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I have read that two key ingredients to be happy are purpose and belonging. Without purpose and belonging, I don’t think we’d feel human or even animal. However, we are human, well most of us, I see you Google, but as humans, we think and desire on a higher level. This list helped me draw the relationship between my own actions, my performance, and my outcomes. This new mindset changed my level of happiness.

As a note, I write this as a thinker, a coder, a dreamer. I write this as a person who enjoys higher level concepts, emerging technology, but also things like a good game of chess. However, the books in this piece can apply to anyone: a parent, a teacher, an artist, a doctor, a business person, or even a garbage collector. If you read the books, you will find that it’s not exactly what you’re doing, but the pursuit of being the best at what you’re doing that gives you purpose, belonging, and happiness.

Deep Work

Deep Work is a book by Cal Newport and is described as, “an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.” If you’re into crypto, coding, writing, building a social following, or even just talking to friends on the phone, you may have realized how easy it is to become distracted. With technology came distractions and the line between productivity and down time became very thin. One click, one notification, and your productivity is at risk.

While much of Cal Newports tips may be somewhat obvious, he does a good job outlining the lifestyle you need to live to be successful in time consuming endeavors. He writes about things like riding your bike to work so your transportation time doubles as exercise. An alternative would be taking public transportation to read or study while you commute. Cal lived in a city so I realize this may not be an option for some but, nevertheless, the point is to find ways to change lost time into productive time.

Cal notes that some of the most successful people in their fields are hard to get ahold of. Being hard to get ahold of not only gives a person a shield against distractions, wanted or unwanted, but it also creates a threshold of how motivated the person is to get ahold of you. This comes down to something as simple as emails. Going beyond spam, if you can eliminate the conversations that aren’t serious enough for you or the person trying to get ahold of you, you have that much more time working on your own goals.

These are not the numbers from Deep Work but one study says people use 28% of their work time checking emails. Another study says we spend 2 hours and 27 minutes a day on social media. Cal says, if possible, delete your social media.

I put this book first not because I think it is life changing, but it is easy to read and sets the tone for the goal of the rest of the books, in a progression sense. If you’re going to take this literary journey, it is good to take with a mindset of making the most or your time.

The 5 AM Club

Getting up early increases performance and focus, it changes your mindset and alters physical and mental habits, and it gives you a head start on your day. That is exactly what The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma is about. This book has an actual story line and that itself is pretty good. However, my favorite part of this book is how it inspired me to get up early and start everyday for myself. Admittedly, it’s a routine that is hard to follow. However, when I failed, my mindset had been changed to still be productive that day and to try again for 5 AM tomorrow.

The story is about a successful business woman and an artist that meet each other and their mega rich mentor. The mentor takes them on a trip to show them the secret to his success, getting up at 5 AM. After rising at 5 AM, the instructions are to exercise for 20 minutes, self-reflect (something along the lines of prayer or meditation) for 20 minutes, then spend 20 minutes planning your day and longer term goals. It is possible you plan before self reflecting but I think the way I wrote it is correct.

The reason for this process, which at first may seem like torture for some, is to wake up your body, wake up your mind and soul, then spend 20 minutes to focus on yourself. This gives your purpose every single morning. Also, how you start your day sets the tone for how you spend your day. How you spend your days sets the tone for you spend your life.

I read this book to help me get over three years of working at night. At first, my 5 AM club activity was reading the 5 AM Club. I don’t follow the process religiously, but what it taught me can have a huge impact on a person. Everyday I wake up I immediately start doing things to make my life better.

Make Your Bed

Many of you may have heard of this book. The author is a retired Navy Seal. Make Your Bed, by Admiral William H. McRaven, says you can change your whole day by doing one simple thing, making your bed. After you make your bed, you get a small sense of accomplishment. After you make your bed, you want to brush your teeth, you want to make your breakfast, you want exercise, then you want to be the best you can be that day. If you do ten good things today, you’ll want to do eleven good things tomorrow. Next, you don’t just want to be good at basketball, at physics, at whatever, you want to be the best at basketball, at physics, at whatever. The Admiral attributes his accomplishment of the title Admiral because he made his bed.

Similar to The 5 AM Club, McRaven emphasizes how you start your day is how you will live your day. The book is a short read and at times it seems McRaven tends to stretch the power of making your bed. Nevertheless, his message is wise and acts as reenforcement for the philosophy of the 5 AM Club. Make Your Bed seems more focused on the structure and mentality of success while the 5 AM Club is focused on the self of success.

At first I was going list Make Your Bed before the 5 AM Club, for those reading the books in order, but I think it is better as a reenforcing idea from the 5 AM Club that when you wake up, don’t check your phone, don’t turn on the news, start living YOUR day.

Now, for the good stuff.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Peak, by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and science writer Robert Pool, is an in-depth study on what makes people the best at what they do. They argue that people are not born to be the best at something and, with exceptions, humans are all born with the same capabilities to achieve the same level expertise in any given subject or activity. Within reason, anyone can become a grandmaster chess player, anyone can become an olympic athlete.

At the core of this book is deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is challenging yourself to practice the aspects of your skill that you are not experienced with. Deliberate practice is not writing the same chat app over and over again, it’s not drawing the same picture with the same style over and over again, it’s not kicking the soccer ball the same way over and over again. Don’t get it wrong, repetition is necessary to be as good as you can be at any one thing. However, within any skill there are many skills. In order to progress, you must challenge yourself to step outside your comfort zone and get better at new things.

The studies in the book on the outcomes of deliberate practice are what support the idea that anyone can be good at anything if they put in the effort but also if they know how to practice to become better. Deliberate practice also negates the idea that if you put in enough time you’ll be good at something. It also claims that the perceived belief that the 10,000 hour rule is wrong. It is about the quality of time you put in, not the quantity.

Another amazing feature of this book is the insight on how the human brain responds to increased performance of given tasks. The effect on the brain is not just mental, it is physical as well. The London streets are very difficult to navigate. For this reason to become a London taxi driven there is a very rigorous acceptance process. Scientists found that the part of the brain associated with directions actually grew in London cab drivers. Not too long after retirement, that part of the brain began shrinking back to normal size.

The brain can also only handle so much activity. The best violinists lose sensation in their left palms (the one that operates the strings not the bow) because of the amount of energy the brain needs to focus on the finger tips of the left hand. The physical change here is that not only does the part of the brain associated with the finger tips grow, it actually takes energy that would have otherwise gone to the nearby parts of the brain associated with the palm.

The concept of limited brain power goes back to Deep Work and organizing your time. If you’re trying to become a Vitalik, Renoit, or Michael Jordan, your brain simply will not operate the same as it would if you check every notification you receive. These concepts are reflected by Carl Jung, Romanticism, and the deep level of concentration in temples and monasteries.

Peak Is possibly my favorite book on this list. I found in the references of Deep Work. I found the next book in the references of Peak.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, goes into the pyschology of the physical and mental work described in Peak. Mihaly doesn’t just go over the why of flow, but the how. I would call this the enlightenment of this five book journey.

Flow demonstrates, with supporting arguments and studies, that humans experiencing peak performance are happier than in any other state of mind. Peak performance doesn’t have to be jumping to catch a winning touchdown against a top rated NFL defense or masterfully taking the final for your masters in engineering. Flow can happen in every day activities. One older woman, I believe in rural Italy, walks miles uphill to collect water for herself. In doing so, she finds a sense of purpose in life. However, the experience she reports is similar to the highest level mountain climber while he scales a cliff. Flow is the experience when time feels slow but when it’s over, it seemed to go by so quick. Flow is the experience of when you forget the rest of the universe but somehow feel more connected to it than ever before. The way to flow is deliberate practice. The result of flow, is happiness.

Flow is the toughest book to read in this bunch, but if you read the other books and practice what they preached, reading Flow may just give you the feeling of flow.

Reading as a Pathway to a Higher State of Mind

I ordered this list for anyone who follows it to experience a change of time management, a change of focus on self, a change of performance of self, then, ultimately, a realization of self and happiness of self. After writing this blog, I think another good order may be: Make Your Bed as a brief intro to the effects of adding structure to your life; Deep Work to help with organizing time to have a structured life in the modern world; The 5 AM Club to change the focus to self progression while practicing the lessons on structure; Peak to learn how to become the best at what you do; and Flow to reach a higher level consciousness as a result of the success of your life changing journey.

These books helped me go from unmotivated to diligent coder, writer, researcher, and networker. I am far from perfect and there are people who have not read the books that can execute success far better than me. But the knowledge and experience I got out of these books undoubtedly changed me to be more productive and helped me find deeper purpose and belonging.

I hope you liked my list and enjoy the readings if you choose to indulge. Writers and readers are hard to come by so please leave a comment with your favorite books. Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my Zentaurios Profile for more of my blogs. Or, even better, write a book list of your own and tag me in it. Let’s connect.

Thank you for reading. Keep reading.

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05:12 PM • Aug 18, 2022

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