Hi, there!
The books I read last year framed my mind in different (all positive) ways. I learned a few things, but the 2 that made me start writing these posts are:
- It’s better to read a bad book that no book at all – Yes, that’s true. But what’s also true is that finding a good book to read is not always easy.
- Learning with other people is way more powerful than learning alone – The things that taught me the most where things I learned from people, or things people pointed me in the direction to.
Therefore, I will focus my reading on books that people suggest to me and, in return, I will write these posts every month to share my readings and my personal opinion about them with you (please, share yours as well!).
I truly hope this helps you and that we can suggest books to each other.
Now, with no further do, the books I read in January 2022:
#1. The Wim Hof Method
The book
I’ve had heard about the Wim Hof method a while ago but never gave it the chance… until I did.
After watching a few YouTube videos and reading a few comments of people saying “do not try this method without understanding it deeply”, I decided to purchase Wim’s book and dig into his method.
What I liked from the book is that it’s a good mix of theory / philosophical fundamentals and practical “how-to” exercises. After reading it you’ll get a good grasp on the things that inspired Wim Hof to craft this method, and a step-by-step guide to implement it smoothly in your life.
The method
More often than not, the book makes you think: “Hm, Wim is a crazy old man”. And you’ll right. But then, you realize that the potential that we as human posses may sound crazy but is real. We do have the power to overcome (even better, prevent) diseases, live a full life, enjoy every day, we kind, climb the Everest with nothing but shorts, and more.
How? Well, if I’ve learned something so far is that there are many ways to achieve it, and not silver bullet. But as far as I’ve experienced, Wim Hof’s method is amazing and it totally works.
In a few words, Wim’s method bases on 3 pillars: Breathing, Meditation, and exposure to Cold.
Breathing – Through conscious breathing you can put your body in an alkaline state, which is beneficial in may ways. It also helps you calm down and relax.
In the episode 2 of The Goop Lab (on Netflix), there is group that takes a 2-day (or 3, can’t remember) workshop with Wim Hof. You’ll see how the breathing exercises help people feel in control of themselves, get relaxed and joyful.
Meditation – Most of us know and have experienced the power of meditation. However, I think Wim’s take is simpler and more to the point. He combines meditation with the breathing techniques, creating practical exercises that are easy for people to implement. It personally took me only a few days to start seeing the benefits of meditation + the breathing techniques.
Exposure to Cold – This may be one of the hardest things to try. Also, the thing that drives people off. Wim suggests to take one cold shower a day. But! You can do it progressively. No need swim in a frozen lake on day one. No. You can just end your morning shower with 5 or 10 seconds of cold water, and that’s it.
The first time I took a cold shower I exited the shower feeling a rush of adrenaline. I laughed nervously like Christian Bale in American Physco! I had so much energy!
I though it’d be like that on the first cold shower, but no, I still feel so energized every time I exit the shower.
Also, my heart rate (at rest) is now between 45 and 50 bpm. Sometimes even lower.
My final thoughts
Read the book. You won’t regret it.
I know that taking a cold shower in winter sounds like a nonsense thing to do and that you’d prefer taking a hot shower and then sitting on your couch to watch a movie.
My suggestion here is: left skepticism aside and just read the book. Wim would say (and he actually says it many times in the book): “Just breath mother***” 🙂 I won’t go that far but I strongly suggest you to read the book.
#2. Atomic Habits
This is probably one of my favorite books ever.
The premise is clear:
“The quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits”
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. We live our lives creating and dropping habits all the time. It’s how we’re programmed: we generate and destroy neural connections all the time.
The book
James Clear defies one of the things I strongly pursued my whole life: goals:
Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
He proposes to keep our goals but only for us to have a direction. That way we don’t live to achieve our goals, instead we design systems (by generating new habits) to live according to the values we believe in and eventually meet the goals we set.
That’s a huge mind-shift for me. And a good one.
As an entrepreneurship, I struggle to achieve more. To produce more. But it turns out that you don’t always enjoy it, and actually you don’t always achieve it.
So, instead of focusing on doing more and more, I now can focus on analyzing my habits, letting go the “bad” ones, and creating new. In the long run, a set of good/healthy habits, performed consistently, lead to stunning results.
I first hesitated to buy the book because of the reviews I found online. Many people discouraged me by saying “don’t read the book, it’s too simple – no magic advise”. But I read it anyway and I found actually that: Simple advise. James’ advise is so simple that’s highly effective. You don’t need complex systems around you. It’s quite the opposite.
My final thoughts
Living a simple life is great, enjoyable, productive, fulfillment. Simple doesn’t mean “easy” or “straightforward”. As Steve Jobs said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. While searching for simplicity you’ll remove a lot of the clutter that keeps us busy and unfocused.
If you’re familiarized with programming (and Clean Code), you can think of it as having a lot of coding doing a lot of things without unit tests… It blows up sooner than later. Simple code is not easy code, it’s quite the opposite, isn’t it?
This book goes into the depths of human behavior. It gives practical advise on how to create a healthy life around healthy habits, and how to make those habits last longer and evolve for the better.
Don’t discard it because of its simplicity. Praise it because of it!
My suggestion is: Read it!
