"The man who does not read
has no advantage over the man who can't read."
Mark Twain
In this video I'm going to cover the five books
that are going to help transform you
from an average procrastinating student
letting your potential die with you
to the A-star,
exceptional student
that has mastered studying, that has mastered discipline and good habits.
And that's why I decided to work with Motivation 2 Study,
to find out what are the most important books for students to read.
And it doesn't matter what age you are,
or which type of student you are
Whether you're in school, college, university
or you're just a lifelong learner.
These books are going to help you no matter where you are.
And these books have been picked
to help you with the common problems you all face
that we see in the comments of these videos
procrastination, laziness, low energy, distractions.
So how do you become productive,
and what are the books that are going to help you
to stop that laziness
and activate and unleash that potential inside you?
The first book is Mastery by George Leonard.
This is a book that is going to draw on Zen philosophy
and help you with the lessons from Martial Arts
to understand what is the journey going to be like?
The journey of Mastery, what does it look like?
Because when you understand the path that you are going to be walking
You're able to navigate the pitfalls,
you're able to escape the traps that
90% of the other people are going to fall into.
So that your path immediately becomes easier.
The second book is relatively new and it's by James Clear.
And the book is Atomic Habits.
And he presents an easy and proven way to build effective, good habits
with the least amount of effort
and the highest amount of reward.
And one of the key principles that James Clear talks about is
you need to find out what your minimum viable habit is.
And that means
when you're trying to create a habit of waking up early
and studying in the morning
don't try to do the most complex things first.
Instead, think about what the simplest starting point could be
what is the minimum viable habit?
What is something that is so easy to do,
you could do it in just two minutes?
And then from there keep increasing it,
keep graduating those habits
just like you graduate in the classroom.
Until you go from two push-ups a day to a thousand.
The next book
is one by the motivational master Eric Thomas
The book is The Secret To Success
It's a short book, it's a straight to-the-point book.
It's punchy, it's motivating.
It's everything that you would expect from ET
and it's going to help you to understand
one; the journey that Eric Thomas took
to go from a high school dropout
to an internationally renowned best-selling author.
But it's also going to help you to understand the steps and principles
that Eric used to become the person that he is today.
The next book is one called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Now we all know being a student on the surface seems easy
but in practice can be difficult.
When you're sat there in the library
and you're flicking through your phone one extra time
looking at Instagram or any other social media.
How do you stay focused and how do you stay creative?
Well in this book
Elizabeth Gilbert goes through the process of how fear and creativity work
and how the two of them influence your work.
And alongside this the next book
is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
And in this book he talks about the difference between the amateur
the part-time player who shows up when they feel like it
which some of you are
The part-time player.
You revise when you feel like it.
You give a 110% when you feel like it.
You put your hand up in class when you feel like it.
And in between the amateur and what Steven Pressfield calls the pro
is resistance.
Now you can use the word resistance, you can use the word procrastination
you can use the word distraction
but it all references the same obstacle.
But how do we get past that?
These two books are going to help you to do exactly that.
Let's think about why should you even read in the first place?
Why is it something that is going to help you?
Now this is from somebody who I never used to read
when I was at school despite the encouragement of teachers
despite even knowing that it is something I should do
I could never bring myself to actually do it.
So what was the difference?
I'm now in a position where since I've left university,
since I've left school, college, my education behind
I actually study and read more than ever before
and the thing that has really helped me
to make that transformation, to take that leap
has been to look at it not just as reading
but as having a meeting with the author.
So whether you admire Eric Thomas, Gary Vaynerchuk
or any of these other self-help gurus
imagine when you are reading
you're spending one-to-one time with that author.
Now this might not be true,
but that person, that individual over decades of experience
has sat down, taken notes
on the most important things that they've learned
and then structured it so that you can take that shortcut.
So the question is not why should you read
The question is really which books should you read?
And the problem is there are so many books out there
and they are not all created equally
so you could be reading, but are you reading productively?
There's actually another four books that I wanted to include
but the video is getting extra long.
So if you want to find out what those are
go to the link in the description and you can download a free pdf
to find out what they are.
And if you want to know
are you fulfilling the potential that you have as a student
Are you a dabbler?
Are you a master?
Or are you the shipwrecked castaway?
Click on the link in the description and you can take the free quiz
that will help you to find out, but other than that
have you read any of these books?
Which book are you most excited to learn?
And what lesson do you most need to learn?
Because a lot of people ask me which book should I read?
Well, what do you need to learn?
What is the next step that you need to take?
What, where are you stuck with your studies?
Because that will determine the education that you need.
This was Keshav Bhatt
for Motivation 2 Study.
Peace