2015 is almost over, and 2016 about to unravel, so I took the chance to look back at my life this year. I will say it’s been a wonderful year; this year saw a big change in my life in terms of my life purpose and goals. One of such change was me improving on my reading lifestyle tremendously. I realize if I want to be that international author and speaker that I yearn to be. I need to lend myself to reading and writing; the evidence of the latter to which you are reading right now.
I needed to make these two, a habit to which I never thought it was possible at the start of this year. no wonder Charlie Jones said, you will be the same person in 5 years as you are today, except for the people you meet and the books you read. as for the people you meet, you have not much control over but to decide to love reading and to make it an everyday life, that’s your own choice and prerogative.
Talking about the book you read influencing who you become tomorrow. I have taken the time to give you a review of the 5 books I read this year and how they impacted my life in 2015 and hopefully, beyond, and how these books might be of immense helps to you, even if not everyone.
Byways to blessedness
The first book I read in 2015 was a book by James Allen titled byways to blessedness. This book was published in 1937 but it content still resonance with the world we are living in today. reading, this book changed my perception about life and living it. I understood the realities of this life which ironically is not real to a lot. All the 14 chapters of this book spoke to me silently like the mirror reflecting back exactly what stood in front of it. the scenarios touched the tiniest fibre of my being, the words pierce me to the core and awaken the spirit in me.
My understanding of life and living has never been the same after my encounter with this book. My dealings with myself, the world and its people could not have been the same either. I have come to understand that in our daily life happenings, I need to see with the eye of the victim, empathize with the accused and never to judge a man by his wrongdoing forgetting that we have been there before and done worse things.
Lusting after things of the flesh and of the world, my greatest weakness; which the book emphasize doesn’t always end well and I have consciously tried to squash them all. This book will help you a lot, and trust me you need this book that’s all, I wouldn’t say much more.
The power of self-discipline; no excuse
The power of self-discipline; no excuse, what a book by Brian Tracy. Reading this book gave me a new and more proven perception about self-discipline and how if cultivated will help a lot in making your life dreams a reality. As I read this book, I found myself in every chapter, revealing to me the picture of what I must do, what I must let go, what I must sacrifice and the full prize I must pay, if I want to wake those dreams of mine into reality.
The end of chapter activities helps me to come up with decisions, choices, and steps, to become self-disciplined in many aspects of my life. It’s a 21 chapter book subdivided into 3 parts; self-discipline and personal; success, self-discipline in business, sales and finance and self-discipline and good living. Truly we have no excuse not to read this book and with this book, we have no excuse not to become the best of who we want to be.
The 48 laws of power
Another book that made my year was the book titled the 48 laws of power written by Robert Green. I call it the manual to obtaining power, sustaining power and being powerful. It illustrative real-life stories dating as far back as far back as Israel in the BC,s are so on point. each of the laws explains under the subtitles: the transgression and the observance of the law; where the author walk you through situations and events in history about men and women and what became of them for choosing to observe or transgress against the laws.
Interpretation; here the author gives an in-depth and vivid explanation to the transgression and observation stories to the law, for the reader to get the full picture of what he wants to put across. keys to power; this is where lessons from the transgression and observation of the law are molded into life scenario principles for you to employ in our daily quest for power. And lastly the reversal of the law; that shows us the author’s other side of the coin to the law, times were sticking to the law may be presumed futile on your rising stairs to the attainment of power and how you should you act the other way round. and hey!! don’t forget to read the amazing side stories.
The art of public speaking
The art of public speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein is a book that has influenced me a lot as a public speaker. I don’t think any book could have helped me more when I started speaking to high school and tertiary students just a couple of months ago. I believe this book will help you too, because though it’s a book on public speaking its principles and rules cut across communication in various aspects of our life’s and can be applied in our normal daily interaction with people.
In this book, you will learn how to acquire confidence and speak with confidence when you before an audience no matter the number, how to become efficient in your delivery of speeches or anything of such kind, how to influence and persuade an audience and making conversation effective and worthwhile the listeners time. There is an end of chapter activities to help you practice and blend the principles and rules of the book with your own speaking style. the least said about this 285pages book, the better.
Outliers; the story of success
The last but definitely not the least of the books I read this year is outliers; the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell, is a book I recommend for everyone who wants to see the bigger picture of becoming successful in whatever you do, the behind the scene forces that influence success which we unconsciously have no idea of. It made me understand that there is more to success than what we’ve been seeing, hearing and reading about.
In this book, the author took us through the journey of success on a different path and perspective. you will know that to be successful, the generation you were born in counts a lot. Each generation and the opportunities that present themselves meaning, the billionaires today, sport stars today, or prominent attorneys today would have become something less if they were to find themselves in a different generation or even be born a decade earlier or late; billionaires like the Rockefellers, the bill gates and many of the likes were all just right in on time.
But after being born in a generation, you must take opportunities as it comes and be ready to make those sacrifices whenever the need be, you must be willing to put in the hard work, not for a month or a year but as long as it takes (the 1000hrs rule) though yours might be less or even more. but don’t forget that no matter the genius you are born, you will never be successful without the support of family, friends, society and it’s structured that are in place and ever ready to catapult you to greatness. To this, I say there is no such thing as a self-made billionaire
Conclusion
If you have been able to read this seemingly long message to the end, then congrats you just made your first step to becoming someone who will love reading. As you make your “new year resolution” which to me has become a cliché; that’s a topic for another day, make a resolution to read and resolve to read at least a book a month, till it becomes a habit and you will be amazed by the possibilities it will open your mind to.
Yes!!! You Can And Yes!!! You Will.
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