During the month of May, I spent a lot of time reading different genres of fiction to widen my perspective as a fiction writer. However, I was able to get out some time to study self-help, productivity, and spiritual books to ensure that I never lost track of what I was focused on attaining, and that is, becoming the ideal person that I would like to become. The books that I read in May were as enlightening as they were inspirational, and as a result, I would highly recommend that you look at the books to tap from the wealth of knowledge that I could sift out of them.

 

1.      SECRETS OF THE MILLIONAIRE MIND BY T HARV EKER

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This was the first book on finances and wealth creation that I read in a while. The book is written by a man who had made his fortune by opening a line of fitness stores and it has quite a few tips on wealth making and the difference in mindset between those that make and properly manage their wealth and those that do not.

The first thing that the author mentions is something that he refers to as a ‘money blueprint’. Part one of the book is fully dedicated to the analysis of this concept, which, in essence, can be explained as the thought and behaviours that we have around money which are formed by our childhood experiences, particularly in line with what our parents’ attitude towards money was. Some people, depending on their childhood experiences, usually ended up patterning their attitudes towards money similar to that of their parents, while some revolted against it. He spends his time explaining it and then stating, with examples, that no matter what money blueprint anyone may have, it can be changed.

Part two of the book deals with ‘wealth files’, in which he lists seventeen ways that rich people think and act differently from poor and middle-class people. Some of the seventeen points which resonated with me are:

· Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.

· Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.

· Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.

· Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.

· Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.

Some of the other tips that I got from the book are:

· Without passive income, you can never be free.

· The only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable.

· Training and managing your mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.

· The secret to success is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than any problem.

· If you want to get paid the best, you have to be the best.

Whilst the book had a vast array of knowledge to share, I have to say that I found some issues with it. For instance, I found that several parts of his text had a lot of new-age religion teachings that had to do with ‘The Secret’ sort of manifestation, aligning your vibrations with the universe, and other pseudo-science. In fact, each of the chapters ended with affirmations and after some time, I got tired of seeing the instruction to repeat “I have a millionaire mind!” repeatedly. There were also weird instructions such as the one to pick stray money off the road and shout, “Thank you, universe, for sending me money” and stuff like that and I found it to be a wee bit hilarious.

Also, I felt that there was just too much self-promotion in the book. Sure, a bit of self-promotion is not bad, but in each chapter, it appeared he found his way to keep hounding the fact that I could only get more if I registered for his courses and that what was written in the book was just the tip of the iceberg.

All in all, I would recommend it for those that are fresh in their study of books on finances and such. It does not have as much depth as some other books out there do, but it has bits of advice that could change the mindsets of some people out there.

2.      THE WORK/LIFE BALANCE MYTH BY DAVID J MCNEFF

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This book debunks the saying that life is divided into only work and life and lists seven aspects of our lives or slices that we all need to focus on to achieve harmony and balance in our lives.

The seven slices which the author lists are: family, professional, personal, physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual slices and the author lists practical ways how to balance these slices plus real-life examples and stories of how other people were able to achieve the same in their lives.

The author promises that if one could learn how to make use of what he refers to as ‘the seven slice method’, while it would not make the stressful elements of one’s life vanish, it will improve the ability of a person to manage such stressful situations.

Furthermore, the author guarantees that by giving adequate focus to all the aforementioned seven aspects of one’s life, one would be able to achieve happiness and success in one’s life.

Some tips that I got from the book were:

· When you have a sense of harmony, your daily life feels more manageable, and you enjoy it more.

· Many take their bodies for granted, yet the state of our body’s health has a direct impact on every other aspect of our lives. After all, the body is the vehicle that carries you in each slice of your life.

· We should check in with our emotions every once in a while for our own benefit, given how easy it is to overlook them, put them aside, and then wait for the day they either implode or explode.

· Slowing down to self-access in a real and tangible way allows you to pay attention to yourself.

· Agreeing to too many requests comes with a price - by devoting so much time to others, you may lose a sense of balance in your life. You must be able to say when enough is enough, and that starts with effectively managing time and setting boundaries.

It was a good book and I recommend it to all that are looking towards being productive even as they do all that they need in order to ensure that they do not put every other thing on the line just so as to achiev career success. By the time I was done with the book, I realised I needed to invest more in my spiritual and physical life, checking what I was eating and making sure that I carved out enough time to invest in my faith. And I was able to also use the book as a guide to teaching some others about the benefits of ensuring that all the aspects of their lives were properly balanced as well.

 

3.      WHEN GOD DOESN’T MAKE SENSE BY DR JAMES DOBSON

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This was the book that was studied in the book club I manage this month. It is by a Christian writer who examines what goes on when it feels as though God has forsaken us as Christians and how we can hold on to our faith during periods of pain and distress as Christians. It was a really insightful book that helped me discern a lot of spiritual things.

According to the author, almost every Christian, at some stage in life, reaches the betrayal barrier, in which it seems that the Lord has forsaken us when we are in moments of crisis and pain. He states it is not wrong to try to discern the reason why the Lord lets us pass through such hard times, but that we should have it in mind that the ways of the Lord are unsearchable and past finding out, and hence, we should lean not on our own understanding in trying to discern the ways of the Lord.

The author also states that trial and suffering are part of the human condition and that they can be essential for the development of character. Also, he believes that the main reason why a lot of Christians are unable to handle pain is that they have been inculcated into the doctrine that having steadfast faith in God guarantees a happy, carefree life. He believes that this is firmly wrong and that looking at examples from the biblical martyrs and apostles, it appears our faith almost guarantees us some form of abuse from the world.

Furthermore, he states the adversity principle, which is that without adversity, no soul properly matures, giving examples of people like Stephen Hawking, who were able to grow strong and achieve all that they could achieve despite their disabilities, some of them even claiming that the disabilities and the challenges they have faced, as a result, have made them strong enough to achieve the things that they were able to achieve.

Another thing that he notes, is that if just being a Christian was all one needed to live a perfect life, then the entire basis of God’s relationship with man would be undermined as people would seek friendship with Him to gain the benefits, rather than responding with a heart of repentance and love and that the most greedy of humans would be the first to draw to the Lord.

Again, he notes that we should not neglect the fact that sin can play a key factor in causing us the pain that we suffer. According to the author, it is not that God sits in heaven and determines to abuse those that makes mistake, but that He forbade certain behaviour because He knew that it would ultimately destroy its victims. He states examples of sexual sins and the chronic diseases that have killed millions around the world as a result.

Finally, the author states that we should not forget the transitory nature of life. If we remember that after this temporary life comes permanent rest in heaven, then life’s frustrations would not be so frustrating. He also states though the pain could be terrible here on earth, we must never forget that soon we will be reunited with the Lord in heaven when our tears will be removed forever.

Some points I noted in the book are:

· God is present and involved in our lives even when He seems deaf or in an extended leave of silence.

· God’s timing is perfect, even when He appears catastrophically late.

· For reasons that are impossible to explain, we human beings are incredibly precious to God.

· If we were given all that we wanted here on earth, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next.

· The lord doesn’t always solve our problems instantaneously, and He sometimes permits us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Eventually, we’ll all take that journey. But He is there with us even in the darkest hours, and we can never escape His encompassing love.

I would definitely recommend this book, not only for those suffering through hardship but to all people here on earth. There is a wealth of knowledge to be tapped from the book and it would go a long way in increasing your knowledge of the ways and the principles of the Lord, and why certain things here on earth are the way that they are. But the author says and is clear in stating that He is not out to get a cohesive answer to the problems of the world with his book, for no one can know the ways of the Lord.

 

4.      PROBLOGGER BY DARREN ROWSE AND CHRIS GARRETT

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This is a book written by two bloggers on how one can be able to prosper and commercialise the art of blogging. It focuses on blogging as a career path and not just as a hobby and gives various tips on how to get an audience, how to generate multiple streams of income through blogging, how to manage a community, and how to cooperate with other bloggers and so on. It is a splendid book for all that are hoping to get into blogging and I would recommend doing so as well as going on the blog ‘Problogger’ to get even more tips on blogging.

So what about you? What personal growth books did you study last month?

 

 

I am not only a writer; I also like to identify as an avid reader. I love reading across several genres of books. And for some time, I have taken it as a personal resolution to ensure that I substitute the time I spend on social media and television for books. Because of that, I spend a lot of my leisure time reading books.

Furthermore, because I am the director of a book club; and because of the time afforded to me as a result of the strike, I have had a lot of time to burrow into books and spend a lot of my time tapping into different sources of information.

Here are the books that I read in this past month of April.

1.     The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey:

This book was written by a man who, after college, decided to reject two job offers in order to pursue his passion for productivity. He then decided to dedicate a year to conducting different productivity projects, which he documented in his blog, once titled ‘A Year of Productivity’ and now called ‘A Life of Productivity’. While he writes on most of the experiments in his blog, in his book, he shares various tips that he learned throughout the time that he spent doing the year-long experiment.

 

Some of his most memorable tips are:

• Take some time off work to meditate and reflect to ensure that you are not working on autopilot.
• Ensure that you build up your attention muscle when working and protect it from external distractions so that you do not end up working longer; just to achieve less at the end.
• Cut down on the amount of time you spend on the internet and your devices.
• Ensure that you engage in single-tasking to build up attention muscles and carve out more attentional space around the task you are tackling at the moment.
• The food you eat plays a huge role in determining the energy that you have for the rest of the day, so ensure that you watch the food you eat daily. Eat more natural healthy foods and avoid stimulants like coffee or alcohol, or sugar.
• Exercise is vital in building up the energy that you have in a day and it also stimulates the brain so, incorporate exercise into your day etc.

The book was an easy and enjoyable read as the author used simple English and vivid illustrations, most from the experiments he carried out, to spice up his book. I found it a very enjoyable read and I would highly recommend the book to anyone who wishes to start his or her productivity journey.

 

2.     The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

In as much as the internet has some undeniable benefits; there has been a rise in authors who completely reject everything that the internet stands for, most basing their arguments on the new wave of internet addiction that seems to have swept through the entire planet and the fact that one of the core components of the internet, i.e. social media, has been one of the main factors that have led to the rise in narcissism and depression amongst the people of the world.

In this award-winning book, Nicholas Carr brings about a new perspective on the effects of the internet. And he argues that the move from the analogical to the digital has not just brought about a change in the way the world functions; it has also altered our brains.

 

According to the author, 

“Over the last few years, I have had an uncomfortable sense that someone or something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping my neural circuitry, reprogramming my memory. My mind isn’t going – so far as I can tell- but it’s changing.”

 

He then tells his stories of how, before the rise of the internet, he used to be able to immerse himself in lengthy books and articles but seems to have lost the ability to do so, and gives examples of several others who have suffered from the same issue as well.

 

He bases his arguments by talking about the rise of other technologies, such as the clock, and the map, and how they altered the way we as humans thought. For instance, with the rise of the clock came the rise of industrialization, as we as humans began to take strict note of the time and began to fashion our lives according to the tickings of the clock. This was unlike before, when we just lived and let the days pass on. 

 

According to the author, just as the rise of the map and now GPS has caused the part of the brain that is meant to be able to take note of spatial locations to shrink, he believes the internet has made us lose our abilities to concentrate and focus our attention, has rid us of our ability to make proper use of our memories, and has generally made us unable to do certain things that our predecessors learned how to do with their brains during the time before the internet. 

 

He knows that this will get worse, as the creators of computers and search engines are continually on the hunt to ensure that everything is made completely easy with the internet. But he warns that the easier way is not necessarily always the best.

 

The author warns that we should not allow the glories of technology to blind our inner watchdog to the possibility that we have numbed an essential part of ourselves.

The book was a very insightful one, but I have to admit that it was quite difficult to read as, unlike the books that I am used to, it was very scientific. Sometimes, the author also talked about things that I was not very interested in; even spent chapters giving historical facts that did not interest me in any way. But I do advise those who wish to read and tap from the vast knowledge contained in the book to do so.

 

3.     The Christian Life is Exciting by Demos Shakarian

I did not begin this book in April, but I read the last part of it and finished it by the end of April.

The book is a Bible course written by the founder of the Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship International, with twelve lessons dealing with topics such as commitment to Christ, the Dynamics of Faith, Prayer, Sharing Christ with the world, God, and His relationship to man, etc. 

It is an amazing book for anyone who wishes to begin the person’s journey with Christ on a solid foundation and I do recommend the book to all Christians, especially those who are looking for books that will aid them in their spiritual growth.

 

4.     Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

This book deals with the issue of procrastination and the author says that the best way to effectively get rid of it and get things done is to ensure that every day, a person does the biggest and most important task(frog) first. According to him, if the first thing you do in a day is to eat a live frog, you can spend the rest of the day knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

 

He offers other useful tips such as:

• Planning the day the night before so that your subconscious mind can work on the list all night long while you sleep.
• Think long-term when working and setting goals.
• There are only three core tasks that you do that contain most of the value you have to offer. Identify them and ensure that the bulk of your time goes into achieving them.
• Ensure you ask yourself three questions regularly to ensure that you focus on your biggest frog at all times

What are my highest value activities?

What can I and only I do that if done well, will make a real difference?

What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

• If you choose to procrastinate, ensure that you procrastinate on small tasks or low-value activities. Decide to either procrastinate on or delegate the activities that don’t make that much of a contribution to your life in favour of those that make more of a contribution to your life.

All in all, it was a simple and quite interesting book to read. If procrastination is something you have been battling for some time and you wish to overcome it, I would highly recommend this book.

 

5.     How Successful People Think by John Maxwell

This was the book that was reviewed by the book club that I manage. It was written by an American pastor whose main focus is on leadership and self-growth. 

According to the author of this book, the main thing that differentiates successful from unsuccessful people is the way they think and we have to work towards developing the sort of mindset and thinking the way that successful people think. He lists out some of the ways that successful people think. They think big, can focus and concentrate for a considerable period of time, are creative, are realistic when setting their goals, make use of strategies and plans to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves, understand the importance of having a community of thinkers, are generous, and do not flow in line with the popular thought patterns of others, etc.

It is a different book from the kinds that I usually prefer reading in that it does not do much to offer practical steps to take in my opinion. But it is a concise book and hence, was a good read for me.

 

6.     Amongst Ourselves by Tracy Alderman and Karen Marshall

If I were not studying law, I believe that I would have studied psychology and gone on to be a therapist. Right from time, I have always been interested in mental illnesses and what goes on in the minds of those who have the worst of the mental illnesses, the most absurd of them. 

Over the years, I have carried out my research to understand certain mental disorders like bipolar disorder, chronic depression, borderline personality disorder, etc, and one of my favourite ways of conducting research is reading books on the disorders.

This month, I decided to research Dissociative Identity Disorder which used to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder, a disorder that occurs when a person has two or more identities or personalities, each with its way of being. It is a response to trauma which usually occurs when a person is a child. More specifically, it occurs in individuals that have suffered from an extended period of abuse, such as ritual or cult abuse.

When a person dissociates, they leave their bodies to get away from the pain and trauma. When this defense is not strong enough to protect the person, different personalities emerge to handle the experience. These personalities allow the child to survive; in the sense that when the child is being harmed or experiencing traumatic episodes, the other personalities take the pain. This allows the child to return to their body after the bad things have happened without any awareness of what has occurred.

Now, DID is such a rare disorder that I have read that there are certain therapists and mental health professionals who do not even believe that such an illness exists. There are even others who believe that it is demon possession as I once used to think that it was.

It is a strange disorder and I am still trying to grasp how the human brain can go so far as to enable a person to create distinct fragmented personalities as a response to trauma. But I have to say; it has been interesting studying the disorder. 

The book was more of a manual written by two people on how both people with the disorder and those around them can handle it and while I would have preferred a novel as there were some parts of the book that I did not read because they were not for me, I have to say that I learnt a lot from the book. I still am not satisfied with the knowledge that I have gotten, so I am still going to read other books.

 

7.     The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

I did not want to add this here but oh well. This book series was somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me, enjoyable to read, but just a simple story written in simple writing with no true insights hidden in the wordings of the book. It definitely cannot be put within the ranks of Kafka’s works or those of Achebe but it was really exciting to read.

It has a Disneyesque storyline, written the simple way that Disney stories are written. The series follows a 17-year-old girl who is part of the 35 girls that have been chosen to participate in some sort of game that can be said to be similar to The Bachelor, in which the prince gets to select one of the girls to be the queen of the land.

As I said earlier, it is the sort of book that you know offers no real value but is so interesting, that you ignore some of the plot holes and just keep reading

The series has more than four books, about eight or so if you include the novellas, but I stopped after reading the first three books and a novella in the series.

 

As someone who is very interested in growing as an individual, I have found that reading books that expand over multiple genres is a great way to open my eyes and stimulate my brain. As a result, I would encourage anyone that wishes to grow to read vast and wide, expand your knowledge base, and make yourself a well rounded individual. I hope to squeeze out the time to read even more books by the end of this month.