TOP 3 BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

I have decided to just... let there be chaos.

I was meant to have a whole system for this social media thing, to make it easier after I spent months deliberating whether to keep it, before deciding on the affirmative. The system was meant to flow like this: I write a lengthy, beautiful, self-indulgent blog post on any topic my heart desired; I post the same article to my Instagram, albeit a truncated version to fit their 2200 character limit; and I film a Tik Tok video chatting about the same topic now that I've collected my thoughts on it. The system was supposed to make it easier for me to stay consistent with posting and have different forms of the same content, suitable for each platform. Anyway, that's gone out the window. I've somehow landed up with blog posts not shared to Instagram because I didn't want to water down my words to a few paragraphs, videos not filmed because I didn't couldn't put my untidy self on camera - and videos filmed, not even written down into blogs. I've got messy, scattered content across platforms. And goodness knows where Facebook even fits in to all of this - what are we supposed to put on there anyway? 

I thought I might like to go back and organize everything; fill in the missing posts and videos where I've skipped them, and get everything back to uniform. But honestly, maybe I just need to be okay with the chaos. Life will never be uniform and I can't sit with this unsettled feeling every time something is not perfectly organized... and boy, do I feel uncomfortable when things are even slightly out of order. It's a problem I've had for years. I put the margarine on the top left corner in the fridge. Always. I place my brown leather notebook on top of the white vinyl one without fail. The small rug in my kitchen needs to line up with the tile grout line. And I spiral when these things aren't exactly as I want them. Regulation is knowing how to return to baseline quickly even in the face of these disconcerting curveballs I might encounter... And honestly, I don't have very good regulation.

Maybe, the more I indulge my neurotic behavior by trying to force the world into my system, the more ill-equipped I'll be to regulate myself when things go haywire. Maybe, the more I expose myself to chaos, the more okay I'll learn to be in the face of daily disorganization. Who knows. But for now, it seems an overwhelming task to go back and organize all my social media, so the chaos may reign.

Now, onto today's blog post (which I already know I won't have the energy to turn into a video after this). For context, if it's your first time reading my blog - I used to be a medical doctor but then I became the owner of a publishing house instead, who is also an award winning author. Read on to find out more! 

May I be blunt about it? At some point I've read enough books that they've all sort of faded into a background of words and adjectives and metaphors, the next book indiscernable from the last one I read. Very few stand out in the foreground of this canvas of paperbacks and hardcovers that make my life. The ones that do, I've seperated into the categories that prop up the structure of my world, and these books serve as the manuals I refer to regularly: my top 3 business books, my top 3 fiction, my top 3 chick lit... my top 3 life changing.

For a book to have changed my life, it needs to have pivoted my trajectory. Stopped me dead in my tracks, grabbed me by the shoulders, and turned me to face a new path. Then pushed me down that road, whether I was ready or not.

At each sudden, lovely twist in my life, these are the books responsible for it:

3. THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS - DEEPAK CHOPRA

I'll get right to it. This is the book I read just before I quit my job. 

I would sit in my car during my lunch break - which was sometimes less than hour in a 48 hour shift - and devour the words instead of food (because there wasn't time to do both.) I worked in a hospital then - not a clean, equipped, functioning one like on TV. This one was in a state of despair that I think can never be gone back from, and so under-resourced that only a fraction of lives that could have been saved were actually saved. I wanted nothing more than to work in an inspiring environment, and pay that forward to everyone I met, and pull off amazing feats in conditions that fostered innovation, and have my own humanity and sanity prioritized too. Is it a selfish thing to ask as a healthcare worker?

This was the book that gave me the bravery - or maybe the peace - to give myself a chance at a new life. As soon as I was done, I went home and wrote my resignation letter, feeling like my dreams were ordained by the universe and there was no way I would fail if I followed them. I feel called to read this book for the 3rd time now, and something tells me it's the signaling of another fortuitous adventure about to begin.

2. CASHFLOW QUADRANT - ROBERT KIYOSAKI

We all know Kiyosaki from the now infamous Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And while that was once on this very same top 3 list, I'm not as basic as that anymore! This is one of Kiyosaki's more nuanced works that explains money like a system (and you know how my neurotic brain loves systems.) 

I don't think the fact that Kiyosaki is now a controversial figure takes away from the truth of the things he has written. I don't think that his friend's rich father now being revealed as a metaphor changes the concepts his first book tries to explain. I think that two things can be true at once: Kiyosaki can have used a ghostwriter on all his books, and they can still be very good books with valuable information - probably made even better by the fact he used a professional writer to convey his message, in my opinion.

I read Cashflow Quadrant at a time where I had just started a business. I slogged tirelessly, every day, every hour, trying to be every person this business needed - the person who answered the telephone, the person who did the paperwork, the person who edited and designed every book, the person who sold each book. It was only after reading this book that I realized I didn't own a business at all - I now just owned multiple jobs. My work (and financial) life became a simple, easy, convenient system that put out great books (and enough money to live a decent life) after reading this.

1. REALITY TRANSURFING: VADIM ZELAND

This book is not for everybody. I'm fact, I'll go as far as saying that this book is not for most people. 

For lack of a better way of describing its uniqueness, it's a 1000-page manifestation book written by a Russian quantum physicist, translated into English. For people who aren't knee-deep into this topic, this is utterly, without question, going to sound like the unending ramblings of a mad scientist. Think parallel realities, interstellar-style convoluted timelines, the mind and its relation to matter.

This is the book that convinced me anything is possible. I mean anything. Every large, difficult dream - nothing is off limits to me. The book starts off strong - we live, scientifically and objectively, in a world of infinite variables, which means anything I believe about my life is true. The limitlessness with which I now view myself is owed to this book.

Should I do other categories?

For more articles written by Keli H, the author, visit this blog's home page on keli-h.com

 

Keli H is the award winning author of the 400 series, which includes The Four Hundred Club and Splitting an Empire. The 400 series is high brow contemporary fiction revolving around the lives of wealthy circles. Keli's other works include Creating Literary Art. She is also the founder of The KREST House, a storytelling empire.