Quick little life story....
I have been an obsessed reader for decades now. It started back in about 2002 or so, when I read two books. The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries. These books changed my life as I knew it and since then, my nose can always be found in a book.
So this Friday, my family and I take possession of our new home and if you are familiar with the life of Jongo, you'll know it's been quite an adventure to get to this point. My life came tumbling down around 2017-2018 when after 17 years of being in business with them, PayPal literally shut me down. Long story short, I lost my home and have been rebuilding my life since.
So with this move comes part of my favorite aspects of 'moving' and that is...I get to set up my personal library / home study room. Which means, I get to dig out all the books I've been reading since 2002 and put them back on the shelves. They've literally been sitting in boxes since we lost our home.
(Here's my old home study / reading room from my home that I lost)
You may laugh at this, but to me...I'm on cloud 9 and I can't wait to get unpacked and moved into my 'sanctuary' of sorts lol. But things may be a little different this time around, and here's why...
I saw this meme / graphic online this past weekend. And in the past things like this always captured my attention. Mainly because I wanted to see how many books that were listed, that I have actually read. But also to see which ones I might buy on my next trip to the book store.
Look at the headlines for each skill...Productivity, communication, business, self help, relationships....I mean it seems like a pretty good list right? And my personal library contains a bulk of these titles already....
But what's different for me these days is that I can master each one of those skills and learn pretty much everything I need to about each with this:
I used to laugh at people that said, the bible can change your life and answer pretty much every question you need answered....But here we are!
I look at that image of all the skills I can learn from those 50 books and they seem to check off right inside the bible...
Critical thinking, it's there. Human behavior, oh wow is it ever in there. Discipline, that's easy to find. Business, read some of the torah to find that! I mean up and down that list of 50 books, I can find it all answered inside the bible.
Sometimes when I'm talking with my atheist and agnostic friends, instead of throwing them right to the gospels, I start off with them like this...
Want to read the greatest personal development book in the history of mankind?
Read Proverbs! And I've actually seen an agnostic friend start diving into scripture so much more because of the 'ah ha' moments he had while reading Solomon's masterpiece.
I get it, it's a stretch for some that may not have given the bible a chance. But wow, my passion for this book has reached another level. And what's funny is, I'll be able to fill my personal library with books again when I move in this week to the house...The shelves may look a little different though from years past :)