The Path to Selfless Success - Day 2

I learned today that I am giving my first Toastmasters presentation on Tuesday. I need to prepare and practice a 4-6 minute speech introducing myself.  This reminded me that I should probably tell you a little bit about myself in today’s Selfless Success post. (That sounds a bit ironic.)

Here are a few things you may not know about me:

• I took two showers today even though I don’t consider myself a clean-freak.
• I read while walking on the treadmill. My mind will go crazy without the stimulation.
• I don't watch or read the news. I'm on a "thought diet".
• I diffuse negativity.
• I value learning and improvement almost more than anything else in life.

Now for the typical blah blah blah stuff. Here’s one bio:

“Jim Miotke is the author of the bestselling BetterPhoto guidebook series - Digital Photography, Digital Nature Photography, and Photographing Children, as well as two award-winning DVDs. In 1996, Jim founded BetterPhoto.com, the world-leader in online photographic education now featuring over 80 online photography classes taught by the best and biggest names in the photography industry. Jim reaches over 5 million photography enthusiasts each year and loves to share what he has learned in an effort to encourage people around the world to say "YES!" to their creative dreams.”

It’s true – I love photography and I love helping people find their creative side.

What you may not know is that, even more than photography, I love to study self-improvement, the science of happiness, online marketing, and how people build great businesses.

But enough about me… let’s talk more about what we’re going to learn together over the next 75 days.

Let me give you a list of the kind of material I’ll be tackling during the remainder of the year.

You certainly don’t need to read all of these books along with me. You are welcome to, if you want to. But if you only have time for a few, that will be perfectly fine. Pick your favorites.

I’m now reading (and greatly enjoying) Seth Godin’s “Tribes”. Next up to bat: “The 8th Habit” by the sweet, wonderful and wise Stephen R. Covey.

What I’ve read and will be re-reading:

•    “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey
•     “Get Off Your But” by Sean Stephenson
•    “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark” and “Always Be Testing” by Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg
•    “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
•    Robert McKee’s “Story” (because I appreciate the art of movie-making)
•    Michael Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited”
•    “Getting Things Done” by David Allen
•    “The Answer” by John Assaraf and Murray Smith
•    Joel Comm’s book on Twitter
•    “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss
•    “An Irresistible Offer” by Mark Joyner
•    “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins
•    “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill
•    The Sermon on the Mount and other teachings from the New Testament
•    “The Teachings of Buddha”

New books I’ll attempt to read before the year is out:

•    “Online Marketing Success Stories”
•    “Generations” by Strauss and Howe
•    “Tribal Leadership”
•    “The Soul of Money” by Lynne Twist
•    “The Happiness Hypothesis”
•    All three biographies by Richard Branson. I want to be just like him, except for the hot air balloons and extreme record-breaking stuff.
•     “Killing Sacred Cows” by Garrett B. Gunderson
•    A book or two by HH the Dalai Lama
•    The autobiography of Jimmy Carter. A great man.
•    Anything about Tony Hsieh and the Culture at Zappo’s

I am also very excited to watch “Get Altitude” by Eben Pagan (15 DVDs... arriving on Thursday) and, as soon as it comes out, the DVD recording of an amazing conference I recently attended called Engage Today.

There. You have your shopping list.

Again, don’t feel like you have to read ALL of these books. I just wanted to give you a heads up as to where I plan to be going. But again, who knows where we'll really end up.

Besides, I’ll be taking the best of all of the knowledge contained in these works and distilling it into my book / system anyway. Who needs to carry around the Bible,"Think and Grow Rich", the teaching of Buddha… when you can refer to one work that says it all?

My wife says I'm not funny.

Comments

[Jendra]

I have a lot of those books on my shelf, that I haven't read yet! But I'm reading more since I took your first workshop. Is there a book called "The Teachings of Buddha" or you were just saying that as a concept? I want to read about Buddhist teachings and philosophies, but don't know where to start.

I am very impressed with your respect for the Dalai Lama and reading about Buddha. A lot of Christians I know seem to shy away from other religions' wisdom.

Maybe you get into this later in the blog (I'm reading it in order coming late to the game.) Did you institute the "Getting Things Done" methods into your life, business, filing, etc? How did that work for you? I believe in it in theory, but it seems so rigid, like I need space for my own habits and preferences and ways of thinking about things. (Especially the filing part!)