10 Books Of Essential Knowledge - A Life With Intention

The Power Of Perspective

Having mentors is a great way to know how to deal with roadblocks and curve balls that are inevitably going to come your way. If you can’t find a mentor, the best way to educate yourself is through books. Books and mentors are a powerful way of minimising mistakes; they are filled with experience and so they can help you avoid them.

Here are some things books and mentors can help you with that education system didn’t teach us.

1) How to attract good friends, good people and good relationships.

2) How to know what you should do with your life.
3) What is money and why do we have it.

4) How should we plan our future.

5) How we can find a partner in business or life.

6) How we understand who we are.
7) How to read peoples real intentions.
8) How to manage money.

9) How to look after your body/health/well being.

10) How to create an amazing, happy life.

It doesn’t matter what stage of life you are in, books and mentors can help get to where you want to go and they will help you avoid making unnecessary mistakes.

Below we have 10 books for your mind, body and soul. These books will cover some of the major topics on the list above and have ideas that could change your life.

Book #1

The first on our list of books you should add to your library is a return to the classics.

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

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This book is regarded as a classic because there are a lot of timeless principles that can help your communication and social interactions.

Here Are A Few Principles From The Book You Can Start With Now

– Don’t criticise, condemn or complain.
– Give honest and sincere appreciation.
– Become genuinely interested in other people.
– Remember peoples names.
– Make other people feel important and do it sincerely.
– Be a good listener.
– The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

Book #2

7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen R. Covey

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Here are a few takeaways that might inspire you to look further into this book.

7 Takeaways That we Found Helpful

Be Proactive
Take responsibility for your choices. You make a choice for how you respond to any given situation.

Begin With the End in Mind
Start with a clear destination so that you know you are heading in the right direction.

Put Things First
Learn how to prioritise your day to day actions based on what is most important.

Think Win-Win
To create good relationships you must commit to creating win-win situations that are mutually beneficial.

Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood

Before we offer advice or help to another person we must seek to understand them.

Synergise
By understanding and valuing the differences in another viewpoint, we open ourselves to new perspectives and create synergy.

Sharpen the Saw
To be effective, we must devote the time to renewing ourselves physically, spiritually, mentally and socially.

Book #2

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

This book is about networking but not the sort that makes you cringe. It is about helping others while building relationships. I suck at networking but this book gave me really easy tips on how to meet new people and build strong connections with them.

It is a great book which will help you re-think how you see helping people.

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Here Are A Few Insights That We Got From The Book

– Real networking is about finding ways to help other people become successful.

– When you help people, don’t keep score. If they succeed, you succeed.

– Keep growing your network. Building your network and helping people should be an ongoing thing you do.

– Share your passions. Sharing your passions is a great way to show others who you are, build interest and find commonalities.

This is a great book and well worth adding to your library. Remember! You don’t have to read the whole book, just take a few nuggets and you can always revisit them. This is about building a library of resources you can come back to again and again!

Book #4

There are some slightly odd concepts in this book but there is some gold in here too. You don’t have to agree with it all but grab the gold, there is plenty in here.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

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Here Are Some Insights That We Got From The Book

– The starting point of all achievements is desire; you are the master of your destiny.

– When your defeat comes, accept it as a sign that your plan needs some readjustments.

– Your greatest success will come just one step beyond the point at which defeat has overtaken you…so never give up.

Book #5

Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Meditations is a collection of 12 books written by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and it is a great introduction to Stoic Philosophy. This book has great wisdom and perspectives that you can use to apply to your everyday life.

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Here Are A Few Gems We Got From The Book

– Be patient. No one is perfect and we are all on a journey.

– Being generous is the most fulfilling way to live.

– Freedom is having control of your mind.

– Live connected to nature and other people.

– Be humble.

Remember that you don’t have to read it all at once. Just get a few nuggets and put it down.

Book #6

The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Ryan Holiday

This book is a modern take on the Stoic philosophy and a lot of the ideas are from Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. There is some great stuff in this book and it is really well written.

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Here Are A Few Ideas That Really Resonated With Us

– The thing that is standing in your way…is the way. The thing that we find hard or impossible is the route that we must take to become the greatest version of ourselves.

– There is no good or bad, only perception. How you see things that happen will control how you react to them.

– “Every obstacle is unique to each of us. But the responses they elicit are the same: fear, frustration, confusion, helplessness, depression and anger”.

There is a lot of gems in this book that can help you re-frame how you see things.

Remember this is a marathon not a sprint! You don’t need to read every page of every book. Use these books as points of reference that you keep going back to.

Book #7

Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How it Can Help You Find and Keep Love by Rachel Heller & Amir Levine

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We have all had some sort of experience of love…good and bad. This book is might give you some insights on what sort of relationship type you are.

The book mentions four attachment styles that characterise the relationships we have…

Secure Attachment Style – If you have the secure attachment style, you usually feel comfortable with intimacy and have no problem being warm and loving.

Anxious Attachment Style – If you have the anxious attachment style, you greatly crave intimacy deep down, which is shown in neediness, preoccupation with the relationship and worry about people close to you loving you back.

Avoidant Attachment Style – If you have the avoidant attachment style, you experience intimacy and closeness with other people ( or dependency, in other words) as a loss of personal independence and autonomy. That leads to behaviour that minimises closeness with other people.

Disorganized Attachment Style (Anxious – Avoidant): This is a rare attachment style that exhibits elements of both unhealthy attachment styles mentioned above.

The authors show what may have caused these relationships styles and which fit well together.

It is a fascinating book which bases it’s findings in science and may shed some light for you on an area of life that can seem very mysterious and out of our control.

Book #8

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease by Daniel Lieberman

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This is a fascinating book about how our bodies have evolved as humans an how our past environment has made us into what we are today.

The main theme is that there is a mismatch in how we used to live and how we live now because we exercise less and have an abundance of fatty, sugary and salty foods.

It is very well written and may change your view on your diet and the amount you exercise.

Why is this important? Your body is the vehicle you travel in and if it is working well you feel good and you get more done. It is pretty simple…it’s not easy but it is simple.

Book #9

Spark by Dr John J. Ratey

This book is case study after case study supporting all the reason why regular exercise has huge HUGE benefits for your mind and body.

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Some Of The Things We Learnt From This Book

– Exercise optimises your mindset to improve alertness.
– It helps nerve cells bind together which is the cellular basis for logging in new information.
– It reduces stress, anxiety and depression by increasing serotonin and norepinephrine both in the moment and over the long-term.
– It helps strengthens the cardiovascular system.
– It helps regulates fuel.
– It helps reduces obesity.
– It helps elevates your stress threshold.
– It helps boosts the immune system.
– It helps fortify your bones.
– It helps boosts motivation.
– It helps neuroplasticity (helps to keep your brain strong).

We found this book while listening to an interview with the health and fitness guru Tony Horton. It is a great book, full of case studies of how exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body.

If you are lacking the motivation to start exercising just read this book and see if anything clicks.

Food and exercise can be a very sensitive subject for people. We are not trying to lay the law down on anyone’s lifestyle but we have seen first-hand that healthy food and regular exercise TOTALLY transforms lives.

Book #10

Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

This book is the story of the young Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl who embarked on an astonishing expedition of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean…on a raft! Amazing book!

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What We Learnt From The Book

– When you have faith in yourself and the strength of your convictions, you are unstoppable.

– Never let challenges and circumstance get in the way of your vision.

– For any journey to be successful, you have to have a powerful objective.

– The hardest part of the journey is often the start.

– Read from other disciplines besides your own, so you will have more creative ideas; diverse input equals diverse output.

Below Are All The Books In This Article

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