I'm sure I'm not alone in this quest.
I have in the past bought a book, loved it, finished it; yet still had that lingering unsatisfied feeling. The unquenchable thirst for the ultimate answer to many topics. Topics such as: Procrastination; following your dreams; zen, tai chi; books on the path to enlightenment and so on.
This unquenchable thirst began to die down in the zen and enlightenment category. Once I reached a very simple, uncluttered space in my being, I no longer had any drive to search for more. This culminated in an eventual fusion with this 'single beingness'.
So that baby is now off the list....:)
I do love reading so even after finding the 'inner sanctuary', reading new books still interest me.
I admit I go through phases of not reading for around 2-3 weeks. But then I begin again.
Currently, I am interested in the phrase 'staying power'. The ability to start a project, stick with it, feed it with consistent hours of labour, until completed.
The usual search throws up topics that are not what you are looking for. But then Amazon threw me a bone with 'Super staying power'.
I'm about half way through. The introduction didn't set me alight but once into the first chapter I knew this book would help me see things differently when applying some real staying power on a goal/project.
It moves away from the usual cliche on the subject. Its kept me very interested so far. Although time will tell if it will make an impact in the area of staying power.
I believe in being informed on a subject. Explanations on the logical reasons of why projects struggle to get completed. Long lengthy explanations on the preciousness of time haven't cut it with me so far. In fact time now is about maximising your personal enjoyment of your week. I like books like 'the 4 hour work week'. Freeing up one's time to do stuff we really want to but feel there's no extra time.
The above is a contradiction. Time is precious, but some of the explanations I've read as to why, haven't connected with me.
My most sought after jewel was finding out about my inner being. Now that topic is full of contradictions. But with perseverance one can find some precious nuggets.
One Author I shall mention is Osho. Not strictly an author as his books are carefully chosen extracts from the 100's of talks he gave on all sorts of subject. I have read around 9 of his books.
I found the reading had a profound effect on me which was agreeable and non-threatening. The subject was primarily on beingness, enlightenment and life in general.
I only stopped at 9 because I felt I wanted to allow other authors and subjects in. Also I don't want to be doing all reading and no action.
However, his books prepared me very well for accepting my own 'breakthrough'.
In a way I like the fact that a single book often doesn't crack the nut alone. This then allows one to read further on the subject with other viewpoints.
Yet having said that its quite refreshing to not be chasing my 'inner soul-searching' type books. Its allowed me to branch out to focusing on books that can help me develop the skills needed to be efficiently productive on my business projects.
My current take on the 'humanness' side of things is that my personality has strengths that sometimes are extremely useful and other times distracts me from 'more businessy things'. My personality challenges can be useful at times and a real deadweight at other times.
Yet its like a project to me. Increase my productivity, yet read the flow of when its best to step back for a while.
Books on 'getting things done'; 'overcoming procrastination' so far haven't really managed in 'getting me to get things done'. I've read quite a few.
Recently I've realised that lack of inner reserves causes me to 'just get by'. That extra drive just isn't there. With my lifestyle of a few classes of teaching during the day, at times that allows me to sleep in late, its bred a habit of getting to bed really very late. This then causes sleep deprevation. I find even naps don't really help that much.
So I've been putting together a plan of taking care of my weekly sleep requirements. More physically active people generally require a bit more sleep. Also a pure uninterrupted sleep of 8 hours or so is best I find. I think I function best on 9 hours sleep.
I found when I do have about 5 days of good sleep I feel a different person. My drive to get things done is really there. That extra power to overcome a stubborn obstacle in a project is there. Its like cutting bread with a butter knife. If the loaf contains a really fresh tough crust the butter knife is useless. Whereas a super sharp efficient bread knife still has to work a bit but does so with a lot less effort. I actually own 3 brilliant bread knives. I happened to be in a Beales at the right time when a special offer with demo was on. The knives are still as sharp as when first bought 5 years ago.
I guess when one doesn't find enough answers in the books read then perhaps a book can be written. If one finds answers then its an opportunity to express yourself.
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