This is one of those books that can almost seem too good to be true. I mean, come on, a 4 hour work week? Is that realistic? Well, if your goal is to work 4 hours and relax the rest of the week, absolutely not. This book is for driven people. People who are willing to work hard, but work hard on things that make a difference and maximize profits.

This is one of the most practical books I’ve ever read. My favorite parts are the challenges that are at the end of each chapter and the tools and tricks section which provides tons of resources to help make your life easier!

If you don’t want to work a 9-5 for the rest of your life in a cube and are only working to provide an income for a descent retirement, this is a must read book for you. Tim Ferriss is brilliant. This book will help you live the life you dream about while still being productive, making a difference, and making a great living.

Here are some highlights:

• At least three times per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active?
• Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.
• Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
• Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.
• Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.
• What would you do, day to day, if you had $100 million in the bank?
• If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
• What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear.
• Retirement planning is like life insurance. It should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the absolute worst-case scenario:
• I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. —HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE, American editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize
• Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life. —JOHN F. KENNEDY
• The goal is fun and profit.
• Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. —OSCAR WILDE, Irish dramatist and novelist

This is another book I read because it had such a huge impact on John Maxwell’s life. It was only a few bucks on Amazon and the insights I got it were incredible. The entire book is about the power of your thought life, how your thoughts form who you are and who you’ll become. I really enjoyed this book and I know I’ll be coming back to it often. I read it in one sitting so it’s a pretty easy read as well. I’d definitely recommend it.

Final Grade: 9.5/10 Buy it hereHere are some key takeaways:

• A man is literally -what he thinks, -his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

• every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought

• Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err

• His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.

• Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

• It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities;

• Suffering is -always- the effect of wrong thought in some direction.

• Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

• A man cannot -directly- choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

• The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the, entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.

• Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.

• UNTIL thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.

• He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

• ALL that a THE dreamers are the saviors of the world.

• Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.

This book was a recommendation from one of my mentors, Jeanne Mayo. She recommends it to everyone she knows, she’s read it more than any other book she’s read, and she gives this book out more than any other book. Obviously – I had to read it.

It was a great book that really focuses on getting your mind in tune with the Word of God. The book is based on Phil. 4:8 which tells you what your mind should be thinking about all the time. I found this book to be very practical. It provides a lot of questions to ask yourself and a lot of exercised to get your headed in the right direction when it comes to your thought life. We all have a battles going on in our minds – thoughts fighting for our focus and attention. This book will help you focus on the right ones. An excellent read, and a must for a leaders bookshelf.

Final Grade: 9/10     Buy it here

Some Highlights:

• All lasting change is preceded by changed thinking
• The secret conversations you hold in the privacy of your mind are shaping your destiny little by little
• Right thinking is a choice you have to make for yourself the rest of your life
• Your life here on earth is your special, unrepeatable opportunity to fulfill God’s vision for your life and to magnify the joy He has placed within you.
• Live each hour as if your full potential has already materialized
• Emotions don’t reveal the quality of your life; they reveal the quality of your thinking at any particular moment
• Do not affirm what you do not want in your life
• When you allow God’s word to permanently occupy your heart and mint, in inevitably shapes your desires and goals.
• Worry is when you trust your fears more than you trust God