Feb 2024 Reading List: 3 of 19

How did we get here? Interestingly enough I hit a wall. More of a realization plateau. *Queue backdrop*. I've always enjoyed creating content. There are a ton of benefits from a professional standpoint. But I just enjoy the process of taking something from your mind and putting it into the world.

The wall, as I mentioned before was in the way. But something that I also do is go from hot to cold. I love something one moment, the next I'll hate it. For example, there was a time when I loved cereal. I would eat it every day, then at a moment's notice, hated it.

I consider myself a disciplined person but only within certain aspects i.e. work, fitness, etc. I never applied that same discipline to my writing nor treated it with the respect that it deserves. It has always been just something extra.

Here's the plan. Read more. Pretty simple. I believe the process of becoming a great leader is recognizing what it takes to follow. With that in mind, I want to read more as an exercise to improve my writing. Does that make sense? So I am reading again across the topic spectrum to learn different styles of writing and all that jazz. Things that I am interested in these days i.e. self-improvement, investing and asset management, friend recommendations, history, health, business, and anthropology.

There are about 19 books (some pictured above) on my shelf and I will share my progress as I complete each book.

Also, I was taught a while ago by my grandmother that," One of the most selfish things anyone can do is hoard knowledge." With that ingrained in me, I always give the books away as I complete them, so feel free to call dibs on any of them.

To track my progress, I'd like to share a few books that I've read this year with summaries. It's a little for everyone lol.

Choose to Win by Tom Ziglar

The first one is to choose to win by Tom Ziglar.

Yes. The son of the famous. Zig Ziglar. The first of the motivational speaking gurus of Ode. I don’t recall how this book made it to my Amazon cart but here it was. I burnt through the pages in about 8 hours across a week.

The biggest two lessons I pulled from the book included:

1. Replace bad habits with good habits.
2. You have to check in with yourself across your whole person including career, physical, family, spirit, mental, and more. We are complex beings that have to work on ourselves in segments.

I recommend this book to anyone who needs a little motivation at the beginning of something new. Changing your life is hard and I commend anyone who puts themselves out there to take on the journey. I learned a lot about breaking my problems down into actionable steps, GETTING OUT OF MY HEAD, AND GETTING OUT OF MY WAY. Yes, I am yelling in the last sentence.

How to Play Texas Hold'Em Poker by Steve Hartman

Throughout the years of my career, I have grown to learn how important it is to network and build new relationships constantly.

As I’ve continued down this path, I heard two common things from people I look up to and seek sage advice from.

You should learn to play golf. Do you play poker?

I am not sure when these activities became the boss levels (think of Bower in Mario 64) of networking. But hey let’s rock.

I grew up in Detroit and there’s the PAL league that sponsors local sports leagues. I was in PAL and golf was on the docket. Also, my father is an avid golfer. Like he golfs A LOT, so it’s in my blood but it just never stuck. Maybe I will get back around to it. So the next option is Poker.

Poker has always intrigued me but I don’t like to gamble. I look at it as another arena for the battle of the minds if you will.

I went through this book twice in three days. I downloaded Championship World Poker to confirm my newly developed skills. I played a few rounds and felt like I knew what I was doing. Then I deleted the app lol. This will be a leisure thing. An easy reason and you learn the rules of the game once applied. Now, learning how to create your poker face isn't included. If you want to learn to play Texas Hold 'em and the basics. This satisfied that goal.

Single on Purpose by John Kim

This was a recommendation from a colleague, and it was a home run. WOW. I read this book once and went back immediately to reread a few chapters.

Self-development is an interesting topic to read about because everyone has their perspective and individual journey. This was different. I learned a lot about how to frame questions as you continue down your journey.

A few things I loved about the book. It doesn't end. It's not necessarily a huge cliffhanger, but the journey doesn't end. It's a reflection that we as humans are constantly growing, learning, and living. You shouldn't expect to have everything figured out. No matter your age.

Highlights

• Those internal conversations with yourself can be the biggest coach or poison to yourself.
• Instead of asking why you're not happy, or to seek happiness. Ask yourself when was the last time you liked yourself? Then ask yourself how you can not recreate that moment by living in the past but reconnecting to that feeling for your present self.
• Serve yourself and always be in pursuit of creating new experiences. I connected with this concept. I've heard this with a different language i.e. pour into yourself. I think we all can get swept away in our responsibilities and obligations while denying ourselves which diminishes our joys. You should never feel bad about doing things that you enjoy.

I recommend this book to everyone. It's in my top 5 books of all time.

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