Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 7 MUST READ Self Improvement Books For 2021

Episode Date: January 22, 2021

These 7 books have helped shape they way I look at the world. From inspiration to mindset to being methodical with my goals, to daily habits, they are the roadmap to a happier, healthier and more meaningful life. 0:00 Intro 0:54 Relentless by Tim Grover 1:57 Start With Why by Simon Sinek 2:52 Essentialism by Greg McKeown 3:45 The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday 4:57 Atomic Habits by James Clear 5:59 The Martian by Andy Weird 7:40 Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey

Today I want to share with you seven must read books for 2021. So over the past few years, I've read hundreds of books. And I thought it'd be cool to condense them down into like a seven book roadmap or comprehensive journey that give you the tools and the concepts and the ideas to conquer whatever it is you're seeking to conquer, right? To get from where you are to where you want to be. And so I'm going to dive into seven books to talk about, you know, building a winning mindset, that talk about understanding who you are, that talk about removing the things that you're

not chasing adversity in life and turning it into potential, building sustainable habits, making the world work for you, and just kind of holistically puts you in a better place. And I think these are the best books to do it. They're powerful and effective at what they do. So without further ado, here are what I believe are the seven most important books to read in 2021. The first book I want to start with is Relentless by Tim Grover. I like to start any journey off or any process off with mindset, understanding that that's the foundation, understanding that your perspective becomes your reality. And this is probably the best book on mindset I've ever read.

Tim Grover's Michael Jordan's trainer, Kobe Bryant's trainer, he's trained Dwayne Wade. And you get a firsthand look at how these guys, how these champions approach life, how they approach their goals and their dreams and the tenacity. with which they get up in the morning and just tackle what's in front of them. The beauty is, obviously, it makes you reflect on your own life and think to yourself, do I really want this? And if the answer to that is yes, what things can I change? How can I be more and be better in specific areas?

How can I go all in to become what Tim Grover calls a cleaner? When it comes to mindset, this is certainly the book. And so I recommend you pick this up. I think you'll get a lot from the perspective that's offered. here. The next book is Start with Why by Simon Sinek. And this is a critical read because if you don't understand your why, if you don't take time to think about what's important, what excites you, what makes you happy when you jump out of bed in the morning, what creates your meaning in life, well, we tend to wander around and live lives that aren't conducive to being happy and healthy

and successful. And so that's what this book is about. He uses a lot of business references, but it applies as well to individuals in our own pursuits. It's like a lot of people, he says, can answer what do I do? And a lot of us can answer how I do it, but we don't understand why we do it. And when you get to the why, you're able to draw a direct line to your goals. You're able to really live in a way that is just, it's life to the fullest. And this book helps you unveil that why so that you can live that way. So start with why, Simonson.

The next book is Essentialism by Greg McCune. And this, to me, goes hand in hand with start with Y. I feel like they're made for each other. So Simon Sinek helps you find your Y. Greg McCune says, all right, yeah, now let's move away those things that are not your Y. This book really helps you live a minimalistic, simple, but effective lifestyle. There's just too much that we deal with. There's too much minutia and chaos and extra detail.

And from, you know, what you're doing every day to your closet and what's around you in your home, to the amount of sleep you get, you know, he does a beautiful job of saying, let's clear out the nonsense and let's hone in on what matters so that we can get there effectively. So Greg McCune, essentialism, definitely a must read. So the next book I want to talk about is The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday. One of my favorite modern-day authors, and he used his stoic philosophy to bring his points to life. And if you're looking chronologically at what we've discussed, relentless being mindset, Simon Sinek start with why, being finding what's important, McCune's essentialism, being cutting away the things that aren't important, living effectively. Well, now what?

You kind of dropped into life and you realize, wow, things aren't how I drew them up, right? Life is, in fact, hard. What do I do? And Ryan Holiday in this book emphasizes, yeah, it's hard, but guess what? It's supposed to be. And it's in attacking that that you find value. It's the adversity that gives you the opportunity, right? It's the obstacle that creates the path.

And so using examples from Washington and Grant to even coaches like Nick Sabin to actors like George Clooney, he highlights how they use that stoic philosophy of tackling the difficult thing of going in when most people are running out to create better lives for themselves. And this book is fantastic at demonstrating that. Highly recommend The Optical is The Way by Ryan Holiday. So the next book I want to recommend is Atomic Habits by James Clear. And honestly, it felt impossible to leave this book off the list, right? It's so practical.

It's so valuable. And I guess that's why it's still on the New York Times bestseller list today, right? There's so much value. And, you know, they say that, you know, your habits become your life. That's all reality is. It's the habits that we create for ourselves. And I think James Clear does an amazing job of taking that Goliath, that thing. We're so scared of and we see that monster looming over us that is change.

And he says, look, it's not a big scary thing. It's manipulating your environment to work for you. That's all it is. If you want to do less of something, put obstacles in the way that make it harder. If you want to do more of something, remove those obstacles. And so this book is filled with ideas and tactics that you can implement direct. into your life to help you build sustainable habits that over time obviously transform your reality and I think that's why this is such a powerful read and I

would recommend it to anybody atomic habits James Clear the next book I want to recommend is the Martian by Andy Weir one of the best books I've ever read and it's the only fiction on this list but don't be mistaken there's so much value packed into this book that you could argue it easily surpasses anything else on here right the the idea is Mark Watney and maybe some of you've seen the movie. He's an astronaut. There's an emergency where he's left for dead.

His crew has to leave him on Mars and he's there with a few resources. Always one mistake away from death. And you see this man continually keep his optimism, keep an upbeat attitude as he's rearranging what he has to simply get to tomorrow. There's catastrophe after catastrophe and instead of bowing down or succumbing to it or saying, hey, this isn't for me or it's over, he finds ways. He finds the one way to get to a win, to get to tomorrow. And that persistence, I won't give away the ending just in case, but that persistence drastically alters his probability for survival. And I think it's a critical message

for us. Whether you're an entrepreneur, which I think is, I mean, it's the same thing. That is the essence of entrepreneurship or an individual where life's not very different. Things happen. things collapsed around us, you know, one, what's your attitude? How do you perceive that adversity? And two, are you using it to create a small win and push yourself simply to the next step? Because that ability to create next steps for yourself, to just hang on, to keep going with what you have, sometimes makes the difference. And this is a beautiful reminder. So The Martian by Andy Weir, definitely check it out. So lastly, Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey. I got this book a little over a month ago, thought it'd be a good read, and then I'd go back to sort of reality.

Never in my life that I think I'd be sitting here telling you it's one of the best books I've ever read. And it is. I mean, it's transformative from his inspirational insights, his poetry, his storytelling, just the grasp he has on what it means to succeed in life, to thrive at what you do. It really blew me away. And I think, you know, it's number seven on this list for a reason. It's sort of the manifestation of all these concepts that we talked about. From the mindset to succeed, he came from humble beginnings, to finding your why, acting, to cutting away the things that are not you, the things that society pressures you to be, to understanding the obstacle is the way. It's the title of the book, Green Lights, Finding Red Lights and Making them Green in Life, to building sustainable habits, which he certainly did, that gave him the leg up in a lot of these roles.

that he got, particularly as a young actor, to maintaining that positivity and finding the win, even in our darkest moments. All of these things come to life here in such a brilliant, fun way. And I'd strongly recommend reading this for not only that knowledge and not only the insights, but the inspiration. You see that really anybody can do anything when they are persistent, when they have the right mentality, and they're willing to give everything they have, to write it out until the results start to materialize. So Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey, definitely, definitely check this out.

So I hope you found value in that overview, and we'll find value in those books. I can tell you they've certainly played an enormous role in my life and how I look at the world and how I think about what's in front of me, and I certainly wish the same for you. So thank you for watching. Talk to you soon.