The 10 Most Mind-Blowing Books I've Read

Anybody who knows me, knows that I adore reading books! My mentor loves to remind us that readers are leaders, and I reckon she's right. 

After much deliberation I've whittled my list of mind-blowing books down to just ten. These books completely changed my worldview, or inspired me to transform my life and health.

If you click on the title of the book, it will take you to The Book Depository - my favorite online bookstore. They have millions of titles (including ones that are hard to find in conventional bookstores) and free shipping to most countries in the world (but not Tonga, sadly. I save up my orders for when I'm in Australia). These links are affiliate links, so if you do make a purchase, I receive a small percentage.

1. E-Squared by Pam Grout

I bought this book less than a year ago, and I've already read it five times!

It is fascinating, entertaining and profound, all at once, and the "experiments" have the potential to change your life.

2. The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder

It doesn't matter if you're a health nut or a complete newbie, this book has it all. It explains how our bodies work, and how to look after them so we can look and feel awesome.

If you only ever read one book on health, let it be this one.

3. The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

This book is decades old, but it's wisdom is timeless. It teaches you how to harness the power of the mind to create the life you want.

It's brilliant, and I re-read it at least once per year, hence why my copy is tattered and missing it's covers.

4.  Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Have you ever stumbled across a little old book that looked kind of plain, but when you began to read, it completely blew your mind? This little book was like that for a me.

 It is written as a non-fiction story, but the message is so profound I had to keep putting it down, so I could digest the meaning and let it sink in.

5. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss 

More than anything, I love a book that challenges the current paradigm and looks at the world from a different angle to the one we're used to being shown.

 This book is all that! I love it most, not for the business insights and resources (which are great on their own) but the reminder of what is possible.

6. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

If you are in business, or thinking about going into business, you need to read this book. Seriously. I say this from hard-won experience. This book provides the template for building a sustainable business and teaches you how to work ON your business, instead of IN it.

Buying this book will probably turn out to be the best investment you ever make in your business. Have I mentioned that you need to read this book?

 

7. The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto

I've been delving into quantum physics and metaphysics for a while, but this book was mind-blowing, especially some of the author's theories on the Universe and energy fields.

This book also contains stunning photographs of how our words and thoughts affect water molecules (and in turn affect us, and the wider world).

8. Spirits in Spacesuits: A Manual for Everyday Mystics by Sean O'Laoire

Ok, I confess. I borrowed this book from a friend more than six months ago, and I still haven't given it back. He's overseas, so that's my excuse for treasuring this book as long as I possibly can.

This revolutionary book really opened up my mind to a different perspective of God, life, the Universe, the Bible.

9. Don't Get Mad, Get Wise by Mike George 

One day, I was in a bookshop and I only had enough money to buy one book. This was the one I chose. It turned out to be perfectly suited to the situation I was dealing with at the time.

This book teaches us how we can choose to be at peace, no matter what is happening around us or to us. I still use these principles in my everyday life.

10. Not On The Label: What Really Goes Into The Food You Eat by Felicity Lawrence

I've read many books exposing the food and drug industry, but years later, this one still stands out as the one that shocked me so much, it forever changed the way I buy food.

This one is based on the UK food system (although most of it applies to the entire Western world). For an expose on the US food system, try reading Fast Food Nation. 

What books have really blown your mind or changed the way you see the world (or yourself, for that matter?) Let me know in the comments, because I would love to have a read. If they're mind-blowing enough, I may even be obliged to re-arrange my list...

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When You Know Better, You Do Better...Or Do You?

When You Know Better, You Do Better...Or Do You?

When my children were babies, I loved to watch the Oprah show. I would settle myself on the couch and feed the baby, while watching Oprah interview famous people, and wax lyrical about life and love.

I often heard her say: “When you know better, you do better”. I thought it was true. I certainly hoped it was, anyway.

But time, and a growing self-awareness, has taught me that nothing could be further from the truth.

When you DO better, you do better.

Let’s face it, most of us already know what we should be doing. You know that cheeseburger is not really “food” and has no business being in your mouth, but you eat it anyway. You know that staying up until 3am watching movies will make you feel and act like crap tomorrow, but you stay up anyway. You know pro-wrestling is a big phony scam, but you watch it anyway (Ugh! Say it aint so!)

I once read a statistic in a self-help book – only 5% of people who read self-help books will actually do anything with their new-found knowledge.

The other 95% will probably move on to another self-help book, hoping it contains the magic key that will make their lives better, never realizing that they are the magic key. Knowledge is not power – it’s potential power. We are the ones who bring the power part to the equation, when we put the knowledge into action. We are the vital link that transforms knowledge from potential into reality. 

I say that from experience, because I’ve been one of the 95% for much of my life. I’ve bought so many self-help books, read them, agreed they offered good information…then put them on my shelf (or rather, arranged them, based on how they “matched” the surrounding books according to color and size, then stood back to admire how they looked on my bookshelf. I know, one of my little quirks!) 

And while I did what 95% of people do (go from book to book, or workshop to workshop – without implementing the information from the last twenty-eight books and workshops), I got the same results as 95% of other people. 

That is, floundered in debt, dabbled in this new idea, scrapped that project when it didn’t work right away - one step forward and two steps backward – never achieving the mastery, or applying the consistency, required to make anything really succeed. 

Philosopher Herbert Spencer, once said “The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.” 

I couldn’t agree more.

No book, or seminar, or “expert advice” can change your life - YOU change your life. Knowledge without action is like waiting for the electricity to cook dinner for you. Electricity alone is pointless, without somebody (you) to harness it, and apply it in a practical way. 

It can be easy to fool ourselves with the illusion of growth and improvement, by reading lots of books, attending lots of seminars. Real growth and improvement are the result of practice, not knowledge alone. We become better through DOING, not by simply knowing. We master skills and habits by DOING them, not by simply knowing how to do them. 

Knowing how to meditate will not make me adept at meditation. Knowing what to say will not make me a good public speaker. But knowledge + practice will.

The school system rewards us for having knowledge, but in the real world (the “School of Hard Knocks”, as my dad likes to say), we get rewarded for RESULTS, and that requires putting knowledge into practice, then honing it and working on it and experimenting with it, until we achieve a level of mastery. 

Acquiring knowledge is easy – the internet has made information more accessible than ever - but transforming knowledge into results requires dedication and practice and patience. That is the process that sifts out the truly committed from the wishful thinkers, the men from the boys, and the wheat from the chaff.

The desire to learn and the quest for knowledge has been the driving force behind every great inventor, artist, philosopher, political leader and spiritual guru. But if they took the knowledge and stowed it neatly inside their brains – what would that benefit the world? 

Likewise, your knowledge offers no benefit to you, unless you actually do something with it. Your life doesn’t improve by accumulating information. It improves when you improve…through practice, practice, practice. 

Knowing + Doing = RESULTS

Knowing + Doing = GROWTH

Knowing + Doing = IMPROVEMENT

How To Accept Your Self and Your Life...."As Is"

I've always been a fairly "ambitious" person - it seems to come with the territory of being a Capricornian.

Not that being ambitious is a bad thing, per se, but ambition seems to come with an inherent sense of dissatisfaction. Ambition says I want more. I want better. I want bigger...

It's something I've struggled with - how to strike that balance between aiming high and dreaming big, while accepting and being grateful for where I am right now.

During the last 12 months, a recurring theme running through my experiences, has been the need to accept what is.

Accept my life as it is right now (and not for what it may be in the future).

Accept myself as I am right now (and not for who I'll be one day...).

Accept people as they are (and not for who I wish them to be.)

I've done a lot of thinking and soul-searching on this issue, and though I still have a ways to go, I wanted to share some of the epiphanies and realizations that have been helpful to me, in learning how to simply accept what is.

1. The realization that everything that happens to me is a gift.

This is just as true for the experiences that we might label as "problems", as it is for the experiences we enjoy and strive for. 

Struggle, disappointment, sorrow...these are gifts that allow us to fully experience and appreciate their opposites. We cannot fully experience (let alone appreciate) happiness if we have never experienced sadness. There is no such thing as abundance, if there is no lack. One gives meaning to the other.

2. The knowledge that, on a soul level, I chose this experience.

I attracted this! Our conscious mind might never have chosen disappointments or sadness or loss (in fact, we would probably avoid it at all costs), but our soul (our true self) attracts and manifests the very situation we need, in order to learn and grow and become the person we were meant to be. 

I just finished reading "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach, and among the many quotes I loved, was this little gem:

"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in it's hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."

Our thoughts create our reality, so if my circumstances are not to my liking, there is no point in railing against God/the economy/the government/the people who annoy me/the weather/the "elites"...etc, etc, because I, and I alone, am responsible for my thoughts and the way I perceive and react and experience this life.

This is both sobering and liberating, all at once.

3. Remembering that we cannot change the past, but we also cannot change the present.

It is what it is. Sure, we get to influence what happens next, but we simply cannot change what is right now. It is futile and draining to even try.

For so much of my life, I have struggled (in vain, I might add) against what is. I have railed and resisted, not realising that you strengthen that which you resist (kind of like being a sparring partner for a champion boxer. Each round we resist him only strengthens him and allows him to perfect his technique further...). What a relief to finally stop resisting and start going with the flow!

4. Reminding myself that nothing - that's NO THING (or NO BODY, for that matter) - can affect me or control me...unless I choose to allow it.

I can choose to struggle against or I can choose to accept. 

Either way, the choice is always mine.

It's called free will. It's the most powerful - and most under-utilized - choice in the Universe. The power to choose our own thoughts. Too bad that so many of us unthinkingly concede that power to people and circumstances outside of ourselves. "He made me so mad..." (Nobody has the power to "make" you feel anything. Only you can do that!) and "She left me with no choice..." (Stop right there. You ALWAYS have choices. Even Nelson Mandela, inside his prison cell for 27 years, had choices. He was free to choose forgiveness or hatred. Anger or peace. And the moment he realized this, he became free-er than many people who have never seen the inside of a jail-cell...)

5. Realizing that I may not be perfect...but I'm perfectly where I should be.

The beauty of life and humanity and nature, is that it is constantly evolving, ever changing...such is the way of things. I am not the same as I was yesterday, or last week or last year.

I, too, am changing and evolving with the great cycle of life.

Rather than always looking ahead at how far I've still got to go, it's okay to sometimes look back and see how far I've come....and know that everything is perfectly as it should be. 

I am a work-in-progress, perfectly imperfect, beautifully flawed...

Trust the journey.

The Gift of "Failure"

In my last post, I wrote about the gift of struggle.

This post, I want to write about another gift, this one disguised as “failure”.

I recently read a remarkable little book, called "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah", and one of the great quotes in it says: “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in it’s hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts…”

As expected, we had to close our shop. Aside from the work involved in packing up and moving out, and the natural sense of disappointment that our plans didn’t work out…there was the added insult of having to bow and scrape to the landlord, in order to break our contract early. 

He said some rather complimentary things, like: “You’re from Oz. I thought you knew what you were doing!” (Ouch…)

After that particular meeting, I hid in the bathroom and sobbed.

So, we packed up and brought our stuff home, with our figurative tails between our legs. If ever you wanted an example of “failure”, then here it was!

So, I spent a few glorious days doing next to nothing, but being a Capricornian, "next to nothing" soon becomes excruciatingly painful, and I had to dream up some new projects to work on. 

Now, here is where it starts to get interesting. Here is where the mask of “failure” begins to slip and it’s gifts are revealed.

Without the time and energy involved in being away from home every day, and the stress of worrying over how to pay the rent each month…I discovered a new lease of creativity and energy. 

Today, I sat down and wrote a list of all the positive results that came about because of  this particular “failure”.

1. I got my first e-book published.

While I was running the shop, I started writing an e-book, about how I cured myself of hyperhidrosis - which is really a nice, polite name for that unfortunate condition where you sweat like a stuck pig on a hot afternoon....even when you are not a stuck pig....and it's not a hot afternoon. 

Basically you sweat profusely, whether you're cold or hot or anywhere in-between. Even some of my closest friends didn't realise that I suffered from this problem. I just learnt to hide the damp patches under my arms, by wearing dark-coloured clothing.

I spent more than 4 months writing and researching and editing and formatting and perfecting and......then it all came to a crashing halt, because I couldn't figure out where or how to publish it.

But since I'm now at home with a brand-new internet connection, I figured there were no more excuses, and so I got serious about getting my e-book out to the world.

I am super excited to announce that, as of today, my e-book is listed on Amazon. You can check it out right here. 

I'm pretty proud of this work, because in all my years of searching for information on how to solve this problem, I could not find one single product or piece of advice that dealt with the CAUSE of the problem. It was all about how to hide the problem with deodorants or suppress the problem by cutting out your sweat glands or injecting botox into your armpits.

So, my book is quite a revolutionary piece of work, and although I hope to earn some income from it, I hope more that people will be helped by it.

2.) I started writing what may be Tonga's first ever cookbook.

Tonga is facing some really big health challenges right now. The vast majority of Tongans are overweight. Non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer are starting to explode, and placing a huge burden on an already ill-equipped health system.

As far as I can see, the number one reason for this is diet. The average Tongan eats a lot of meat and a lot of starches and simple carbohydrates (like white bread). Apart from the starchy root vegetables like taro and yam, the average Tongan eats hardly any vegetables.

But I'm aiming to change all that! There were two reasons that inspired me to write a recipe book based on vegetables.

a. While I was running the shop, I began to meet more and more Tongans who expressed an interest in becoming vegetarian. They were either trying to stay vegetarian, or thinking about becoming vegetarian, but 100% of people agreed that it is very hard to be vegetarian in Tonga. The foundation of Tongan culture is the sharing of food. Unfortunately, all family meals, celebratory feasts and cafe meals seem to revolve around meat.

This is a terrible shame, because vegetables are now widely available, through the large market in town, or little roadside stalls out in the villages. And they're incredibly cheap, and often organic. For example, I can buy a large head of cabbage for $1 Tongan dollar (about 60c Australian), or a bagful of vine-ripened tomatoes for $3 (about $2 Australian). Meanwhile, meat is about $10 per kilo...

b.  Since becoming a vegetarian earlier this year, I've become really creative with my cooking, experimenting with different herbs and spices and ingredients. My meat-loving husband recently commented that my cooking now is the best he's ever tasted. My Tongan in-laws often hang around the kitchen, in hopes that they'll get some vegetarian leftovers.

This got me to thinking: If more Tongans knew how to cook vegetables in a way that is not only delicious and filling, but CHEAPER than the meat meals, then more people would start eating them.

I've been experimenting with recipes and taking photos, and I'm aiming to have it available for sale here in Tonga before Christmas this year, and published in both English and Tongan.

3. I'm still selling products, but my expenses are a tiny fraction of what they used to be.

Recently I held a stall at a night-market which promoted women in business. During those four hours I sold about a week's worth of products...and it only cost me $30 to hold the stall, rather than the $450 it was costing me each week, to rent a shopfront.

We've started to get a little trickle of orders via phone and email, and we plan to promote that more. We also plan to take our products to the big produce market in town one day per week, as suggested by one of our customers. 

4. I'm much more relaxed.

The stress of finding the $1270 rent money every month, and constantly trying to re-arrange my shelves so they looked less bare, was a burden that I'm glad to be rid of...

It also helped that some dear people offered to help us out financially, so that we could get our ute fixed, and overdue bills paid. They know who they are ;-)

5. I'm free to do what I choose

Having a shop meant that I met a lot of people, made some great connections and had a lot of lively and interesting discussions with lively, interesting people. That was my favourite part about running a shop.

But it also meant that I was stuck inside a room for 8 hours every day, and was unable to even go for a walk in the fresh air or go and sit under the trees. In the beginning, we agreed that my husband and I would share the job of looking after the shop, but somehow it ended up all me, as my husband found himself helping out family members and working on building projects.

I missed nature, and I'm making up for it now, by going for walks and heading to the beach with the kids.

6. I became a leader

I've spoken about my mentor before. She happens to be a New-York Times bestselling author. I met her on Twitter, and was so motivated and mind-blown by her tweets, that when I noticed her talking about mentees, I knew I just had to be part of the action!!

That was over a year ago, and her group of mentees has grown to over 150 people from all over the world. We set goals and dream big, and always she is supporting us, encouraging us, and speaking words of greatness over us.

We're currently embarking on a 60 Day Gratitude Feast/Negativity Fast. Each day, we are required to do a different task, designed to inspire us to hold onto that attitude of gratitude.

So anyway, recently, I had a brainwave that we should have our own site, that it was time for us mentees to step up to the plate and start taking some responsibility for the group, and that our bigger vision was for each one of us mentees to go out and mentor someone else.

In our group are all manner of visionaries and entrepreneurs - people who are already making their mark, and doing good things in their corner of the world, so I felt a little bit hesitant that I should be the one to take the initiative, but I emailed my mentor anyway...

She loved the idea, and asked me to set up a sample site. Which I did, and you can find it here.

It's still in it's baby stages, but amazingly, it's already getting quite a few visitors each day, although it's only new, and we haven't yet told anyone about it!! I just know this is going to be a tool that will reach more people and make a positive difference, encouraging people to fulfil their potential, and become all that they were created to be.

7. I'm at home with my children

Last, but not least, I now find myself in the enviable position of working from home. Every stay-at-home mother will agree that being with your children 24/7 is no piece of cake. There's tears and tantrums and fights and mess...

But there's also the most exquisite moments that would otherwise have been enjoyed (or perhaps overlooked) by someone else. There's cuddles, there's new words being learned, there's playing and laughing, there's happy memories being made of times spent together.

..............

So, if this is "failure", then I welcome failure any day of the week.

I've come to realise that "failure" and setback and disappointment are not signals to quit. They're invitations to get creative,  look at things differently, become better.

Like my mentor tweeted recently: "Our environment is never against us. Every ocurrence, good or bad is the very condition needed for our unique, individual development."

So, wherever you are on your journey, if you feel like you're a "failure", dont. Keep your eyes peeled, because it's only a matter of time before that "failure" mask begins to slip and the gifts are revealed.

8 Books I'd Actually Pay For...

stsIt's no secret that I'm a book-lover, and I like nothing more than to curl up with a good book.

Especially a good self-help book. The possibility of learning something that might change my life and my relationships is just irresistable to me...

But....I'm a real tightwad when it comes to buying books, because I can borrow them from the library for free.

However.

Occasionally I come across a book that is SO good, that the library just doesn't cut it. I want to keep it on my bookshelf, so that I can refer back to it, over and over again.

And admire how it looks on my bookshelf.

Gasp. Did I really write that?

Anyway, my latest discovery, is one of those books.

Mars and Venus Together Forever by John Gray, has completely changed the way I look at my husband. And his infuriating habit of coming home and plonking in front of the tv, and pushing up ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz's.

And I understand myself so much better too.

If you are in a relationship, or one your way out of one, please get hold of this book.

These are some other (self-help) books that are on my list of Books I'd Actually Pay For:

 - Life Beyond Limits by Rik Schabel. This book is powerful, and puts "The Secret" to shame...

 - The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. If you are in business, or thinking about it, I beg you to get hold of this book.

 - The Universal Heart by Stephanie Dowrick. This was the book that launched me onto my journey to discover my own happiness, and not rely on others to provide it for me.

 - The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. An absolutely eye-opening look at how the "other half" live.

  - Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. You can't go past this book for explaining the basics of money, and how to make it work for you. Work smarter, not harder.

Now, I'm not an expert on books, by any stretch of the imagination, so if you think there are others that should be on this list, please leave a comment below. I would love to check them out.

Obviously, different books will strike a chord with different people, depending on what our life situation is, but I feel sure you'll get great value out of all the books above. If you do read them, please leave me a comment to tell me what you think.

Whoops. Forgot to list this one: The Magic Of Thinking Big by David Schwarz. An oldie but a goodie. I need to re-read this one, for a big fat dose of motivation.

Also The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason. Another oldie but goodie. Thanks PointView. I was tossing up whether this should be on the list. Maybe because I don't own it at the moment, but I definately would, if I could get it at the right price.

Oh, dear. There's my inner tightwad coming out again.

Mind Over Matter

Lately I have a read a lot of finance/entrepreneur books, and one common theme is that the right attitude is critical if you want to succeed or build wealth.

Now, I have always thought of myself as a pro-active, positive person, but I have come to realise that I have a bit of a "struggle-street" mentality when it comes to money. I never have as much as I'd like to have. We cover bills, but that's about it.

So I set about to change all this.

On the first day of this year, I started this blog, and since then I have rediscovered my passion for writing. Being a mother, I have put my family first, and forgot about myself, but this one little thing, is something that I do for me. The enjoyment I get from this, has spilled over into the rest of my life, and I find myself much more energetic, passionate and alive.

I think this has made it easier, to change my thinking. I started getting up in the morning, with a conviction that good things were going to happen today.

And you know what?

Good things did happen!!

Every single day, since I started this "experiment", good things have happened to me. One day, I may have one or two new followers on my blog, or even a new idea of how I could improve on something. This may seem miniscule to someone else, but this is exciting for me, because it is another step in the direction that I want my life to take. I notice it, and I feel thankful.

One day, an old work colleague, called out of the blue, and said she had a heap of second-hand clothes from her grandsons to give to me. My son and I had a wonderful time going through all the "new" clothes. Not only that, but I now have more than enough for my boys, and will give some away to others.

The day before yesterday, I had to ring the insurance company for another matter, but while I was on the phone, I noticed something on our account, and asked about it, and I got $45 off our insurance premium. Not bad for a 10 minute phone call. Also, that day I got a great idea for a new blog I'm starting up, that I'm really passionate about.

Yesterday, my husband brought home a letter from work, to say that the unions had negotiated a 10% pay rise over the next three years. But not only that, it was effective from July last year, so he will be back-paid from then.

This morning I got up, and went to do some banking online. When I had a look at our account history, I saw that $18.70 had been deposited as share dividends. So what, you think? Well, these shares were given to my husband last year ($1000 worth of company shares) because their workplace had performed so well in the previous financial year. So, in effect, we earnt $18.70 without any extra effort on our part, which is really exciting to me.

Do you see what I mean? Every single day, good things have happened. Maybe they are only little things..

But, from little things, big things grow.

Obviously, you could apply this to any area of your life: your relationship with your spouse, your kids, your career, anything, but for the purposes of this article I have concentrated on finances.

Now, you may argue that these things would have happened anyway, whether I believed or not.

Maybe.

But who cares?

Because I have grown a thankful spirit along the way. Instead of worrying over what I don't have, I have concentrated on the good things that are happening for me. And once I began looking for them, there are so many...

A book that really explained this so well for me, was Life Beyond Limits by Rik Schnabel. About how like attracts like. If you had a guitar next to another guitar, and they were both tuned exactly the same, and you plucked one of the strings on one guitar, the same string on the other guitar would also vibrate sound. Why? Because they are both at the same vibration, and like attracts like. If you are an angry person, you will probably attract people around you who are also angry people, and you will all feed off each other's anger.

(A quick note, the book mentioned above is real little ripper of a book, and I'm currently scouring around online for a copy to buy, because I had to reluctantly take my copy back to the library and pay $3.20 in overdue fees...Am finding it a bit hard to get hold of this book, so be warned. Well worth the effort, though. I would consider this book one of those rare life-changing books.)

I think one of the key things is gratitude. You will notice a lot of new-age books regularly refer to "the Universe". Personally, I think this is just a politically correct way of saying "God". Every night, before I go to sleep, I remember to say Thank You to God, who is the Giver of all things. Why on earth would He give me more of anything, whilever I am busy concentrating on what I'm lacking?

I realise some people will have tuned out once they got to the last paragraph and read the word "God". Maybe they thought, "Aha. So there's the catch".

So be it. I can only write what I believe. To my mind, it's all interwoven, and you can't separate the cause from the effect.

For some further interesting reading on this subject, have a look at Steve Pavlina's Million Dollar Experiment. You can even join in and participate in the experiment, yourself.