I have always been a big reader all of my life. While I never liked academics I love learning new things to put into practice in my life for self improvement. I have been very fortunate to have read many life changing books by authors that gave me ideas that changed my life. I love reading non-fiction books around the areas of investing, trading, health, nutrition, comparative religion, and relationships. Thanks to these ideas I have been able to accomplish my life goals and live my own dream life. Here are ten of the most powerful ideas that had the biggest life changing impacts on my life.
The power of written goals.
I read Tony Robbins book Unlimited Power the first time in 1990 and it really changed the way I thought about the potential for success and the ability to achieve whatever you wanted in life. The most powerful exercise was simply writing out my goals I had for the next decade which lead me to know what to do to accomplish them and continuing a life of repeatedly writing down my goals and knowing what to work on next.
Trend Following.
Michael Covel showed me the power of trend following in the financial markets. The only way you can benefit from a strong bull market in the stock market is follow the direction of the price action and drop any opinions or predictions. Covel interviewed, researched, and documented all the principles that trend following traders used to make millions in the markets.
Learning from the Market Wizards.
Jack Schwager gave me access to the greatest traders of the past 30 years through his interviews in his Market Wizards series of books. The common principles I saw throughout the interviews changed my trading forever and helped allow me to achieve financial independence at a relatively young age.
Financial Peace.
Dave Ramsey gave me the path to the defensive side of financial independence through his common sense approach to stop running up consumer debt and get out of debt and stay out of debt and live within your means. Dave Ramsey’s teachings gave me financial peace. Your life can get a whole lot easier when you have no consumer debt, no car payments, and the cash to pay off your mortgage.
Wealth education.
Robert Kiyosaki taught me about the four quadrants of cash flow: employees, investors, business owners, and self employed. There are a lot of ways to make a living beyond employment. The most important principles were the importance of cash flowing assets versus selling your time and the power of not only living within your means but expanding your means.
Present moment awareness.
Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘The Power of Now’ was the book that most clearly explained the process of mindfulness and meditative awareness in the present moment. It has been life changing to be able to spend much more time shifting from my own ego and quit being lost in my own internal narrative to being present and mindful with what is actually going on in the present moment.
40/30/30 Macro-nutrition.
Barry Sears book ‘The Zone’ gave me the powerful principle for weight loss explaining the minimum protein intake to maintain my lean body mass and then building out macro nutrients from that amount with 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% healthy fats. This balances your insulin levels and has enabled me to both lose and maintain my body weight.
Breaking Vegan
After studying about both the suffering that goes on in the industrial animal processing complex and the health studies of the damage eating animal products does to people’s health going Vegan changed my negative blood tests when I was older and I have never felt better than when I stopped eating meat and dairy products and went to a plant based diet.
I encourage you to read and explore looking for life changing ideas that fit in with your own belief system and life goals.