My Top 10 Inspirational Reads part 2

6. The 4-Hour Work Week

Tim Ferris is on a completely different level. Here’s a guy who has traveled practically everywhere, speaks a bagillion languages, knows how to tango, runs multi-million dollar companies, all by the time he was 30.

The 4-Hour challenges our belief’s about the 40-50 hour a week, retire at 65 corporate job. He presents us with a way of thinking and approaching our lives almost like a blank canvas — we can literally paint the life we want to have.

“Lifestyle design” as Tim puts it. Designing your life they way YOU want it. Not the way some schmo behind a desk dictates your life should be. 2 week vacations? Psh, how about a 1-2 month sabbatical to explore and experience the things YOU want to do. And even if you do have a desk job, Tim teaches strategies, and techniques to simplify your life, and get the most out of your time at work, so you have more time to do things that really matter to you.

Whether you work corporate, serve coffee or own your biz, this is an absolute MUST read.

Life doesn’t have to be so damn hard. It really doesn’t.

Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos, and compensate in rupees.

7. The Four Agreements

Clips of the movie “The Matrix” flashed in my mind while I was reading this book. And after reading this book, I have a developed a completely new appreciation for the trilogy. Like the movie portrays, our ideas and perceptions of our reality are a complete illusion.

In the Matrix, humans are bred and forced into a state of unconsciousness and force-fed a false reality. Well, minus The Ebikenezer, electrical sockets at the base of the skull, and crazy multiplying suit wearing bad guy people, it’s not much different than the world we live in now.

Like the humans in the Matrix, how we view our reality is determined for us from birth. The way we think, the way we speak, and the ways that we dream are shaped for us by the world we live, and the people who raise us.

As Don Miguel Ruiz describes, we’ve “domesticated” ourselves, much the same way we do animals. We teach our children how to behave, what is the right, and what is wrong. Ruiz, whom is a Toltec nagual or shaman, presents us with just 4 simple agreements based on ancient Toltec wisdom, to help us achieve freedom from the false realities we’ve created for ourselves. The ideas that are presented are so simple and obvious, you’ll being saying “D’uh” to yourself, but somehow, amongst the chaos of modern living, we forget these simple truths.

I’ll spoil the fun and tell you the Four Agreements, but I do highly suggest this book. A great starter book for anyone looking to learn more about spirituality, personal growth, and enlightment:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Words

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally

3. Don’t Make Assumptions

4. Always Do Your Best

The word is a force; it is the power you have to communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life. The word is the most powerful tool you have, but like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream, or your word can destroy everything around you. One edge of the sword is the misuse of the word, which creates a living hell. The other edge is the impeccability of the word, which will only create beauty, love, and heaven on earth.

8. The Luck Factor

If you look closely at the picture, you’ll notice these rectangular plastic thingies we once used to listen to music from…cassettes tapes! Again, another one of those audio programs, that I don’t even think is a book, after trying to find a good picture for this post.

Anyhow…this was actually one of the very first personal growth programs that I studied. After hearing a quote on someone’s Facebook wall in college, I traced the source to Brian Tracy and to this specific program.

Pretty much, there really is no such thing called “luck”. It’s just a matter of basic physics principles like the Law of Attraction, the Law of Sowing and Reaping, the Law of Cause and Effect, etc, etc.

Why I like this program is because it’s pretty simple and straight forward. And sometimes that’s all we really need.

“You are a living magnetic. And you inevitably attract into your life, the people, circumstances, ideas and resources in harmony with your dominant thoughts”.

9. The Secret

I’ll be perfectly honest with you…I think this book is cheesy.

But don’t get me wrong, I highly recommend the book, or it wouldn’t have made it on this list. The Secret has made a significant impact on main stream media and how the majority of us look at creating the world around us. However, I find that at times it gets a little hokey pokey.

I do give the author a lot of credit of introducing the notion of the Law of Attraction in way that makes it more “main-stream” and easier to understand.

I believe that we manifest the world around us. But sometimes talking energy fields and the vibrations our thoughts emit can raise many eyebrows. The Secret has made it easier to explain the complicated laws of physics and how they apply to our lives.

Thoughts that bring about good feelings mean you are on the right track. Thoughts that bring about bad feelings means you are not on the right track.

10. The Tao of Pooh

The Tao of Pooh

Oh Pooh bear.

How you’ve filled our childhood memories with your crazy adventures and wacky friends. You’ve shown us that eating honey with your fist looks cool, but also very messy…I never could squeeze my hand in the honey bottle, although it didn’t stop me from trying on several occasions.

What can I say, it was a cute read. Benjamin Hoff uses Pooh as our Western guide to introduces us to the principles of Taoism. Using his friends like Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Pooh helps us understand the basic tenets of Taoism in a fun and an unpretentious manner.

Pooh teaches us the basics of living in harmony with nature, and how to just be.

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast? said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

“It’s the same thing,” he said.