There are moments in your life when you pick up a book that rocks your (socks) mind and being to its foundations. I’m sure there are many names for these types of mind openings moments. I like to call these aha! books. Any book that stops you in your tracks (aha!) and opens you up to new possibilities, opportunities and ways of seeing and thinking about your life and the world.
Aha! moments are addicting.
I read because I love learning and experiencing new places and imaginative ideas, but the reason you’ll always find me with a book (or four) is that I’m seeking more aha! moments in my life.
My first aha book moment was with regards to food. I don’t know what drove me to pick up Gary Taubles book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, but I’m glad I did. It opened me up to a world I had known nothing about. The idea that what we eat directly effects how we look (and ultimately how we feel) was a completely foreign concept to me. It and other impactful ones (The Four Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss, Foodist by Darya Pino Rose) change my life for the better.
I’m looking at my bookshelves right now as I’m writing this post. I don’t like to keep books that haven’t impacted me in some way (or I hope they will in the future), but if I were to choose my biggest aha books It would be:
Live Your Truth by Kamal Ravikant
The Crossroads and of Should and Must by Elle Luna
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
Meditation by Marcus Aurelius
Resilience by Eric Greitens
The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
Linchpin by Seth Godin
Mastery by Robert Greene
My hope (and goal) is that in the future my books will be on someone’s aha! book list too.
What’s on your aha! book list?
What are your aha moments?
Stay BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner