Jack Canfield recommends five books that shaped his thinking: The Compound Effect, Think and Grow Rich, The One Thing, The 4-Hour Workweek, and The Biology of Belief. He reads at least an hour daily and has finished over 3,000 books, returning to these for lessons on how small actions compound, beliefs shape genetics, and one high-leverage change beats scattered effort.
Chapters
Hi there, I'm Jack Canfield. Today I'm going to share with you my top five favorite personal development book recommendations. Now, most of you probably know by now that I am a huge advocate of continuous learning. And the world is always evolving and changing. And if we want to stay ahead of the curve and at the top of our game, then we have to be committed to learning something new each and every day. If you were to see my office at my house, you'd find thousands of books on a variety of different subjects. Reading and applying what I read has been a critical part of my success and I consider it one of my most important daily disciplines. I read for at least an hour a day and sometimes a lot more. Like I went on my five hour plane ride like I was yesterday coming back from Canada. So I've read over 3,000 books throughout the course of my life. But these recommendations about to give you are the books that I constantly keep coming back to because they offer timeless insight into how, how we can grow as individuals in every area of our lives. So my first book recommendation is the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. In this book, he talks about the compound effect over time of a little bit of additional action or a different action, like maybe cutting out, drinking sodas. You know, if you don't drink a SODA Every day, 120 calories is saved in 10 days. That's 1,200 calories. And that's like fasting for a day. If you were to play baseball and every day do a 200 extra hits, or if you're a golfer, just hit 20 more balls over the course of a year, that's like 6,000 more swings. And so what happens is that compound effect over time of diet, exercise, reading, doing yoga, meditating, et cetera, has a huge effect in your life. The next book is really two books. It's Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow A Black Choice by Dr. Dennis Kimbrough. The reason I combine both of those books, my one recommendation is that Think and Grow Rich is probably one of the books that most millionaires say helped them become a millionaire. But Think and Grow Rick A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbrough, he was hired by the Napoleon Hill foundation to actually update the book for the African American community. And the reason I recommend it, even if you're not African American, is that some of the psychology that's been updated is way more profound than what Napoleon Hill understood when he wrote the first book. The examples are more modern, et cetera. So that's a really Good book to read. And you're going to learn major principles that are universal about having more success in your life. The next book is the One Thing by Gary Keller. Gary Keller is one of the founders of Keller Williams Real Estate, and he talks about the importance of if you could find one thing that you change that would change everything, what might that be? It might be delegation, it might be exercise, it might be meditation. For our company, it was actually starting to hire salespeople. For years we were taking orders because Chicken Soup for the Soul was so successful. But when we sold that company and started doing the success principles, we realized we had to build that brand and develop a sales force. And now we have a sales force of four people that are on the phone constantly selling our programs, and we're having more success, probably doubling our income for this year over it was last year. Now the next book is the Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. One of the greatest books ever written. It's been on the bestseller list for three or four years. Tim's a good friend of mine. I actually mentored him on how to promote your book after we met, and he hired me to come up and speak to him for the Silicon Valley Startup Entrepreneur Association. And Tim talks about the importance of really focusing your energy so that you don't have all these things that are taking your life away so that you can have the life you want. For example, he found that simply by creating a Q and A section, frequently asked questions on his website, he was able to cut out about 15 hours a week where he used to be answering all these questions when he first started his company. And now Tim is worth, I think, hundreds of million dollars, He's a venture capitalist and so forth. So that's a really valuable book. And he's updated it to really deal with the technological revolution we've had and how to not be overwhelmed by technology. The last book is called the Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton. And what Bruce has discovered. We used to think that the DNA in our body controlled our ability to be a great athlete, be smart, be good at business, whatever it is. Now we know that our beliefs actually are controlling our DNA. We have thousands of little markers in our DNA and some are turned off and some are turned on. And based on your beliefs, you actually turn on and off these markers that have to do with longevity, that have to do with creativity, that have to do with all the things that are going to contribute to you being that much ahead of the competition, that much more happy in your life. It's a radical book and it's a wonderful book. I recommend it. I read it every year. It's one of those books. Every January I reread it because there's so much value in there. So now that you know a few of my favorite personal development books, I'd love to hear some of yours as well. I'm always looking for new reading material, so please share in the comments below. At least one must read book that's helped change your life. And then share that book you plan to start reading this month. We're going to get two books from you. One that's affected your life already and one that you're going to read. Hopefully one of the ones I recommended. Perhaps another one that you're going to be reading this month so you can take your life forward. Because we talk about constant and never ending improvement. And we always say if you want to earn more, you have to learn more. So thank you for watching. And remember, nothing will change for the better until you do. Now, if you found this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. And for some additional resources on how to set yourself up for success, make sure to Visit my website, jackcampfield.com.
