat lovers, but perhaps we can cut down on the amount we eat and also make sure the meat we eat is about quality not quantity (definitely not processed). There is also a small section on vitamins and exercise.  He recommends 90 minutes of exercise a day is required.  A tough ask if you still partake in 'the working week'  and somewhat off putting for 'couch potatoes'!

I found the book very readable with many examples of success stories that I found inspiring if not a little frustrating - when I look at the dates the research was conducted I couldn't help but wonder if more of our loved ones would have survived had this research been common knowledge earlier...

My Mum will tell you she got through her last battle with 'The Big C' (cancer) because we moved her into our house, fed her good fresh food and gave her lots of green smoothies. (big thanks to the Juice Master, Jason Vale, for his recipes)

Extra Resources

The book also comes with a link to further free resources  at www.nutrition-facts.org which has a plethora of articles and an app for recording your daily dozen (his must eat foods).

I've included a link via the image if you would like to purchase the book.  If you do, I thank you sincerely as 10% of all my affiliate earnings go to my chosen charities.

Code of the Extraordinary Mind - Vishen Lakhiani.

"This book will make you question everything you know about your life"

Dave Asprey, Founder of Bulletproof 360.

I must first say this is a step out of my comfort zone in the book reading world. I have previously completed two programmes on the learning platform Vishen built, Mindvalley.

The first Lifebook, possibly part of the reason I'm today not working in the career path I followed for more than 40 years. It gets you to look at your life in a very structured way through a 12 catagories approach, but that's another story.

The second Wildfit, this takes you on a 90 day programme to understand food and you're relationship with it. As I lost 20lbs I guess it worked well.

It's a real insight into what got Vishen to the place he is today and what he believes is driving his success. I found it a very easy to read, the way he explains life as we know it the rules we follow and asks us as the reader to think ourselves about those roles is quite enlightning. The book then goes on to explain why we should think about changes we should make and how to apply the technics he suggests. There are real life examples of failure, success and stories of the extraordinaries people that he now calls friends.

I've included a link via the image if you would like to purchase the book.  If you do, I thank you sincerely as 10% of all my affiliate earnings go to my chosen charities.