If I Had Read These 3 Books Earlier, My Life Would Have Been Different

I started my reading journey back in 2020 when the lockdown was announced for the first time. At that time, I was doing my graduation far away from my parents. But due to lockdown, I had to go back to my hometown. The initial few months were incredible but with time, the fear of ‘where do I see myself in the next 5 years’ was hunting me down. Obviously, half of my college life was wasted due to Covid-19 and lockdown. Probably, that was the reason I was even more scared.

Out of pure boredom, I started reading nonfiction books and since then my life has changed in a way that I couldn’t have even imagined. Today, I will share with you 3 books that I wish I could have earlier in my life because these are the books that taught me that life starts out of college, passion is beyond my degree and money is a by-product of hard work.

If you are also clueless who is frustrated, angry, lost but have a desire to do something, these 3 books are going to help you in numerous ways.

3 Books I wish I could Read Earlier In My Life:

1. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma:

If there is one book that had the biggest impact on me, it’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. This is my first nonfiction read which came as a blessing in disguise. I remember I read this book during the first lockdown and at that time, as I said I was frustrated, irritated and scared due to career pressure. Besides, I had no personal room or space to even think in silence (Yes, in India, teenagers rarely have a separate room)

All of this was making a pathetic human. I started becoming what I was not, short-tempered who used to yell at everyone. Probably, you can understand my situation as most of us were in the same circumstances.

However, when I read The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, I came to know about a famous lawyer, Julian, who had every materialistic thing: money, fame but peace. Julian’s story was somewhat like mine except our bank balance.

Julian sold everything we owned and went to the Himalayas to find the lost peace and fill the void in him. There he met a group of sages who taught him some life lessons that changed Julian’s life forever and to the readers as well. One of the key lessons that I learnt from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is you have to maintain the balance between work and family. I also learnt how to remain focused towards your goals yet be kind enough to help everyone.

“If you don’t know where you want to go, how will you ever reach there”

If you are starting your reading journey, start with this magical book and I promise you would not be the same person. This book will crush your ego with kindness and teach you how to enjoy the little pleasures of life.

2. The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind:

As a child, I was always compared as my marks were average, and my skin color was quite dark back then. Honestly speaking, I don’t know how I used to look, I just remember that everyone used to say that “you don’t look as good as your cousin sister, maybe if you were a little fair then you would have looked better.”

The seed of doubt that people sowed in my mind made me believe that I can never achieve anything nor do I look good. However, after reading The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, I realized what is wrong with me.

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind introduces us with our brain and surprisingly we have two minds, conscious and subconscious mind. The author says that your subconscious mind is like a Jeannie who takes order from your conscious mind and makes it come true without any excuses.

You must be thinking if it is that simple then why do we suffer?

“The only path by which another person can upset you is through your own thought”

The answer lies in my story. As a child, when enough people told me that I am dumb and ugly, instead of ignoring those comments, I started believing in them. I started thinking about what people were saying about me 24/7 and that is how I made a belief to my conscious mind. And then the conscious mind passed the same belief to the subconscious mind. Subconscious mind did its jobs and found enough reasons that why I was not capable enough.

In simple words, your mind is like a garden. Whatever you sow, you reap. However, if you are letting other people spit judgements and doubts in your garden (mind) then you will reap negativity in terms of adverse results.

Just to extend my story, if I may, I have more than 22k followers on Instagram. Yes, a girl who used to think she is dumb enough, now people are listening her. How? Simply because I broke the barriers that I set on my mind. (you can check my page here)

I am not saying that totally impossible desires can come true or you wouldn’t have to work hard. You have to work but unlike before, results will be positive.

“Busy your mind with the concepts of harmony, health, peace, and good will, and wonders will happen in your life.”

With that being said, I want to give you a challenge to stop saying negative things about yourself, start ignoring negative judgements that people throw on you and from now on, do this:

• Each morning after you wake up, say to yourself looking in the mirror that “whatever I set my mind on, I can achieve’. I can do anything I want and I will make my dream life come true.

With this exercise, you will send a message to your subconscious mind that ‘you are strong enough’ and then your subconscious mind will find reasons why you are strong enough to achieve anything.

And this will be your first step towards achieving your goals.

3. The Compound Effect:

Before I started reading books, I had believed that if you want to become successful, you have to work your ass off daily, you have to sacrifice a lot of things and besides, you can also be successful if you take big steps daily. Probably, this is the ultimate reason for our procrastination. We imagine how much work we will have to do which overwhelms us and we end up doing nothing.

To change our perspective on success, and it’s process, ‘The Compound Effect’ comes into light. The Compound Effect shares the idea of taking small steps daily consciously so that they compound and reap big results in future.

Compound effects means how small and seemingly insignificant steps can lead to huge results in future.

Now, the results can be positive and negative both depending on the small steps you took. Let me simplify it for you,

For example: I wanted to be a top writer on Medium. Now when I used to think about it, I felt anxious. I used to think it will require writing exceptionally perfect blogs for years and what if people don’t like my work? But after reading this book I realized that I need to focus on writing only one blog post daily because that one blog post will compound in 30 blogs in 1 month and I will be able to achieve my goals. And boom! Today I am a top writer on Medium.

This is how you can shift your focus from ‘ohh I need to do a lot of work’ to ‘ohh I just need to do this one simple thing’.

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine”

‘The Compound Effect’ is a very simple, profound and impactful read. Unlike other books, it doesn’t stretch you beyond limits at once, in fact, introduces you with the idea of taking ONE STEP AT A TIME.

All these 3 books created a big impact on my life in 3 different areas like, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari taught me how to be focused, and maintain a balance in life. The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind taught me that whatever I believe, I can achieve. And The Compound Effect taught me that I don’t have to take extraordinarily big steps to become successful, I just need to take one step daily and that will take me miles.

I would suggest you read all these three books and I am sure your life will change for good.