5 Best Books to Read in 2025 (That Will Change Your Life)

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book, Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life, nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to One to One with James Laughlin. I'm a former world champion and now I work with and coach professional athletes, entrepreneurs and CEOs of billion dollar companies. I'm going to share with you in this episode some of the insights and strategies, some of the tools that I use with my clients. Every week I'll bring you an insight, an action or a tool that will help you go from great to greatest. My mission is to cut through the noise and help give you the tools that truly transform your mindset and help you to take the right actions towards your desired outcome. So let's dive in.

Okay, so today we're going to talk about reading. Why I believe reading is one of the quickest ways to getting what we want and making the biggest impact in our industry. So I'm going to share with you the top five books to this year that have impacted me in different specific areas, starting with this. So I'm just for those that are listening and not watching, I'm holding up the Wealth Money Can't Buy by Robin Sharma. Such an amazing read. Robin's a dear friend and an incredible author. He's been writing books for 30 years in the field of personal development and mastery. And this one, you know, is very important for those that are chasing big dreams. This one's important for those that want to be successful. Look, Robin looks at what are those important things in life other than making tons of money? And in fact, when you get this in order, I call it wmi. What's most important when you get those pillars of WMI in order, the money side of things tends to take care of itself. So this was just an amazing dive in to Robin's life, his experience. You know, he works with billionaires, he works with individuals that are striving for success and has done so for a long time. And there was a couple of chapters actually, I thought I'd just highlight one or two for you. So.

The best way to start is to start right, get after it you know, just double down and get going. Another one that really stood out to me was.

Create a love account. Create an account of love, an account of all those things that you love doing and being and who you love being around. See food as medicine. And he talks about just how important it is to put the right things into our bodies. There's hundreds of mini chapters. So the great thing about this book is you could read a chapter in 90 seconds. So I call them little micro chapters. He talks about setting your Daily 5, your Daily 5 intentions. Look, it's a quick read and it helps put things in perspective. Okay, next book, Essentialism by The incredible Greg McKeown. I sat down with Greg in Where was it? Arizona. Phoenix. Arizona. Sat down in a studio and interviewed him about this amazing book, Essentialism. I'll make sure the team puts that link in the show notes. But essentially, pun slightly intended. Essentially, when you're an essentialist, you do less but better. You are on a radical pursuit of less, not on this pursuit of more. And this book gives you an absolute masterclass in how to get clear on wmi, what's most important. So if you feel like you're busy being busy, listen to or read this book, please. And if you don't want to do either of those things, listen to the interview I did with Greg. It's in the show notes. Essentialism. Great book. Okay, next book from my dear friend, Samuel Whitelock. Most people know him by Sam Great all black rugby player. The most capped all black of all time was captain at one point. Just a phenomenal human. His book was an amazing read. You know, I've known him for years, but reading his book, wow, I learned so much more about him. So this book taught me a lot about the importance of family and reminded me of, you know, when you're striving for success, remember where you came from. Remember who got you there. Keep your boots on the ground. And he talks a lot about dealing with pressure, dealing with expectations. So a great book. That was book number three. Okay, book number four. Is this by Tony Robbins, Life force. Yep. I'll just hold it up for those that are looking. It's a chunky book. In fact, how many pages have we got here? We have got over 620 pages. It's a biggie, but it has to be. It's about how to live better. It gives us deep scientific insights around what it means to live a long life, not just lifespan, but more importantly, health span. He does it in accordance with also Peter Diamantis and Robert Hariri. So two incredible experts in their own right and he did this with them. Phenomenal book. You might want to just jump into specific chapters on back health, heart health, prevention of cancers, Just a longer healthier life. Very much worth it. And look, Book five I don't have in my hands. Why? Because I wrote the book and it's not yet on the shelves. Habits of High Performers is a book that I have spent years writing, crafting, distilling and I share with you in that book the seven non negotiable, irrefutable habits of High performers and how to thrive at life and how to thrive at work. So I hope you go and pre order. Preorder is actually in the show notes. If you go and pre order I'm going to give you some incredible bonuses. Almost $500 worth of free bonuses. So don't miss out on that. Habits of High Performers I hope you've enjoyed today's video one to one. And I'm all about reading. Read more and share what you're reading. I'd love to know what you're reading right now and what kind of authors or who I might should have on the show next. So don't be shy in letting me know. But for now, get out there and lead your life on purpose. Thanks for tuning in to Lead on Purpose. If you find this episode valuable, please share it with one person that you think might benefit from it. And if you're serious about leveling up, please make sure you're subscribed to the show and continue to lead your life on purpose.