5 Books That Transformed My Life
What exercise is to your body, reading is to your mind. I know it sounds cliche but it’s true.
I started my reading journey somewhere 2- 3 years back.
Back then, I had no specific goal, it was more like a route I chose to escape reality and with time it became a habit. slowly I saw a change in myself day by day week by week and yes, with time I became a completely different person.
We all want to succeed, be rich, and be admired by others around us. but what is required to get closer to your dreams is something I learned from reading the work of these brilliant authors. who I’ve never met with but still have impacted by life-like the closest friend. And that’s the power of good books.
All these years I read several books but the ones that had the most impact on my life were—
1. “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramhansa Yogananda
This book is an autobiography of Shri Shri Paramahansa Yogananda. It’s an account of his life from childhood to his family life and then finding his guru.
At the age of 17, he finds his guru Swami Shri Yukteshwar Ji who teaches him wisdom and important life lessons and introduces him to the principles of kriya yoga, an ancient yoga system.
This book made me realize that we are a minuscule dot in this entire cosmos. we live in our minds and complain incessantly about how bad our life is. The reality is being blessed with a human body( being at the top of the evolutionary timescale,) is something we should be grateful for every single day of our lives.
Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain. forget the future for it is beyond your reach. control the present, and live supremely well now. That is the way of the wise. — Paramhansa Yogananda
2. “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
I’m sure you all must have heard about this one.
This book actually helped me understand the importance of small positive changes that can compound over a period of time and have a larger impact. James had focussed on something called a process he says that one must focus on building systems and fall in love with the process in order to succeed and worry less about setting goals. we give more importance to goals than processes. whereas it should be another way around.
“Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.” — James Clear
3. Tuesdays with Morrie
A book based on a life story of an old professor Mr. Morrie and his student Mitch. This book is an account of the meetings between the old professor Morries and his student, they met every Tuesday to discuss life’s greatest lessons that Mr. Morrie had to share, and the obedient student that mitch was he carefully listened to every word his professor said.
Mr. Morrie was full of life even though he didn't have much time left to him because of his chronic illness.
“You have to unlearn a lot of things and put aside what society tells you to do in order to live your dream life because, in the end, that’s all you’ll remember, how well you lived, and how you treated others”.
The words that struck me the most are “The truth is once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”
4. Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
A few years back, I was a person who would earn only to spend. My philosophy was why do we work our asses off if we have to put it in a bank account and save for the years to come. And I would argue with people who advised me to save. what if I die tomorrow? I would defend myself by saying that it’s foolish to save and only save and not spend a penny on the things you liked. which is partly true. one should enjoy and spend but.. saving is so important.
This book teaches you to have a better relationship with money.
I started saving and investing a year back and I feel much better and more secure. I was saving before reading this but yes it gave me an all-new perspective on wealth creation and investing. This one decision has changed my life for sure.
5. “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon
This book changed the way I thought about sharing stuff online. I was hesitant to share what I feel at first but this book says you don't need to be an expert to share your work- beginners can easily help other beginners.
Key Highlights
- Share your thoughts and your process and your work, online, for free.
- You don’t need to be an expert to share your work — beginners can easily help other beginners.
- By sharing your work online, you’ll attract an audience of people who care about the same stuff you do — this can change your life.
The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. -Annie Dillard
This is a great book for anyone who is interested in creativity, entrepreneurship, or business. It also takes less than 30 minutes to read, so you’ve got no reason not to.
