3 Books on Personal Development I am reading in April
A quarter of the year has gone already. I am happy that I have been consistent in reading books so far ( though not so in writing about them). Every month I pick a subject to read about. My focus in April is to read more on mental well-being,finding balance and using spiritual practices in daily lives.
1. Think like a Monk by Jay Shetty
I am half-way through this book and have found it really practical, empowering and inspiring. Jay Shetty is a renowned social media figure. In this book, he has shared his rich experience at ashram as a monk and distilled the learnings for a common man in a simple language focusing on how one can approach life and lift the burden of expectations, negative thoughts and live a calm and purposeful life. The author promises to explore practical ways of bringing monk’s way of thinking and living to improve our focus, our relationships and bring self-discipline in our lives.
One my key learnings so far has been to bring structure in routine to enhance creativity — This goes against the popular opinion that creativity comes from randomness. The author asks readers to engage intentionally in one task at a time and to create specific places in home for work, for devoted single purposes. If there is no structure then we are just aimlessly doing stuff.
There are many more such learnings and take-away. And I look forward to share it with my viewers in coming blogs.
2. Life’s Amazing Secrets: How to find Balance and Purpose in Life by Gaur Gopal Das
I have been listening to Gaur Gopal Das on YouTube for some time now. I find him to be one of the most sought-after monks and life coaches. And so, picking his book was a no-brainer for me. This is his debut book and he shares his experiences and lessons about life into a light-hearted, thought-provoking manner — his trademark of storytelling. From the various reviews I have read about this book, one of the things I find intriguing is Gaur Gopal uses car as an example to explain the concepts of personal life, relationships, work and social life and how to strike a balance among them. I look forward to reading tons of short stories narrated in the book and how he uses the analogy with car to explain the balance in our lives. I also hope to draw a line of similarity in the car model he proposes to Ikigai model.
3. The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Having read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, I wanted to read more on Stoicism. One of my friend has recommended this book to me. The Daily Stoic is a page-a-day guide to living a good life (Ideally, this book is meant to be read all over the year — one page at a time, but I intend to do a quick read). It offers inspirational daily doses of classic wisdom. Each page features a powerful quotation, historical anecdotes from the likes of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or philosopher Epictetus, coupled with commentary to help one tackle problem, approach a goal and find the serenity, self-knowledge and resilience needed to live well. I am fond of quote collections as well and thus this book seems to be offer me both — Stoic wisdom and some powerful quotations for my collection!
What is next after reading these books?
As many of you may agree, it is easy to read a theory on self-help but what next? I agree it is much easier to read and requires self-discipline to put the learnings in practice which is tough and never-ending. My purpose of reading these books are
- To reiterate to mind of this wisdom which I tend to forget while living the so called ‘busy-life’
- To indulge in an honest evaluation of my life, my choices and way of living from time to time
- To identify projects and practices for my personal development
What do you do after reading such books? Any other book recommendations on this subject? Would love to know your thoughts.
