5 Books for Building Life-Changing Habits
Change is subtle at first, before it becomes illuminating.
If you want to trigger a life-changing transformation in your life, you have to step into your leadership role and become the ultimate creator of your reality.
To master your own destiny is to understand how to be present, because everything that matters happens in the present moment.
When I say “step into your leadership role”, I don’t necessarily mean to lead other people, but to get into the habit of being in the driver’s seat of your own life. This means taking full accountability for your thoughts, words and actions.
Yes, books help, but the most important thing you need to do if you’re serious about changing your life is to put into practice what you learn and allow yourself to advance every day.
Now let’s get into the list!
These are 5 books that accelerated my personal evolution. There are, of course, plenty more that I’ve already finished and learned from, and plenty more to discover as I move forward in my journey.
If you’ve got a recommendation, please share it in the comments.
1. Atomic Habits, James Clear
If you only have time to read one book about improving your habits, it has to be Atomic Habits. It’s a game-changer even from the first read!
Why is ‘Atomic Habits’ so impactful? Because it gives you a cheat code as to how to turn your life around.
What’s the cheat code? You start by re-defining your identity.
So many people fail their New Year’s resolutions because they pick random, shallow goals that are in no way connected to one’s identity or their current lifestyle.
In order to change a big aspect of your life, you have to change your whole environment in order to make room for the improvements.
This means if you want to add a fitness habit, to pick a common goal as an example, you have to also look at your diet, your sleeping patterns, your work-life balance, your social circle and everything else that may potentially disrupt the flow that’s needed for establishing this change.
2. Effortless, Greg McKeown
Imagine you had to complete a marathon. It was a sunny day, but not long after the start, the weather shifted. Big, grey, stormy clouds brought a gloomy atmosphere and soon enough it started raining. Oh, and the winds were not in your favour.
Now let’s say that the “marathon” is your life. Would you complain all the way to the finish line, ignoring all the helpers along the way and all the opportunities to make this a memorable journey? Or would you embrace the lighter way of living and laugh it off as you continue to make progress towards succeeding?
‘Effortless’ makes the argument that we make life difficult. But it also gives plenty of evidence that we, too, have the power to make life easy.
Sure, there are plenty of complications, detours, wrong turns and mistakes. But, ultimately, it all starts in our mind.
The moment you shift your mindset is the moment everything changes.
In the difficult moments you find reasons to be grateful.
In the periods of loss you find things to look forward to.
In the seasons of alienation you discover a renewed sense of interconnectedness with the rest of the world.
3. Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The state of flow is the state of limitless creativity and endless joy. It’s also the state of presence that children have when they’re consumed by a game of hide & seek with friends or simply putting together Lego blocks on the floor in the living room.
Entrepreneurs, artists and scientists are also quite familiar with the state of flow, even if they don’t realise it.
To be in a state of flow is to have access to ideas, knowledge, joy and peace that seemingly come from someplace else.
In the state of flow, we dedicate ourselves to making things happen by channelling our most natural talents and strongest acquired skills.
Reading ‘Flow’ is like reading a manual on how to maximise your productive time without sacrificing your inner balance.
Remember that building life-changing habits is not about bringing more stress into your life, but about restoring the inner balance that you were born with (I know, we all entered the world crying, but deep inside of us we had no traumas or conditional programming just yet!).
4. The 5AM Club, Robin Sharma
Structure makes habits stick for a long time. Structure also helps us re-design our whole lifestyle, opposed to picking up and mastering habits one by one.
While ‘Atomic Habits’ is about looking into the kind of person you want to be, ‘The 5AM Club’ gives you the kind of thinking that’s going to help you change the script of your day to day reality.
From the moment I finished ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, I’ve been a huge fan of Robin Sharma’s style.
While I’m still struggling to get up at 5AM, now I understand the power of having habits in your daily routine that give nourishment for your whole being — body, mind, heart and soul.
We are not simply the exercise we do for our body or the books we read for our mind. We are so much more, especially when we dedicate time to explore what really makes us happy and spend more time doing it, hence nurturing our heart.
And the soul? Well, that’s all about adding a habit with a spiritual element to it in order to unlock your innermost power, presence and wisdom.
5. The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier
Remember at the start of this post, I said:
If you want to trigger a life-changing transformation in your life, you have to step into your leadership role.
In other words, if you really, really want to change your life, you have to become your biggest cheerleader, your most trusted advisor and your own best friend.
Changing your life is not easy. When it gets tough, because sooner or later you’ll enter unfamiliar territory, you need to be able to trust yourself and keep yourself accountable when the temptation to give up and “go back to where you came from” shows up.
Resistance is part of the process. But when your mind is equipped for the resistance, it makes things easier. You learn to dismiss the negative thoughts of doubt and fear, and instead apply messages of unconditional support and encouragement.
‘The Coaching Habit’ helps you have the tough conversations with yourself when you’re unsure how to proceed forward. And once you master the questions in the book, you can start applying them when talking to other people — it’s a win-win!
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