every book I read & how they changed my life (mostly self help & business)

[Music] hey guys so come back today we're gonna be doing a video that a lot of you guys that probably then I think borrow sucks all the books that helped me get to I am today from being a very lost early twenties child feeling alone completely utterly not okay to Who I am today a much lighter happier grounded person that still kind of feels some of these feelings sometimes I want to go through my timeline of every single book that I read from here all the way up to here I'll save a most impactful book that has changed my life for the better forever for the very end because this is more of an acquired taste but if this is something like oh they're interested in we'll talk about it at the very end let's get started so to give you guys some context I didn't like reading growing up anything actually think I hated reading because I hated anything that I wasn't good at and because I spent my imperative learning formative growth mind growth ears in Taiwan I wasn't the best I reading comprehension and because I couldn't be the best at it I just completely dismissed it cuz that's just how my brain function if I can't be the best at something I just won't even acknowledge it I school in college I think I sparknotes almost every single book that I had to read but I realize now looking back the only person I cheated was myself so what got me into reading as someone who really did not like reading if you get the inside write that outside will fall into place primary reality is within secondary reality without this brings us to the first three books that we're going to talk about the power of now Think and Grow Rich and The Alchemist so let's first talk about the power of now this whole concept of being present just it just didn't exist like I to me it didn't exist the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation of fulfillment and whatever form both are illusions yes they are I would attribute the power of now to the book that started my love for books this was the first book that I read that completely altered the way that I saw the world completely changed the way I started interacting with the world around me everything the book talks about us being attached to our pain bodies fact that we are not our thoughts and importance of being present the most important thing that this book has taught me and it has continued to teach me as I apply these principles and add on to it with more books that I'm reading is that it's so important to guard to cherish and to protect our thoughts and to be mindful of what we're filling our thoughts with because if we're constantly filling ourselves with positive happy light shots then that's what we will be as a person if we're constantly old with anger and negativity and all of these not good thoughts then that's what we will embody after reading the power of now the second book that I picked up was the alchemist and when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it remember wherever your heart is there you will find your treasure so this again is make sure your heart is in the right place which can also be make sure your mind is in the right place or the universe to be able to conspire to make things happen for you you need to know what you want and then came thinking of it so I will be honest I don't even think I got to chapter 1 of this book because the preface or the intro just kept teasing like if you know you understand the principles I'm never gonna directly come out and tell you what it is but if you grasp it and it'll completely change your mind and I got it within the first couple of pages because the title of the book is Think and Grow Rich having read the power of now having read The Alchemist I was just like this is it I need to really really be mindful of my thoughts and if I can get this right everything else will follow like the quote that we just opened with right if you get the inside write that outside will fall into place too many people go through life complaining about their problems I've always believed that if you took what text that energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem you'd be surprised by how well things can work out alright so this brings us to good two great Tuesdays with Maurey the last lecture Life of Pi and the little prince I was about to graduate college and I decided to take six months off to really figure out what I wanted to do with my life I really really really wanted to figure out what does it mean to live a meaningful and fulfilling life and through different books that I read I got different answers that I put together for what that would look like and the first quote that I want to read is from looked great when what you're deeply passionate about what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine come together not only does your work move toward greatness but so does your life for in the end it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life and it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work perhaps then you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you've had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution indeed you might even gain that deepest of all satisfaction knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent and that it mattered and another quote from good to great good is the enemy of great and that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great few people attain great lives in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life because I was studying business good to great really really spoke to my core examples that it gave were case studies from six also businesses a way it defines successful businesses weren't and tech startups or the tech companies that you see now like the googles and the Facebook's or the Amazons of the world successful companies that Jim Collins references are these more low-key companies that have withstood the test of time because he's also the author built to last a book that has been on my tribute list for a long time when you create a company you're not creating it for it to succeed during your lifetime right you're creating it or it to be successful for generations to come when you're good you're thinking about yourself and how to build the everlasting Empire for yourself oh when you shift from good to great is when you start living beyond yourself when you start living for a cause that's greater than yourself I shared in my video about relationships of how this book also helped me with relationships because it talks about how to meteor grow companies does not come together and make one great company although it's talking about businesses like company companies it's about people to write to me and over people will not come together to make a great couple and so this just this is this is such a such as such a such a great book of all the things that I love about this book what stuck with me most is Stockdale paradox you need to remain a wearing faith that you'll prevail in the end regardless of difficulties while at the same time confronting the most brutal facts of your current realities at this time it really helped me confront myself and my realities of why was I who I was what drove me what was important to me should what is driving me and what was important to me be what drives me and be what's important to me and that really helped me reevaluate a lot of where I was and where I want to go so moving on to Tuesdays with Maurey so many people walk around with a meaningless life they seem half-asleep even when they're busy doing things they think are important this is because they're chasing the wrong things the way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning when I read Tuesdays with Maurey I just so happen to be in Taiwan taking care of my grandpa who is well into his 90s and I remember during this summer there was like a health and healing almost couldn't make it eating that while taking care of my grandpa I was just like ah life and death and like death isn't something that is happy to think about but I think it can help you a lot so you need to understand that for you to be able to understand life and you need to appreciate death for you to appreciate life right it's kind of like you need to know what it feels like to not be okay to appreciate what it means to be okay I think it's kind of the same principle that just came out of nowhere so with these books it's the more that I read them more it's just it's crazy how these answers just kept coming and with the little prince' it reminded me to never lose my childlike wonder all grown-ups are ones children but only feel them remember it spent our whole lives trying to grow up where I at least I did I want to grow up I wanted to graduate faster I wanted to get a job faster I want to do all these things faster why was I in such a rush and why am I talking so fast right now I don't know but that's just what I wanted to do a little prince reminded me that that childlike curiosity that childlike wonder is such a beautiful thing to hold on to and it's such a beautiful thing that we should never lose sight of and we should protect and cherish at all cost the universe very strange jewels deep within us all and it stands back to see if we can find them change might not be fast and it isn't always easy but with time and effort almost any habit can be reshaped the books we're gonna talk about start with why and dip and think magic I have a video my first video that I uploaded actually talks about how these three books inspired me to start my youtube channel i'll link it if you want to watch it i wouldn't watch it myself because i cringe at how i was trying to be someone that i was not but if it can help show you guys who i was and how far I've come since then then by all means you can watch the video else and link it down below people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it and what you do simply proves what you believe so to start with why it really helped me hone in on my why of why I wanted to start my channel and what was it exactly that I was to do your potential the absolute best you're capable of that's the metric to measure yourself against winning is not enough people can get lucky and when people can be us and when anyone can win but not everyone is the best possible version of themselves this yes reading this I was like yes start with why this is my why I want to keep being a better version of myself by doing so I want to encourage and I want to help inspire other people to also want to be the best versions of themselves on whether I've done that that's for you guys to decide leadership requires two things a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it reading this quote reminded me of a Instagram post that I posted after I reach 200k on YouTube thank you guys for the educate by the way I hope that and now is to help create this world where we all become infinite players in the infinite game of life where people are judged not by numbers appearance status or wealth but by the content of their character what moves them and what inspires them reading this book helped me realize that I'm not crazy in that if you really believe in something work for it and work towards it and slowly but surely I think we're collectively chipping away at and creating this world that I believe we all would love to be a part of a magic really helped gave me the encouragement to pursue this as risky and as unknown as this frontier was okay it's called big magic creative living beyond fear so it addressed every single fear that I had and it was like you good you okay you'll be fine just give it a try that couple would start with why and the books I mentioned earlier and the dip when there's quit fast quit often and quit without guilt never put something with great long-term potential just because you can't deal with the stress of that moment so the dip really helped me understand and break the notion that to quit is bad I think one more young girl growing up it's like don't be a quitter right keep doing it it's like reading a book if I start a book and then I don't really like it but I don't want to quit it because I don't want to be a quitter and I just stop reading because I don't want to read this book but then I also don't want to be a quitter it's okay to quit the things that you know you're not gonna be the best at that requires going back to good to great you need to be brutally honest with yourself can you be the best at whatever it is that you're going to do can you be your best the best that you want to be if you can't keep going at it but if you realize I won't point that like hey I tried really hard to make this thing work and it's not really happening it takes self-awareness to know like okay maybe I should stop this and I should pivot to something else and the one thing taught me how to focus on just one thing if you want to do something and if you want to do it well just focus on that one thing looks like art do like an artist crushing it askgaryvee these four books helps break down the creative barriers and it helps you understand why as creatives or why as like individuals in general why do we procrastinate why do we put things off and how to I guess tackle that or how to overcome that because you need to first understand something before you can overcome it the power of habit I think this is one of the best books on habits ever this and their topic habits that's on the side the power of habit really helped me it changed it changed my life and the way it's written it's so easy to read really like the way Charles Duhigg I love the way he writes and the examples he gives and the stories he gives because this book is like pretty dunce it's like pretty it's not dense but like there's there's a lot and that the texts are pretty small but I went through this within a week I believe I went through this really quickly and there's also the miracle morning the not so obvious secret guaranteed to transform your life before 8:00 a.m. this book was what helped get me into that early morning wake-up routine like awaking about 4 or 5 a.m. [Music] having read these books that I've read and having been exposed to this beautiful world of literature and this beautiful world full with brains that are just you know in these books that I can relate to immensely I was like wow like I really am NOT alone the books will talk about The Fountainhead Atlas Shrugged zero to one originals infinite game Elon Musk his biography dogfight creativity so let's first start with Fountainhead Atlas Shrugged zero to one and Ryan as a writer I don't really believe fully her whole concept of Objectivism I'll talk about that in a little bit but I will say that her books helped me immensely during that time but I recommend it to people now I think specific friends will benefit from reading it and I have recommended it to friends and they have loved it immensely I guess this is just my way of saying you know sometimes your ebooks and they'll help you at that time when you look back you might be like oh great was like a lot of things in the book but like it did help me so whatever do not let your fire go out spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite the not-yet and then not at all do not let the hero in your soul perish and lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach the world you desire can be one it exists it is real it's possible it's yours when I read that I was like yes I reduced it was too inspiring when I read that and Reince philosophy on objectivism is this the concept of man as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life with productive achievement at his noblest activity and reason as his only absolute so I definitely do not agree with that and to counter that I will read a quote from zero to one this is by eater teal who's the founder of PayPal now he's gone on to found a bajillion companies that are worth a bajillion dollars above all don't overestimate your own power as an individual founders are important not because they're the only ones whose work has value but rather because a great founder can bring out the best work from everybody at his company this is it and the reason why this is it is because it's the whole thing with good and great right like good you're living for your self you're living a great life and you're building a company for yourself but great is you're living for other people you're helping other people and you're building a company or generations to come because it's not about you and I think this the sharpen see all of Objectivism smore like you're building the good company what Peter teals talking about is you building a great company and the last quote from zero to one our task today is to find singular ways to create the new thing that will make the future not just different but better to go from zero to one the essential first step is to think for yourself I love that think for yourself only by seeing our world anew as fresh and strange as it was to the ancients who saw it first we can both recreate it and preserve it for the future so I guess with all of that thinking for yourself if we want to I set that a little this is a quote from originals I have it somewhere here I have it I'm reading that book right now but I can't seem to find it are you originals a hallmark of originality is rejecting the default and exploring whether a better option exists the starting point is curiosity pondering why the default exists in the first place and I think this is how you go about and how you start thinking for yourself and how you start questioning your reality and with books like Ella mas mosque Elon Musk's biography dogfight which is a book about how Apple and Google went to war and started a revolution and what else are being creativity and creativity ink is written by one of the founders of Pixar who later on becomes the president of Pixar and Disney Animation's books like these help me it's just it's so empowering felt Empire II it's so inspiring to see how these people's brains work and it's so inspiring to see how much blood sweat and tears went into building these companies and went into producing these masterpieces for me I have an interest in business and technology so I tend to gravitate towards books like that like Steve Jobs and Mike principle is by Ray Dalio who's like a superstar billionaire investor I believe for you it could be anything if you know what your interest on what you're fascinated by let that guide you and let that guide you to look at are the equivalent of these books for me so yeah [Music] all right the next set of books really helped me find that balance I think that's the most important thing that I try to work on this year of finding the stillness within finding balance and being at pieces at all so these are the books that really really helped me most of them I read this year outwitting the double notes with the small stuff 10% happier the bullet journal method five people you meet in heaven a timekeeper still misses the key the one book that I want to highlight and actually I want to highlight all of these books but outwitting the devil oh my goodness this well completely changed my life and it completely changed the way I think about a lot of things in my daily life there's so much truth in here that every single person could benefit from reading it this is a quote from the bevel I control the week not the ones who think for themselves past or present non Drifter equals things for themselves so this just goes so beautifully along with everything that has been on my mind and everything that I've been thinking about it's important to think for ourselves and to not be swayed and to not be easily convinced by the things that were being spoon-fed total lack of major purpose in life conspicuous by lack of self-confidence never accomplishes anything requiring thought or effort spends all he earns and more little or no imagination lacks enthusiasm and will not do anything he's not forced to undertake plainly express his weakness by taking the line of least resistance whenever he can do so ill-tempered and lacking in control over his emotions opinions on everything but accurate knowledge of nothing jack of all trades but none makes the same mistake over and over again never putting by failure if you identify with any of these points don't feel bad because I identify with some of these points too if this speaks to you and you're like oh god how do I be the opposite of that this is a great book and this is a book that I honestly recommend every single person this was the one that's been the most impactful for me one quote that I will read you're entitled to know that two entities occupy your body one of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear the other is motivated by and response the impulse of faith will you be guided by faith or will you allow fear to overtake you with that don't sweat the small stuff I made a whole video inspired by this book that I'll link right here don't sweat the small stuff it's all small stuff I think this is also a book that anyone can benefit massively from we all make something out of nothing you know I think that's like what we're really good at as humans this book really helped me realize that it's literally all small stuff and they're all literally not worth our like time to like mull over the way that we do is book changed my life and has changed many many people's lives who I know 10% happier I think this is the book that I laughed the most throughout from a very non-believer like a very hardcore non-believer of like spirituality meditation and like the benefits of meditation he walks through how he went from non-believer to becoming like oh this is a thing and this is a great thing and this is how we become 10% happier by learning how to meditate by learning how to find the stillness within yourself the bullet journal method I've made a video on how to bullet journal so I'll link that up here bullet journal method is so much more than just talking about bullet journaling it's more like a self-help book I would really say it's more self-help than as bullet journaling but bullet journaling is just like the overarching theme that kind of ties the whole book together the next two books five people you meet in heaven the timekeeper these two are both by Mitch Albom he's also the author of two two two two two today with Morrie Tuesdays with Murray and this is his newest book the next person you mean I have it I haven't read this yet but just looking at this now remembering how great that all of his books have been I want to I want to want to read this this is kind of like the premise of the five people you meet in heaven then heaven and making peace and everything coming full circle and like it's so beautiful it's so beautiful I really appreciate Mitch Albom as an author like immensely because I feel like these days I don't know I don't read a lot of fiction books I would find that most are a little too crazy for me like the concepts are just it's too wild it's like how American shows are too intense for me that's why I watch Korean dramas it's kind of how I feel about a lot of the books so the timekeeper same author do quotes it's never too late or too soon it is when it's supposed to me try to imagine a life without timekeeping you probably can't you know the month of the year the day of the week there's a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car you have a schedule a calendar a time for dinner or a movie yet all around you timekeeping is ignored birds are not late a dog does not check its watch deer do not fret over passing birthdays man alone measures time man alone chimes our and because of this man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endears a fear of time running out yeah I think I read this book at a very important time in my life earlier this year when I was the most stressed I've ever been and the most unbalanced I've ever been just realizing that all these things that we want all these things that we hold ourselves to all these desires all these wants time all of these things are all self-imposed it's all things we create for ourselves so if we created it all for ourselves then that means by that definition we can undo all of those things too and I think I've finally reached a point in my life where I'm just okay with things as they are and for me to say that it's a magical feat for those of you who have been following along for those of you who understand where I'm coming from I'm just good I'm not good because things are going well my life I'm not good because I'm doing well or like these things are happening or whatever I'm good because I'm good I'm great because I'm alive and that's all that really matters and the very last book that I want to talk about that's completely changed my life and completely shifted everything that is about this like the reason why I'm here talking about the things I'm talking about is because of this book and let me go grab it really quick all right so it is this book it is John Balin it is in English there's you know different versions of all the books that I've read I would say this book really gave me the answers to my life's existence it gave me answers to what does it mean to live a meaningful and fulfilling life from a higher perspective but that makes sense because I think we can humanely live a meaningful and fulfilling life but I think what it really means to live a meaningful and fulfilling life is to live for something greater than yourself and this just happens to be something that's much much greater than myself and I've talked about followed off in the past if you guys are curious about the spiritual practice this is the perfect place to start because it does talk about like what the practice is what it entails how to be a good person like the fundamental principles of what it means to be a good person which is just summarized into truthfulness compassion and tolerance yeah with that thank you guys so much for joining me in this video I hope it was helpful and that it gave you some inspiration and some starting points of where you can go if you guys have any ideas recommendations or if you want to see just like what is on my bookshelf and why I got it or like what books are on my to read list and why I want to read them let me know down below and I could definitely make more books about make more books about books make more videos about books and with that thank you guys so much for joining me I'll see you guys in the next video okay bye

Channel: Rowena Tsai

Views: 140,483

Keywords: self care, self love, productivity, rowenatsai, wellness, how to get your life together, self care routine, pamper routine, sunday routine, books, self help books, business books, best self help books, self care books, best business books, book haul, book recommendations 2019, life changing books, books that changed my life, personal development, business, leadership, entrepreneur, tuesdays with morrie, eckhart tolle, mindfulness

Id: W4o5FIq05Vc

Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2019