Some experiences leave you wondering and your eyes wide open. Some change the way you have been thinking and believing all along. As 2017 just slips by and we turn the page, let me reflect on these 3 books which have moved me and changed the way I see life and beyond.
The Carpenter - Jon Gordan
What happens when you play a bigger role than your label? Give more than what is expected of you? Treat your work like art and are in love with it?
The Carpenter is an interesting story of a man who has a lot more to offer than just building excellent furniture. The way he understands and explains life through three simple yet powerful mantras - Love, Serve and Care. Love for your work and customers. Serve with all honesty and dedicat
ion. And Care for your internal and external customers alike. This book also covers how a powerful personal brand can be built by anyone no matter what your role or rank is. For anyone who is looking to stand out amidst the crowd, this book serves as a stimulus to begin building your personal brand in a bigger way.
Nudge - Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
Nudge, as the name suggests, is all about what people respond to, how do people make choices, spend, invest or even behave. We are influenced and biased while deciding on things like what to eat, choosing an insurance plan or even signing up for organ donation. We often decide poorly and results are not as per our expectations. More often than not, we respond in the way we are nudged and not how we would have in absence of it. Good decisions we make may seem obvious to us are a result of well crafted choice architectures laid down before us. One example I particularly liked is on privatizing marriage and how people would respond to commitments in absence of a legal binding contract. This book helps us understand people and their motivations and nudge them to act as per design. Nudging to improve decisions about life, wealth and health without restricting the freedom of choice.
Through time into healing - Dr. Brian Weiss
There are many theories on afterlife and reincarnation. Mostly religious and spiritual and less scientific. Dr. Brian Weiss is a professional psychiatrist who has shared his experiences with his patients who regressed into their previous lives in an attempt to reach the root of their illnesses or troubled relationships in their present lives. Reading this book has opened a whole new realm of scientific explanations to the possible cause of inherent fears, illnesses and troubled relationships which the medical world tries to treat superficially using drugs and therapies.
All these 3 books have opened up new streams of thoughts and have impacted the way I now deal with work, life and people.
For anyone who would like to share their reads with me, I am happy to get nudged by your thoughts.
