Mind the Beginner

I haven’t always been a lifestyle designer with a zen twist, it had to start somewhere and I can blame it all on a book that probably everyone who is into lifestyle design knows by now. The four hour workweek by Tim Ferris. This book opened my eyes to the possibilities of Internet and changed my view on “work”. This is not the only book however so I’m presenting you with a list of the books that had the biggest influence on me. Some of these I read before I read the 4HWW and although I wasn’t familiar with “lifestyle design” I guess I was already working on it. In no particular order these books are:

Tim Ferris – The four hour workweek
A book dedicated to lifestyle design. Promoting the 80/20 way of thinking and letting me know that my dreams can become real goals. If this book didn’t exist this blog might just have never existed as well. As I said, this book nudged me in the right direction and gave my way of thinking a name.

Shunryu Suzuki – Zen mind, Beginners mind
A small book about zen meditation and real life. This book tells you just about anything you want to know about Zen Buddhism that’s worth knowing. It was my first book specifically about zen and I still think it’s one of the best I have. I started reading about zen roughly two years ago and had my very first zazen meditation session on June 7th 2008. I’ve been meditation a year now and the changes are huge. I’ve become calmer, more focused and everything has become so much clearer.

Tony Buzan – The speed reading book
I bought this book yeas ago to learn how to speed read. Although I haven’t managed to reach my target of 1000 words a minute but my reading definitely got faster because of this book. In this information age we’re constantly bombarded with information, most of it in writing. How many hours a day do you read blogs, articles, websites, books, newspapers? This book has the power to cut your reading time in half easily. Or you could read twice as much in the same time. The normal reading speed for adults is roughly 200-300 words a minute. The record holder is Sean Adams with 3850 words a minute. There is wide gap there, even though you probably won’t reach the 3000 words a minute, even 1000+ words a minute will change your life.

Rolf Potts – Vagabonding, an uncommon guide to the art of long-term world travel
Although I’m not a vagabond (yet) this book showed me that travel doesn’t need to be expensive. I’ve always dreamed of traveling, this book has offered me the tools and tips to make those dreams into goals. I think this is one of the essential books to read for anyone into lifestyle design. And anyone who wants to become a Location Independent Professional (LIP) probably already read this one.

Peter Ralston – The principles of effortless power
This is the book for anyone who is interested in the internal martial arts. It completely changed my thinking about T’ai Chi that I was practicing at the time. I found a Cheng Hsin group (Cheng Hsin being the martial art that Peter developed) near my home and started training there. Although I haven’t trained in over a year now this book and the training changed the way I move. It’s hard to explain this book but if you practice aikido, t’ai chi or any other internal martial art please pick up this book if you haven’t already. You might also want to read this book if you dance for a living or are a physiotherapist.

Karen Kingston – Clear your clutter with Feng Shui
Although I’m not much for Feng Shui this book still provided me with some great insight. It’s this book that initially got me to minimalize my living space. Although it’s not minimal yet I’ve been working at reaching the 100 things I wrote about a few months ago. Do you have clutter in your home or do you know someone who is a clutterbug? This is the book for you. With 183 pages you can easily read this book in an evening. A warning though, if you read this book you will want to clear your clutter right away. It’s addictive.

J.J. Gibbs – Dancing with your books, the zen way of studying
I bought this book when I was struggling with the last part of my bachelor’s degree. Now I think of it and see an underlined passage, this book was the reason I started zazen meditation. The underlined passage: “On practice that should be incorporated into everyone’s program of study is daily meditation… The purpose of meditation is to relax and silence the constant internal dialogue that goes on in our mind so you can devote your full attention to studying.” I bought the book on March 23d 2008 (I have the habit of writing the date inside the book at the same time I write my name in it.) This book will change how you think about studying, it will become fun!

Michael Masterson – Automatic wealth for grads
Together with “Your money or your life” this book changed the way I think about money. I was terrible with money and squandered thousands of euro’s, I have no idea where it all went. But now I have an overview (down to the cent) of all my spendings, assets and liabilities. I live below my means as much as possible and have realized that it’s perfectly possible to eventually reach the crossover point (The point where the income from your invested capital surpasses your monthly expenses, your basic life necessities and all the components of your chosen lifestyle, are covered by your monthly investment income.) within my lifetime. Although both these books are written for people who work (the 9-5 grind) I plan on using the knowledge in this book to reach that point with my freedom business. One of the big goals in my life is reaching this crossover point.

Robert M. Pirsig – Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
The only novel in my list. If ever a novel had an impact on it’s reader it’s this one. From the back cover “The most explosive book you will ever read!” and I agree. This book will make you think about your thinking and about the world. Although I don’t have much to say about this book, if you haven’t read it yet, please do! This book made me think deeper about everything, taking nothing for granted.

What books influenced your life? What books should we read? Please tell us about the books you think we should read in the comments.

A few days ago Jonathan Mead (Illuminated mind) tweeted who would like to review his new eBook on their blog. I took the chance and tweeted back that I would like to do a review. Lo and behold, the eBook was in my email a few days later and I read it “cover to cover” straight away.

For those of you who don’t know Jonathan, he’s a blogger who isn’t afraid to go against the stream or to leave the stream entirely. To unstream as he puts it. Exposing our presumptions about productivity and life and challenging us to think before we actually (mis)take something for the truth.

So what is this book about exactly? The title gives a slight hint. “Reclaim your dreams” is a book about – and I’ll put it bluntly – stop caring about what others think and do what you want to be doing. Going into the army because your father and grandfather were in the army, now is that a good reason to enlist? Or is it peer pressure and indoctrination about how life should be?

On the inside cover we find several statements about what this book is:

• This is a declaration of authenticity, and act of spontaneity, and a call to live deliberately.
• This is an invitation to dream
• This is a permission slip to be ridiculous

He hit the nail on the head with those statements, this book really does grab you and shakes you about until you realise that you’re not actually living your life. Watching what other people do on TV, Reading about what other people do on Blogs, Listening to what other people do with Music.We read about it, hear it, see it, want it, but don’t act on it. The solution is all about getting out of your comfort zone and getting back in the driver’s seat of your life in stead of standing on the sidelines watching life flow by. You’re invited to dream and to make the dreams become reality even if they are ridiculous according to others. Who are they to judge you’re dreams? It’s your life and you’ll want to live it just the way you like it. Permission granted.

I had a look at my book collection yesterday and somehow it made me feel good. Knowing that just about every book there has passed through my hands and all the words have been read. Some times several times over. We’re talking about almost 6 meters (that’s 19 feet) of books I’ve read so far an most of them are informative. I’m not much of a fiction reader, although I must confess, some of the so called “self-help” books or books on achieving goals seem a total fantasy. Why would you want to work as few hours as possible anyway? If you enjoy doing something, is it still work? I don’t think so. Just enjoy your work and it’s not really work anymore now is it? It’s a hobby.

Books have a certain charm about them, all that paper and a bit of dust, the smell of glue in a new book and the feel o flipping a page in an old book. I don’t think that for me a kindle will ever truly replace my books. There is however something to say for gadgets like the kindle, to me the two most important would be the enormous amount of space you can save (remember I’ve got 19 feet of books, and it’s growing and inch or so every week) and the reduction in weight in your bag. I EDC (Every day carry) at least one book in my backpack. Most of the time this is a pocket, but even pockets can become quite big. My current EDC is Neil Strauss’ Emergency. It weighs 476 grams against the 289 grams of the kindle 2. One last big advantage to me would be all those nice eBooks blogers write. I don’t EDC my laptop and really would like to read those like a read my other books: in public transport or just sitting in the garden. I know a laptop is portable, but it’s not that portable. It reduces my enjoyment of reading.

The positives of getting a kindle (or some other reader, I’ll call it plugged reading) for me would thus be a space saver, a back saver and a way to read eBooks (without having to print them)

And now the negatives for me. First off, not all books I want to read are available as an eBook. Secondly my main source of books is the second hand bookstore. Books can be had there for just a few bucks and with some luck you even get a book with added notes in the sidelines from previous owners. The last bonus is that I can easily let friends borrow my books if they want to.

So for me the negative of a kindle  are the availability of books, the costs (not only of the books but also the reader itself) and not being able to share my books as long as my friends don’t have a reader, although my friends don’t borrow books that often. We now end up with only those two major drawbacks. The availability of books and the costs.

Would I love having a kindle? I certainly would! I have more than enough eBooks on file to keep me busy for a year or two. Would I buy a kindle? I would not, as long as I’m on a student budget that is, maybe some day when readers become cheaper and/or I have a decent income.

What is your opinion on eBook readers?