can we just appreciate how perfect this lighting is for a second I'm so excited about this lighting
hello welcome back to the bliss beam in today's video we're gonna be talking about books I used
to be absolutely obsessed with reading I read entire books in one evening my parents were
worried about me ruining my vision and I did ruin my vision but I don't know if that was the books
but all that changed probably around when I hit middle school and homework became a thing but
then in high school I kind of started learning more about all the different kinds of books that
are out there feeling in the nonfiction and like self-help genre that's what I'm super interested
in - on to the book recommendations so the first book is 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by
Stephen Covey or the version that I read which was 7 Habits of Highly Effective teens by his son Sean
Covey I'm not entirely sure what the differences between them are the habits are the same I guess
the explanations are just different also the teen version has this cheesy cover of a pair of
earbuds hanging out of jean pockets but I'm sure they both present basically the same information
so I'm just gonna recommend both of them the 7 habits basically cover how to manage your life and
succeed at life so some examples are be proactive put first things first think win-win obviously
those are just the chapter headings and they go into a lot more detail but they're actually so
practical and helpful one of my absolute favorite lessons from that book and basically the only one
that's really stuck with me since I read this book years ago was this metaphor that they use
to explain how to make time for everything in your life and prioritize so basically they said
imagine that your life and like the time that you have available is a jar and then all of your
commitments and responsibilities or things you want to do are in the form of big rocks pebbles
and sand so those big rocks are big projects like writing a book starting a business the smaller
rocks are smaller projects maybe like homework assignments that you have to do for school and
then the sand is very little things like they can definitely still be important things but they're
just short and flexible and don't take a lot of time so when you're trying to fill your jar if
you start with the sand those little minutiae and little odds and ends you're gonna fill it up like
halfway and then the rocks are not gonna fit I know this is a weird metaphor but stick with me
on the other hand if you start out by putting the rocks in your jar the biggest and then
the smallest and then the sand then the sand will kind of fill in all the little grooves between the
rocks so basically what this is saying is that you need to prioritize the biggest things in your life
you need to actually block out time for them and then let everything else fall into place around it
next up is the body book by Cameron Diaz yes the actress there's always like speculation whenever a
celebrity writes a book like did they really write that book or did they hire someone I don't know
if she wrote it I would hope so but it doesn't matter who wrote it because the material of the
book is what I'm going to comment on I really like this book because the advice was just so
straightforward and simple and it wasn't focused on like weight loss or trying to look a certain
way or anything like that it was literally just like here's how your body works here's the biology
explained in the most basic terms and here's how you can help it function better and so that you
can feel better I'd say some of it is a little bit basic but like if there's something that you
already know just let me skip over it it doesn't matter I know I'm also the type of person who
feels like they have to guess in the entire book and read every single part of it but it's okay to
skip parts that aren't helpful to you one little anecdote that I really liked from this book I have
a very fuzzy memory of it so I don't even know if I'm gonna tell it correctly but basically Diaz was
hanging out with some world kids that sounds weird just like younger relatives or kids she knew and
they decided to run up this hill together they ran up the hill and they were like sweating and out
of breath and the kids were like oh my gosh they felt really good that was really fun we should do
that again and she took the opportunity to explain to them she was like I make sure to do something
like that every day that gets my heart beating because it feels good and energizes me and I just
really appreciated that super like bare-bones look at what exercise really is because I feel
like a lot of times you just get too caught up in like the aesthetic benefits of exercise how is it
gonna make me look and we forget the fact that it actually just makes you feel good and that's the
primary reason why you should be doing it I think viewing it that way makes it more enjoyable and
makes easier to stick with okay next up the 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferriss so Tavares is this really
unique really cool guy um I don't know I just feel like he lives life on a different level than most
of us do but basically part of it literally does explain how one might set up an online business
that you only need to put in about four hours or so of work into but a lot of it is more like
time management tips and productivity techniques and just kind of teaching you how to recognize
what is inefficient and unnecessary in your life like meetings that could have been emails emails
that never needed to be sent in the first place long winded phone calls just a lot of things that
we've kind of come to accept in the day-to-day of our working lifestyles but that maybe if you
look at it closely really aren't necessary so well I think a lot of the book isn't applicable
to everyone's lives like not everyone and not a lot of people have the flexibility to get some
sort of remote job or completely quit their job and take the risk on an online business I think
what you can pull out from it is this attitude of like taking charge of your time and not accepting
the way that things are normally done just because it's the way that things are normally done instead
trying to figure out how things could be better and more efficiently done the next book is also by
Tim Ferriss it's called tribe of mentors basically he interviewed a bunch of really successful people
and asked all of them the same questions and then compiled it into a big book I think the
magic of a book like this is that it's so full of different kinds of information that even though
that everything will apply to you something will one thing that I noticed from this book was that
almost everyone mentioned one of these two things exercise and meditation like literally after
reading that book you'd think that exercise and meditation are the recipe for a happy productive
and successful life and I don't know maybe they are but it was just really funny how often you'd
flip to a new interview and this person would be like I do plyometric exercises for 30 minutes
every morning and then I do Transcendental Meditation for two hours a day you would not
believe how many people mentioned Transcendental Meditation I'm still not really even sure what it
is after having read the book but apparently a lot of successful people do it so the next book
is she means business bike and I actually do have a copy of this book Carrie is pretty amazing she
started the female entrepreneur association and so this book is basically a road map for how to start
an online business it's really really extremely motivating it guides you through all of the steps
gives you actual like real life examples of how she applied her own advice to her own business
and there's a 30-day challenge at the end that I didn't actually do but it seems really cool
and really helpful so if you've ever thought about doing this online business thing this
modern infopreneur thingy thing um definitely a good book to check out next is big magic by
Elizabeth Gilbert I picked up this book because I read Eat Pray Love and I really liked it and also
the cover was really pretty basically this book is just a really really interesting perspective
on what creativity is and what ideas are and how ideas come to you and how you bring them to life
one of my favorite bits of advice in this book was a little bit counterintuitive and I think that's
why I liked it basically she said if you have a creative passion that you're following don't quit
your day job because of it because she says if you expect your creative passion to turn into your
career you might grow to hate it because you're being forced to like squeeze every last drop out
of it and try to make it earn a living for you and you can't really enjoy it the way you did before
it was just like a side hobby I also really like her perspective on fear and how she talked about
how fear is a natural part of life and you should have it in your life but you shouldn't let it be
in the driver's seat because you don't want it to control your life you just have to keep it in the
back seat next is the power of a positive note by William ury I read this book because I need
to learn how to say no and I think I've gotten better at it and this book definitely helped
I personally thought it was a bit long-winded but the basic process that it explains is that
instead of saying no you say yes no yes I'm so the idea behind this is that before you say no
you have to kind of get clear on what it is that you actually want in life and how that doesn't
align with whatever someone is asking of you so you have to first say yes to the things that are
most important to you then say no to what is being asked of you and then you to start the process of
reaching a compromise by saying yes um so the book gave a lot of really good real-life examples of
this the author of William ury has actually been involved in like a lot of political negotiations
which was really interesting to read because I think a lot of the people who read this book are
just reading it to apply it to like problems at work in their personal life but it's crazy to see
that these same techniques actually get applied to huge international conflicts and it's still the
same principles that are guiding people my last recommendation is kind of more of a fun one it's
the rookie year book and there are four editions of this book so I'm reading I've only read the
first one but it was amazing and I'm sure the rest are amazing as well so if you've never heard of
Tommy Kevin sin' I was a little bit obsessed with her in ninth grade basically she started a style
blog when she was 11 and probably less than a year she became a celebrity of sorts she got really
really well-known she was attending fashion events around the world getting interviewed by the New
York Times about her blog and when she was 15 I believe she started a website called rookie and it
was a place for teenagers to share writing and art basically as cheesy as it sounds it was by teens
for teens I just learned that they have since stopped updating the website which is sad but
it was amazing amazing amazing and it's still up so you should check it out the rookie year books
basically compiled like a year's worth of content from their website their best articles photography
things like that and the way the book is formatted and laid out is just the most beautiful thing
definitely the most aesthetically pleasing book I've ever read so not only is the content itself
amazing which is the way that it's presented is so incredibly inspiring so yes highly recommend that