3 Books That Changed Everything For Me

“Just one more chapter!”

This was my nightly refrain as a kid constantly staying up past my bedtime to read just a little bit more.

I loved to escape into new worlds and explore from the safety of my room. It’s even easier to consume books now as a busy adult with audiobooks.

I’m still reading all the time anything that interests me from literary fiction to memoirs to business books.

I love constantly learning and absorbing new information which is important as an entrepreneur.

Ready to make some changes? These three books will help get you there.

The Artist’s Way

Looking back this book was the catalyst to all the massive changes that would follow. I had an “aha moment” during a podcast interview.

I realized a small decision to pick up a book led me down a totally new career and life path.

The Artist’s Way comes in and out of popularity all the time. I was reminded of it because it was on TikTok recently.

I don’t know where I would be today or what I would be doing without it.

Morning Pages

The morning pages exercise unlocked my creativity and showed me you don’t need to wait for the perfect circumstances to create.

You can do it any time! This was mind blowing to me at the time because I was, still am a bit, a perfectionist.

If the environment wasn’t correct and I wasn’t completely prepared for every possibility I would convince myself not to take action. Not a fun way to live.

Waiting for inspiration was the norm I believed in but every morning I was churning out three pages of writing and it felt easy.

I kept exploring those hobbies and interests I’d always had but just hadn’t committed time to learning. Graphic design was one of these interests. I had recently joined a graphic design Meetup group that was just forming which led to more creative expression.

Writing

I’ve always loved writing and decided to try out a weekly, in-person poetry class. This was a great learning experience to see so many other talented writers who were flexing their skills while working a full time job. I used to be hung up on the fact that you needed to make money from your creative pursuits or you aren’t a real artist or creative. That could be a whole other post!

While writing comes easily to me and I really enjoyed it I saw how this wasn’t really a viable career option for me to pursue. I’d been toying with the idea of trying out a low residency MFA program for years but couldn’t quite commit to it. Taking one course was a nice option to try out a writing program.

Without taking this first small step I wouldn’t have even considered starting my own business which is where the next book comes in.

Everything is Figureoutable

Like many people during the early days of the pandemic I went inward and tried to figure out what I really wanted to be doing with my life and if I wasn’t how to correct that.

I found a Marie Forleo video and wanted to check out her book. So I went to the library and furiously consumed it in less than a day.

I took notes and started making a game plan for how I was going to change my life. This book also helped me to start taking messy and imperfect action.

Taking Action

If you remember from The Artist’s Way section I’m a perfectionist which essentially is just fear talking me out of doing anything new or making any changes because it might not work out.

Taking action is still something I struggle with. I’ve found that breaking a task down into the smallest possible action steps helps me gain momentum to keep going and stay motivated.

For a deeper dive check out my post about how this book started my entrepreneurship journey.

Entrepreneurship

This book built on the momentum and knowledge I already had from the graphic design Meetup group. This led me to making more connections and learning more about design and entrepreneurship. In my head entrepreneurship was this big scary thing but I saw first hand how it could work for people.

I still have the notebook where I built out a strategy to move towards what I wanted out of life instead of being complacent. Since I was still figuring things out I tried out a few different paths like selling digital products on Etsy and freelance writing before landing on one of my favorite way to create digitally- web design.

We Should All Be Millionaires

I was primed and ready for this book when it was released. I heard about it from a podcast or mentioned somewhere online. This led me to finding an awesome community of entrepreneurs to share my highs and lows with and ask for advice.

This book really used my love of facts to continue to propel me towards entrepreneurship. It’s the easiest way to become a millionaire. You know how some books don’t give any hard evidence or facts to back up their claims? This book is the complete opposite.

Learning

This book taught me a ton and will definitely get you motivated beyond just thinking positive. I always appreciate action steps and strategies that lead to different outcomes. A few gems from the book are how to upgrade my mindset, take out the mind trash, and focus on making million dollar decisions. You don’t have to be making a million dollars to make million dollar decisions.

Being in the WSAMB community has helped me so much from market research, making new connections, finding clients and referrals. Sometimes networking groups don’t always feel supportive like people might not want to help you, sad but true. Thankfully I’ve never felt like that in this community which is why I love singing it’s praises.

Networking

I used to think networking was a waste of time and didn’t really help that much. Being part of a really engaged and extensive network taught me this isn’t true at all! I was just afraid to put myself out there and talk to people.

As an introvert finding new ways to network that aren’t in person events really helps too like virtual coffee chats! I’ve had so many fun conversations with people inside and outside of the Club once I realized this was the easiest and fastest way for me to connect with people.

Even though emotions and stories help connect you with people and brands what usually sways me is the hard facts that can’t be made up. This book is filled with statistics to motivate you because they are empowering or because they make you mad.

Ready for more change?

Whoever said reading wasn’t important obviously hasn’t read anything good. My life is constantly being transformed through learning and insights gained from the simple act of reading and listening to audiobooks and podcasts.

It can be overwhelming to choose from the giant selection but starting with one of these three will help jumpstart any changes you want to make in your life and career. Check out this page if you want to learn more about me and how I became a web designer.

Happy reading!