5 Books That Changed My Life Forever

I have read a LOT in my lifetime. I have always loved and have been interested in self help, psychology, and business books. These have always helped me grow and develop both personally and professionally. Over the years I have read some books that have fundamentally changed the way I think and act in my life and I wanted to take some time to share a few of those books and the reasons why they changed my life. Here are the 5 books that have fundamentally changed my life forever.

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“Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”

When I was first starting in nature photography I read this book and it changed my life forever. This book surrounds business and has amazing stories of success and failures surrounding companies that know their how but not their “why”. I applied the lessons in this book to “why” I started in nature photography, eventually started my business, and how I continue to operate moving forward. I wanted to use my pain and suffering that I experienced with depression, anxiety, and suicide contemplation to inspire the world around me. This is the reason I am so open to sharing my story and my experiences with everyone I encounter. Simon Sinek is an amazing and inspiring individual and if you don’t know your “why”, this book will help you in the search for it.

 

“Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain

Quiet was a book that fundamentally changed my self awareness. I went to a Tony Robbins concert right before I read this book and it made everything make sense. I actually struggled deeply with all the extroverted aspects of the concert and I could not figure out why until I read the excerpt that Susan wrote on her experience which mirrored mine almost to a tee. We are so used to living in a world that celebrates extrovertism that introvertism is downplayed in a lot of ways. This book touches on introvertism and ambivertism (extroverted introvert, which is what I am). This book really made me examine my entire life, including my childhood, and helped to explain a lot of the aspects of my life I didn’t understand prior to reading this book. I highly recommend this book to figure out your personality traits towards extroverism and introvertism and fully embrace the beauty of your personality!

 

“Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds” by David Goggins

I have always been drawn to stories of people that became successful despite every having the deck stacked against them from the start. David Goggins had a horrible childhood and he talks about the struggles he had to endure with an abusive father and the ordeals he had to overcome from being subjected to this. He went from not even being able to run a couple miles to finishing 100 mile races and obtaining the world record for pull-ups. This book shows that with determination, effort, and will we can literally accomplish anything we put our minds to. David Goggins is an extreme version of drive but that’s what makes this book so alluring, you don’t need to be David Goggins to accomplish amazing feats, you just have to push yourself to your limits mentally, emotionally, and physically.

 

“Halftime: Moving From Success to Significance” by Bob Buford

Halftime is the book that made me want to take the leap in moving from a corporate gig to running my own business. Bob Buford talks about the first half of your life and how it should be spent trying to climb the ladder as high as you can and building as much success as you can in your life. That is followed by the second half of your life which should be spent giving back and teaching others which is a different form of success. He contends that each decade should be more significant than the sum of all of your previous decades because you are giving back and touching the world around you that much more as your life progresses. I could not agree with this more. This also gives you hope and faith that just because you’re getting older does not mean that your life is becoming worse or less significant than it had been. This is a life changing book for faith, purpose, passion, and meaning.

 

“12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos” by Jordan B. Peterson

12 Rules For Life is my favorite book that I have ever read. Jordan Peterson uses great anecdotes and stories to convey his thoughts with the main underlying theme that life is suffering, marred by malevolence and nihilism. He contends that the way we combat this is through purpose and meaning. I have seen this played out in my life completely which is why I love this book so much. He also talks about the yin and yang of life: order and chaos. He reiterates this throughout the book and states that putting order on the chaos is the only way to move toward meaning and purpose. This book is extremely dense as Jordan Peterson is one of the most articulate and complex thinkers that I ever read. I try to keep my reading of this book to about 25 pages at a time to help absorb the content. This book has changed my life in more ways than I can ever say and I hope it does the same for you!

 

That’s my list of the 5 best books that have changed my life! I hope you seek these books out and they can help you in many ways as well! Feel free to drop some comments on your thoughts below!


Cheers,
Jeremy Janus

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