When Life Is Kicking My Ass, These Are The 5 Books I Turn To

One of my Top 5 books for when I need to get back on track! The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

Life can be the most wonderful experience where each day seems to be better than the one before. Everything feels achievable and with enough time and focus I feel like I can accomplish ALL of my goals! But Life can also feel daunting, overwhelming and scary. Everything seems too big, or too complicated to overcome and completing even the most menial daily task can seem like a mountain to cross.
How can this be?
Both of these mindsets or viewpoints seem to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum. With that in mind, it would be easy to assume that you either buy into one or the other. You are either positive and optimistic or negative and pessimistic, right?! Well that is how I always thought about it. I believed that if you were a “happy” optimist, than you always could look at a situation with the potential up side in mind and avoid any negative thinking. I believed the same for the pessimist as the potential downside being always in mind. The problem with this idea is that over the years I have found myself to be both an optimist & pessimist and sometimes in the same day! This experience may be unique to me, but I doubt it. I believe most people have times in their life when it is easy to see the solutions to problems they are facing and nothing seems to get them down. And still at other times they may find themselves in a situation or circumstance that provides nothing but fear, anxiety and unrest and they can’t do anything but see the negative outcomes. If this is something you have not personally experienced, I’m sure you know someone who has.

Well, the good news is, this is just part of being human, facing adversity and challenges and the even better news is there are things you can do RIGHT NOW to change!
 
See, I have gone through many personal struggles over the years including; my best friend passing away 2 weeks before my 21st birthday, getting divorced from a woman I loved, being fired from my dream job, and many financial struggles. During some of these trying times, I would find myself in the cycle of negative thinking often times unable to see anything positive. But what I learned from these experiences has made me a much better person and clarified my understanding of how to get through these struggles.

The main lessons I learned include how to deal with my own mindset and what to focus on to turn the experience into a positive stepping stone, instead of a negatively defining life story.

​Although for me, this learning process took shape in many forms over multiple years, I would like to share with you 5 books that have been hugely impactful to me and I believe can be helpful for anyone else going through their own struggles. Each of these books are valuable and full of actionable information by themselves and I believe that together, the insights and knowledge gained by consuming the information these authors provide can have the power to positively change your life forever!

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1)MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor Frankl

This book has had more impact on my life and getting my out of negative thinking than any other book I have ever read. Author Viktor Frankl describes his experience surviving the German concentration camps from through the lens of a trained psychotherapist. He explains how you can survive ANY life circumstance if you have the right focus on goal to live in everyday. A must read for everyone!   

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2)THE FOUR HOUR WORKWEEK by Tim Ferriss

This book was recommended to me shortly after I was informed I would be getting a divorce. It was timely in its information and delivery as the Author Tim Ferriss goes on to describe how he found his own success by questioning assumptions, testing theories and most importantly defining your own success so that you can work more efficiently to fulfill what that means for you instead of following the crowd to an end that you may not even want. Great book and one that I revisit multiple times per year. 

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3)THE POWER OF HABIT: Why We Do What We Do In Life And In Business by Charles Duhigg

This is a book that I came across more recently a year or so ago and is full of great science and practical insights into how the little daily habits we do actually CREATE who we are. Therefore, we choice our habits and our habits shape us into who we are. Author Charles Duhigg does a great job with many real life examples which makes the science very clear and easy to understand. This book has been a good reminder to me that the little things really do matter!

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4)THE 5 SECOND RULE: Transform Your Life, Work and Confidence With Everyday Courage. by Mel Robbins

Author Mel Robbins created the 5 Second Rule which is an actionable plan to Stop your habit of talking yourself out of inaction and to countdown "5, 4, 3, 2, 1... ACTION!". As simple as this seems, she provides many real life stories and plenty of scientific research that supports this plan of action.  A quick and powerful read! (The audibook version is AWESOME as Mel Robbins reads the book very inspiringly!) 

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5)CHOOSE YOURSELF!: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live The Dream by James Altucher 

If you are not familiar with Author James Altucher, be glad that you now are! He is a very entertaining author, podcast host and entrepreneur that has had many successes and failures and is honest and open about sharing what he learned from these. This book is like a guide to creating your own life the way you define it, on your own terms. There are SO MANY actionable things to do in this book that I immediately read it twice to try and absorb more of these ideas. My favorite practical take away is to write down "10 bad ideas" per day. These can be about anything (ways to make money, things to learn, books to write, art to create, etc). The goal is to grow your "idea muscles" and to take the pressure off by thinking of "bad" rather than "good" ideas. The good ones start to come though, believe me!

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Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or have books that you like for times like this. Also, you can sign up for My Newsletter here or just fill in your email on the newsletter pop up!