A friend asked me what books I have read or re-read in the last few years that might have made the most impact on my life. I thought it’s a good opportunity to reflect back on life and take notes of the books I’ve re-read so far, how I started meditation, and other resources.. Before I get into the resources—I’d like to share my short journey starting pin 2017 which I have never written about.
Now, let’s the story begin!
Year 2017
In February of 2017, I found myself saying why it always happens to me. The woman I was dating for a few months had broken up with up me. I was emotionally devastated. I had hit the rock bottom emotionally. It always seemed to be the same story—the girls I wanted to date parted their ways after sometime. I told myself—I have had enough and now no more.
I started searching on YouTube something along the lines of “how to find love or how to attract a woman”. I don’t remember the exact keywords—you get my point. I stumbled upon Coach Corey Wayne and his teachings changed the direction of my life. I have never been the same since then. I started listening to his audio book and recognized all the old patterns and beliefs, which were not serving me. I listened to his book 18 times in just 3.5 months. I started to gain confidence with women. I must say that building confidence in any skill takes time. Gaining confidence with women didn’t happen overnight. I started going on bunch of dates, kept failing, kept rising, and changing my approach.
I used to practice approaching 10 different women every day to start the conversation just enough to keep going. Repetition is the mother of skill. Initially, It was super scary and I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t stop and kept going. Any skills development takes times through hardships, failures and rejections. I wrote about my dating experience extensively in this blog post Dating and Relationships: Rejections, Confidence, Alpha Male, and Self-Reliance. You can read his book for free by subscribing to his newsletters. To this date, I have listened to this book 57 times and almost every day—I watch his YouTube videos while eating dinner. Again, repetition is the mother of skill. Confidence in one area gives strength and courage to build confidence in other areas. As a super introvert myself—my confidence with women started to show in different areas.
In the September of 2017, I applied for a job and negotiated for 30% salary increase.
I was about to turn 30 in July 2017. This was the only book I had ever read in the Personal development and Self-help world. As the saying goes—“What you don’t know, you don’t know”. Coach Corey Wayne always mentioned the work of Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer in his YouTube newsletters. As I was learning to unlearn my old patterns and seeing changes in myself, I decided to buy Tony Robbins book Money: Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom that gave me new insights about investing money in S&P500, index funds, and much more.
Somewhere around October timeframe, I bought Jim Rohn’s books
I wanted to learn the sales process and applied for a part time, and to my surprise—I got a part time job in a trampoline store for 3 months that paid me $15 per hour. My goal was to learn the sales and not to make money as my full time job as a software engineer was more than enough to pay my bills and live a good life.
Also, I started Japa meditation Getting In The Gap Meditation with Dr. Wayne Dyer and making bed became part of morning routines.
Year 2018
I was getting better from the inside. I wanted to create passive income and tried my hands in network marketing. After a few months, I realized this is not my cup of tea and decided to part ways. Somewhere around the July timeframe, I came across the work of Brendon Burchard. His work appealed to me so much that I signed up for his 5 day High Performance event in Phoenix in September. His Release meditation helped me in being consistent and since then meditation for 20-30 mins is part of my daily routine.
In November of 2018, I signed up a workshop in LA, which is called Masters In Transformational Training. I signed up for their 5 days BASIC workshop which led to another 5 days Advanced workshop, and then 4 months of Legacy program. I spent 6 months in all those workshops and visiting LA almost every month became my normal for 6 months. In that period, I made new friends and still great friends with them. Those workshops gave me new awareness, insights, understanding about others and myself. There were so many breakthroughs. One of the important one was to letting go of the self-judgment that I have an accent and can’t succeed in a foreign land. Once I did let of that judgement, things turned around. What a beautiful and yet challenging 6 months.
I was doing bunch of experiments. I started running free mastermind virtual classes on productivity and to my surprise—only one friend showed up in all the classes. I didn’t give up. I kept going.
Year 2019
In the March of 2019, I decided to buy a 2500 sq. ft. house for myself and the move happened in May with so much excitement and joy—until I found myself unhappy about living in such a big house. I didn’t want to deal with so many responsibilities and decided to sell it off. It took me 6 months to decide to sell the house. I needed more peace of mind than the financial benefits and chose the former.
I was also teaching free classes about productivity and energy management in coffee shops. There were times only one person would show up and many other times—no one.
Year 2020
I wasn’t feeling excited about my software job. It was on Jan 6 morning—I was feeling very depressed before going to the work after the winter break. I wrote down my feelings in a journal and the total pages filled were seven. I realized—what if I find a way to record these pages and help someone going through the same trajectory. That moment gave birth to the podcast “The Nishant Garg Show”.
In July of 2020, I had sold the house, moved to new part of town, and downsized to 650 sq. ft. apartment.
Let’s look at the resources now:
Books: Below is the list of books I started reading since 2017. Some I have read it a few times, and others I’ve read it dozens of times. Please note that there are some books I still revisit from time to time when the need and situation arises.
- Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded by Maxwell Maltz. This is a great book on developing inner-confidence and self-image.
- How to Be a 3% Man, Winning the Heart of the Woman of Your Dreams by Corey Wayne. A wonderful book on dating, relationships, confidence and self-reliance.
- The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. Name itself says a lot!
- How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie
- As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. I revisit this book again and again whenever self-doubt creeps in, or whenever I need some alignment on life’s purpose. This is the most recommended book on my podcast “The Nishant Garg Show”.
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. Highly recommended by Tim Ferriss. One specific chapter “How to Think and Dream Creatively” I have read it dozens of times, and every time I read it, I innovate something new in life.
- Seasons of Life by Jim Rohn
- My Philosophy for Successful Living by Jim Rohn
- Twelve Pillars by Jim Rohn
- Wisdom of the Ages: 60 Days to Enlightenment by Wayne Dyer.
- The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way by Wayne Dyer
- Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss
- Money: Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins
- Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony de Mello. I picked up this book in the late 2019 and have read it 50+ times. I highly recommend this book.
- High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard
- The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan and Chip Heath
- The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Dan and Chip Heath
- The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller
- The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden
- The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage by Brené Brown PhD
- Think and Grow Rich: The Original: An Official Publication of The Napoleon Hill Foundation by Napolean Hill
- The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr. A great book on how to manage your energy.
- Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity by Robert A. Emmons
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. A great resource on cultivating growth mindset in all the walks of life.
- The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander. I love this book and read it dozens of times. You will learn to create possibilities in the times of rejections, failures, and much more.
- The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman. I think I have read this book 20+ times and what a gem! You will learn how to show affection to your partner the way they can receive. It will also help you to understand how you like to be loved.
- The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The purpose of life is to be happy.
- The Power of Positive Living by Norman Vincent Peale
- Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman Ph.D
- Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else by Jon Gordon
- First Things First by Stephen Covey
- Things I Wish I’d Known Before We Got Married by Gary Chapman
Meditation: I believe in simplicity and keep my meditation simple and sweet. Most of the time, I just close my eyes and practice silent meditation.
- Release Meditation Technique – Instruction by Founder Brendon Burchard
- Getting In The Gap Meditation with Dr. Wayne Dyer
- All the meditations by Dr. Joe Dispenza
- Recently in 2021, I started to meditate on binaural beats. You can find the bunch of audios on YouTube.
Motivation audios. Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, and Les Brown are my favorite go-to people on YouTube whenever I need some motivation and I always feel motivated after listening to them.
Please enjoy!
If you’d like to learn more about what I am reading, new documentaries, what I am learning new, recent podcast updates, things I am experimenting with, or anything —which I share extensively in my weekly short and sweet “Friday Newsletter”. No spam ever! I hate that too!
The Nishant Garg Show is listened to in 24 countries and is about extracting information on Mindfulness, Personal Development, Spirituality. I am on a mission to spread Mindfulness and I’d love for you to join me in this movement. For any question, please contact me. If you have enjoyed listening to my podcasts, please subscribe to the new podcast updates on Itunes. Please provide your reviews on Itunes which will really help me. Subscribe to the Newsletter. You won’t be spammed! I hate spams too! You will receive only one email every Friday on the latest published podcasts.
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