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Welcome to this new episode of the Fulfilling Life Series and today I wanted to talk about the books that changed my life, my mindset and opened my eyes to a lot of things.
Today is episode number 2 of the Fulfilling Life Series. If you want to see the first episode, you can click right here. This blog post is for you if you’re unsatisfied with your life right now. I gave you some tips to uplevel your life right away. You will see, it’s about small steps but with massive impact.
Ok so today, I want to give you the list of all the books that really changed my life. And don’t forget to read the blog post until the end because I think that the last one is not a book that a lot of people talk about!
For each book, I will give you a resume and I will give the most important takeaway for me.
So let’s get started!
Essentialism
The first one is Essentialism from Greg McKeown. As you know, I’m trying to adopt a slow living lifestyle and I have to say that this book really helped me to embrace this lifestyle. I realized what is essential to me and to try as much as possible to work on these essential things rather than the others.
In his book, the author explains how to challenge the “I have to do it all”, “I’m always busy” and replace this by doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
This book helps you to select what is really essential to you to regain control of your life and to make your own choices.
The most important takeaway in this book for me is when you choose to say yes to something, you say no to another thing that could be more important for you. So now, when someone asks me something, I’m thinking about it twice and about what I’m saying no to.
Even if it’s not possible to say no to things you don’t want all the time, thinking about what you’re saying no to will help to priorities your life and find more reasons to say no.
It helps me to make important decisions a few months ago. I said no to things I thought I would say yes to last year. On the other way, I said yes to things I thought weren’t important to me but completely changed my life.
If you feel busy all the time, you don’t know what’s essential to you and you don’t know how to manage all of this, I recommend this book.
Your Money or Your Life
The number 2 is Your Money or Your life from Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. This book totally changed my way of thinking about money.
In early 2020, I started to become interested in my financial situation. This area and my career were the 2 things that didn’t satisfy me at this time. So when I’ve decided to change my career, I’ve also started to look at my finances. And this book was the first recommended when you start your financial freedom journey. It was the first time I read about the FIRE movement.
I was totally obsessed with this book. I think I read it in 3 days. I started to implement what they tell right away and it made a huge difference. It’s a nine-step program to help you live meaningfully and change your mindset about money. This book helps you to get out of debts, creating a budget, live with less, and save your money. And it really does!
The most important takeaway for me was when I calculated my “price per hour”. It was crazy… It made me realized that I was totally underpaid regarding the number of hours I was working. I think that it’s at this point that I really wanted to change my job to another one with fewer hours but better paid per hour.
It’s with this book that I’ve started to make a budget and to stick to it. It’s thanks to this book that I’ve started to save so much more money.
This book totally changed my mindset about money, realizing I was purchasing dumb things, and realizing that it was possible to retire early.
I recommend at 100 percent!
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k
Number 3 is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson. It’s a book I finished maybe a month ago and some of the lessons were mind-blowing.
In his book, the author tells us to embrace our fears, our limitations, and our faults. And once we confronting painful truths, We find the courage, the perseverance, and the responsibility we seek.
There are many things we can give a fuck and this book will help you to know what’s matter to you. And besides, it’s funny.
The most important takeaway of this book is to take responsibility. You can’t control the external stimuli but you can control your internal outcome.
Why is it important? Because we constantly blame others for what we have in life, but we need to take responsibility for our acts, our thoughts, and how we react in front of someone or something. I read this book at a time that I blamed everybody because some of the things I was working on didn’t work at all. I told myself it wasn’t my fault because I did everything I can but actually no Anna, you didn’t do anything you can to make things work. I procrastinated a lot and I thought I was doing a lot. At that time, I stopped blaming others and I started to really work and you know what, it worked! So thank you Mark Manson to punch me in the face with your book 🙂
The 4-Hour Work Week
The 4-hour Work Week was one of the first “personal development books” that I read. It was about 6 or 7 years ago I think.
If you don’t know yet, Tim Ferriss the author explains how he lives by working only 4 hours per week. During his free time, he explores a lot of new places, he does a lot of sport and activities. He learned martial art, a lot of new languages and he lived in a lot of countries.
It’s a step-by-step guide to help you quit your 9-to-5 job, travel the world, eliminate the emails and live a life like a millionaire. It’s pretty tempting, isn’t it?
Why this book was important for me? At this time, so 7 years ago, I was new in personal development. I thought that my life would be around my 9 to 5 job, but I wasn’t aware of all the possibilities. It’s not something that someone taught you in the university and certainly not in Pharmacy university.
The second takeaway is that it’s possible to achieve a lot in a minimum time without distraction. It’s not something I did at this time when I finished reading the book but it’s something I try to do right now.
I can’t recommend this book enough. I just ordered the last version this week to read it again.
20 Something, 20 Everything
The last book is 20 Something, 20 Everything by Christine Hassler.
I’m pretty sure you don’t know this book but I have to say that it’s the one that changed my life the most. I find this book in a difficult time and it really helped to get out of my depression. No kidding. It had been 6 months that I didn’t want to do anything with my life, that I asked myself too many questions and I was in this state in which I didn’t want to see people, and I didn’t want to get out of my bed. By doing some research, I find out that maybe I was going through a quarter-life crisis. I thought I was alone but not at all. And I discover this book that I started to read it right away.
In the introduction, there was a quiz to know if you were really going through a quarter-life crisis. The maximum score was 10 and I had 10!
This book made me realize that it was ok to be lost, to be stuck but it also was time to move on. This book made me ask myself the right questions and I selected the most powerful ones and I put them into a guide you can download. I will put the link in the description box below.
This book also made me realize that I was chasing the wrong life for myself and it made me rethink my entire life.
If you feel lost, stuck, or even unsatisfied with your life and you’re between 22 to 32, I can’t recommend this book enough. It saved my life.
Books could really change your mindset, the way of thinking and can open your eyes when you’re not really ready to change.
I read a lot of books about personal development and some of them were bland but some of them really changed my life.
I think I will reread these books because depending on the moment you’re in your life, you learned different things. These books helped me at different times of my life and I couldn’t be more grateful.
What are your most life-changing self-improvement books? Tell me in the comments below.
It’s the end guys, I hope you enjoyed it. I see you in the next one. Bye!
Hi everyone! I’m Anna and I’m a twenty-something woman. Most of the time, I like to rewatch all the episodes of Castle and read A LOT of personal development books! And I have a cat : Pizza, because I love … Pizza!