A Short Book To Read At The Beach, While The Waves Bring You To The Present.

Not many books survive. Something like 99% of new books sell less than 1,000 copies.

It’s a horrible statistic in a saturated market. So what does it take for a book to be popular for over 100 years?

Relevance, or religion.

Besides the book I want to talk about, only two others that come to mind that are over 100 years old (and still popular). The Bible, and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran.

Both spiritual / religious.

This one isn’t. It’s real, and it remains as relevant as it was in 1903, when it was first printed.

Book: As a Man Thinketh

Author: James Allen

I’m lucky. Because today and tomorrow, I’ll be celebrating Christmas with family.

But I remember a few years ago when COVID had everyone locked down and I couldn’t be with people who raised me. It wasn’t easy. And this book by James Allen is for those times.

Times when things aren’t easy, and you know what you must do but you don’t have the strength to do it (yes, that’s a Star Wars reference).

I want to share this paragraph. Take your time to read and absorb it. Skimming won’t work.

Aside from being some of the longest sentences in history, they are top-notch.

Let’s dive in.

This is easy to translate if you pretend like David Goggins is talking to you — “don’t be a bitch.”

Hint: it’s your thoughts.

Zig Ziggler, a great man, said ‘before you GIVE, you must HAVE. Before you HAVE you must DO. And before you DO you must BE.’

I’ll add one more line to that — to BE you must THINK.

Your situation is no one’s fault. It’s a result of your own thoughts and actions that follow those thoughts. Take full ownership.

This is better explained by example.

A few months ago in a Tony Robbins seminar, he asked everyone to do a visualisation exercise. An exercise to push, motivate and enrage.

Look forward 10 years from now, and you’re in the same place. Same job. Same day-to-day. Same life. No change and no progress. Would you be happy?

Of course not. Everyone yearns for progress.

In that moment, he completely altered the motivation people had for their dreams. He made us use our circumstances as levers to get to the next step, not as crutches.

And I still do this visualisation sometimes when I’m lacking motivation.

WHY

This book, combined with ‘The Big Leap’ by Gay Hendricks, helped me understand that 90% (or more) of what I do in a day is think.

It’s helped me catch myself when all I’m doing is thinking, and shift to ‘Being Useful’ instead. As Arnold would say.

It’s like a 7th sense, and my output and creativity has soared. That’s why this is worth sharing with you.

Two friends have pestered me for ages to read this, and I avoided it for a while. Don’t be like me. This book is a very short read (think max 2–3 hours), and you can pick it up for less than $10.

And by the way, don’t get the audiobook. This one is worth reading with your eyes, highlighting, and pondering. It’s harder to do that with an audiobook.

Buy a copy, go to the beach, sit down, and read it while the sound of the waves relaxes you and brings you closer to the present.

The things in this book are profound. So much so that I’ve put together some quotes from it here.

This is not a book to read on the train when you’re half asleep. Trust me.

I’ll leave you with one final message.

On Thursday night I was out for a drink with a friend. We were on our third drink of the night (a great Lagavulin 12 YO), and next to us were a bunch of guys from the UK.

We all raised our glasses and said Merry Christmas to each other, but one of the Brits added something after the cheer died down. He said ‘from my family to yours’.

I liked that.

So, from my family to yours — Merry Christmas. Enjoy it fully.

Harry

P.S. Thank you to those who have been sharing this with your friends. If you’re new, welcome. If you found this useful, please share it.