I'm in my late 20's, working a boring government job and just need a little bit of direction.
Yes - people say to travel and buy properties etc which is fine but is not for everyone and I have done my fair share of travelling
I'm looking for any books or movies you may have read/seen that has changed your outlook on life or has had a big impact on your life. If there is such thing..
Looking for self-improvement/ spiritual/ financial or basically anything that will open my eyes a bit more.. Recommendations please!
Have You Ever Read a Book or Seen a Movie That Has Changed Your Life or Your Outlook on Life?
Comments
This as well as the podcasts
I would recommend anyone start with the 4 hour body first thoughI discovered Dr. Rhonda Patrick through Tim and Joe Rogam's podcast. She's a doctor who specialises in nuitrition and longevity and gives suggestions based on science and research based articles. Some of it's quite dense but it seriously changed a whole bunch of my eating habits. Here's a transcript of one of the podcasts which I found really good - https://tim.blog/2017/05/25/transcript-dr-rhonda-patrick-on-…
I haven't read any of his books but I'm really getting into his podcasts recently.
OP if you looking at self-improvement / financial thought provoking topics from interesting people, Tim Ferriss' podcast is definitely interesting. The basic premise is to interview successful / well-known personalities in a variety of fields and look for patterns as to what made them successful ie. what do they do in the morning, what's their philosophy on life, who do they see as successful and why etc.
As there are 250+ odd podcasts start with his interviews with Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarznegger and MrMoneyMoustache.
No More Mr Nice Guy, Dr. Robert Glover…..within a months I was earning more, met loads of women and was living a more active lifestyle……
Second this! Amazing book.
Edit: don't let the title fool you, it's not a book about how to be a douche.
Pretty much is lol
Nevertheless great book
The Four Agreements by Ruiz Don Miguel.I didn't take on the spiritual bits but it changed my whole outlook as far as dealing with people.
50 Shades of Grey
Ranking of books in terms of effect on life:
- Reinventing your life - Jeffrey Young
- Mindset - Carol Dweck
- 7 Principles of Making Marriage Work - John Gottman… the title is very deceiving. It is applicable for all relationships and good reading even if single
- Crucial Conversations - Kerry Paterson
- The Happiness Trap - Russ Harris
- Blue Ocean Strategy - W Chan Kim / Renee Mauborgne
All available on ebook except the first one unfortunately.
Some pretty good books there.
the gottmans are very good generally
"Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda
Just shooting from quick recall in no particular order:
Read
The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
Some novels by Dean Koontz.
A well reviewed transcript of The Bhagavat Gita
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton WilsonWatch
In search of Happyness
The Shawshank Redemption
The Last Castle
And such movies (I'll list more… later; brain fogged now)
As OZBargainers above would suggest, read up stuff from Terrance McKenna, Thimothy Leary etc;
or watch the very many YouTube videos on their subject matter.Experience
Ayahuasca in it's original and natural setting
What did you or your lab rat get out of the Aya?
Heard it imparts wisdom and shows one the meaning of life.
Profound and life-altering realisations of the now and beyond.In short, people out of the experience emerge as Ver 3.0 of themselves.
Helps get out of addictions as well.Panacea? Maybe.
Anyways, (a friend of a friend) is going to experience that in December :)
"1000 eyes" - a 4min documentary.
For a more thorough treatment try the documentary "Earthlings."
have you stopped eating meat now?
I have after watching Earthlings (though the process took around 7 years).
Earthlings made it clear that meat was only one of myriad animal exploitations. Stopping eating meat would have been a very arbitrary line. Rather I stopped all intentional and nonessential animal use - ie went vegan.
You should also rip out or file down your canine teeth as well just for safe measure.
@TheBilly: but how will I eat my bamboo?
http://astridsecologyproject.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/4/1374…
YOu know vegans love grass. Thetefore canines.
http://www.hippoworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/Hippopotamus_S…
@TheBilly:
My hooman tooths is so sharp and scary. Ready for roaming the plains like the king of the jungle.https://static.turbosquid.com/Preview/2014/05/18__04_12_31/2…
Your most original quip, replete with such odontological insight, completely devoid of any naturalistic fallacy, and obviously a product of much sophisticated thought, knocked me so hard that it took me three protein starved attempts to get back on my feet. And I'm still not even fully recovered.
I could say the same for likening yourself to a Panda or a Hipo, to prove a point. I'm almost certain Pandas wipe their ass against trees.
@TheBilly: Sure. But I wipe my arse with toilet paper even though I could wipe it against a tree. Just like I consume plants even though I could breed animals and confine them and impregnate them and milk them and cut their bodies up for flesh while intimidating them with my awesome canines.
@TheBilly: OMG, I think I need three more…
http://yourveganfallacyis.com/files/fallacy/media/tumblr_npx…
@TheBilly: … protein starved attempts again to give my life meaning back after being KO'd by your intelligent argumentation, which is inferior only to your canines - apparently.
http://yourveganfallacyis.com/files/fallacy/media/tumblr_neg…
You can't have the best of everything to prove your point. What do you want to be? an ass on tree wiping panda? or a human being?
@TheBilly: of course I can. I'll have my vegan cake and eat it too, thank you very much. (with my ferocious canines)
Soon your going to say, omg I cant wipe my ass anymore, trees have feelings too…. 3 times !!!
@TheBilly: wow! You're using a common antivegan argument way out of context. Beyond context! Your brain must be in overdrive from the sheer protein those canines are landing you.
http://www.defenseofreason.com/wp-content/uploads/vegan_22_p…
https://www.vegansociety.com/sites/default/files/uploads/lea…
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8d/b1/67/8db16703e…
See now youre just carrying on like a pork chop !!! Doesnt matter what you post. Plants are living organisms, everything you say is false.
First canines, now plants having feelings. How can I argue with such solid science and moral framework? When are we bringing up desert islands?
http://veganindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/173_p…
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/cc/76/0a/cc760a8b4…
http://yourveganfallacyis.com/files/fallacy/media/tumblr_n7j…
The Power of Now has made a big difference to me.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenme…That and my meditation practice.
Me too.
Sometimes I feel silly that this was my introduction to meditation - or at least the first one that made sense.
And it really did make sense.
Great book.
Excellent book! I actually liked A New Earth more but they're both great.
second The Power of Now. Completely changed after reading
Kama Sutra. How the hell are we supposed to do those?
Anything by:
Anthony Robbins
Wayne Dyer
Deepak Chopra
Stephanie DowrickTolle's the power of now
Sliding Doors movie. Makes you think about the ramifications of each decision (maybe, see plot for their conclusion!).
Mr. Nobody, not so realistic but a beautiful film.
It's like a very lame version of the parable of the Chinese Farmer.
I also had a permanent government job in my 20s
The best thing I ever did was quit and ensure I was never going to be a long term public servant.
I didn't read a book but it helped me form new life experiences
I'm just wondering why you quit the job? Boring? Low pay?
I always want to get a government job, it sounds secure and good pay, and not really much work to do…
I think those stereotypes are not always correct. "Government" job is very broad. I technically work for the government but have a scientific role and work at ANSTO. Officially I'm a "Commonwealth officer" rather than a public servant. It's not necessarily secure (although in my case I am a continuing employee and have been there more than 10 yrs), the pay is only average and I'm fairly busy everyday. Do get good leave provisions though and my super (defined benefit) is what keeps me staying in the job…
Book: Sun Tzu the Art of War
Movie: GattacaTrue. I was in a Finance role in local government. I also wanted to explore more, was young and debt free. If the role was more of a career path or choice like yours then I would have considered staying
Hi fuelrw
What motivated you to quit the job?
I've recently got a permanent government job as well and I'm not entirely happy doing what I do.
Would be great if you could share a bit more about your experience (happy for you to PM me).
I used to work in finance for a university so it was considered semi government. Super was great but pay was average. Now working in the resources sector and pay is much better. Things move a lot quicker which I enjoy. For a young person I would recommend going into the private sector and trying different jobs while you can. It will get harder to move around when you're older.
This decision was around 20 years ago. I'm now an executive manager for a reputable organisation which would be regarded a successful business.
A few factors motivated me -
Personal Outlook - I completely respect those who have more senior and contributing Gov roles. Mine was in Finance and I couldnt see myself just earning 4 times as much in a more senior finance role. So part of the move was to continue to search for an industry which suited me. I'm now in technology.
Legacy - My father successfully spent many years in public sector but I wanted to earn more and have a different legacy to prove my own sucess. Something which is difficult to do in public sector
Risk & Confidence - low risk was staying, higher risk was leaving. I consider myself a fairly safe person but when it came to making decisions at that stage of my life I was willing to take control and know that I could always reapply for a government role if it all didnt work out. I backed myself as an employable resource and also didnt have a mortgage or family back then. I had nothing to lose. If anything this built confidence that I was in complete control of my future
I can honestly say this change was a critical fork in the road.
Welcome to PM me for more.
Hi Fuelrw
Was just trying to send you a PM but you're not accepting new messages.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Sounds like you made a very sensible decision.
I don't think I am a good fit for my current role. I constantly feel like I am dying inside doing what I'm doing… Most of the time I feel extremely bored and uninspired.
My partner calls me a spoilt brat because it is supposed to be a great job with lots of room for progression (even though I have become extremely unhappy since I took on this role)
Sigh :(
@fortunecookie: sounds like a change is necessary
If you're unhappy why stay? Imagine being unhappy for the month/year/decade
That's what I did. I also imagined myself in that corner office on $170k and realised it wouldn't be enough
Be strong in your decision making, take control of your life and don't look back.
Your partner should support you and pick you up and enable you to get what's yours
Book: Bhagwad Gita
Movie: Pursuit of HappinessWhen I was your age I read "How to win Friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie. It is full of PRACTICAL advice and I constantly used it as a reference book. I cannot recommend it too highly. It literally changed my life.
I think this is a good book to read but it is dated. I felt too much about being fake to get what you want.
That's interesting because he stresses NOT to be fake.
It's been a wile since I read it and really cannot remember the exact script and how it goes but there was something to do with agreeing (actually was more of a lie)with someone despite knowing what he said was wrong just to keep him on side.
It has been about 10 years since I read it so it's a little vague. I could chase down the exact part if you like.
Despite that I still think it is a great read but kind of need to pick and discard what is relevant and what is not….just like anything I guess!!!
I agree about it being dated I tried to read it recently and gave up.
1984
Brave New World. It's supposed to be dystopic but actually has some great ideas!
It took me a while to get to 'Brave New World' after reading '1984', it was hilarious to realise that we were so distracted by Orwell's doom & gloom that we didn't notice Huxley got it right.
Neil Postman noticed and wrote a book on that very point - 'Amusing Ourselves to Death'. Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) read it and decided that was a good theme for an album. Both worth having.
I even got some spam for Soma once, that got a chuckle. (Soma is a real drug; but a muscle relaxant, not an hallucinogen.)
The following books are great. Need to read a little at a time to digest it slowly and read constantly so the concepts make sense:
Light on life - b.K.s. Iyengar
Mindset - Carol dweck
The untethered soul - Michael a singer
Yoga reminder - a.g. mohanAt the same time, start doing something meaningful to you in your life. Maybe it is volunteering at your charity of choice, supporting your grandparents, being involved in children's organisations. We're too busy everyday and we spend most of our time with people in the same walks of life who struggle with the same problems but may not realise it yet. To meet people from different ages, backgrounds and financial positions will help you see things differently.
The pursuit of financial wellness needs to be balanced with health, charity, mental growth and building strong, stable and 2-way relationships.
We're all on the same journey!
"The Beach" - the book though, not the movie. If you watch the movie, make sure you watch the "alternate ending" (i.e. the real ending from the book) on the DVD/Blu-Ray, as it was changed from the book and the whole allegory is lost with the new ending. American test audiences are idiots, and it was completely changed which makes the whole movie pointless if the allegory doesn't exist - it's just a bunch of stuff that happens. Americans can't have a 'downer ending' or leave anything unresolved or make you think, which annoys me as it was a British Book that loses a lot in translation.
Also "Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved: A Chemical Love Story" and its sequel "Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved: The Continuation" by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin. The first part of each book being an autobiographical story of the couple, the psychedelic compounds they discovered and how those compounds impacted on their relationship. The 2nd part of each book is detailed synthesis instructions, bioassays, dosages, and other commentary about the 179 different psychedelic compounds. The commentary is interesting reading, however the synthesis is unnecessary if you aren't a chemist. They are both available from Polyester Books in Melbourne.
Have you watched the movie "Life" ? I think American viewing habits and preferences are changing massively.
No
Kinsey, set my life on a course which changed it forever.
Can you elaborate?
It inspired me to research sexuality and consider it as a healthy physiological function.
Prior to that I was basically asexual.
Who is Sheldon Cooper?
I highly recommend these 2 books. Skip all the spiritual mumbo jumbo and dive straight into the heart of it. Have a browse around the website and read some articles to get yourself familiar with the concept of 'No Self' before reading the books.
Two different books.
Free (Had a great impact on my life): http://liberationunleashed.com/books/gateless-gatecrashers/
Paid (Still reading this one): http://liberationunleashed.com/books/liberation-unleashed/Movies: American History X, Manchester by the Sea, 25th Hour, too many to post here.
American History X
I've always found that film disappointing. There are no profound revelations which catalyse a divergence or return in Derek's outlook. Derek is just a shallow person, or is that a statement on race relations in urban America?
Did you watch the whole movie?
Derek befriended an African American in prison and his professor changed his outlook on things. Something along the lines of does doing the same shit with those people make you happy? That's something that stuck with me.
None of those events were profound. It would be great if they had universal appeal; to undermine racism.
My reading of the film is that nurture and circumstance foster racism in shallow people.
Alan Arkin - Halfway Through the Door
Zhuang Zi.
Seriously, read it. It changed my life.
There are many other philosophy books, but Zhuang Zi is surprisingly accessible.
I would give any "self-help" books a miss, but read philosophy.
What about Confucius?
I do like Analects too actually. I used to be more Confucian as well. I like the emphasis on education and learning, but not so much hierarchy and rites.
Taoism to me is more closer to Buddhism. For example, on learning, it says that the knowledge is infinite, and pursuing knowledge thinking that you will acquire it all is futile. A bit like the root of suffering is desire.
Unfortunately nowadays Taoism has been "popularised" into a kind of religion of fortune-telling.
In Confucianism, there is a strong flavour of there is only one way to do things, whereas in Taoism, paradoxes and different perspectives can be reconciled.
Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer. I read it many years ago and it flicked a switch in my mind that turned me from a whining misery guts into a happy stoic for life. I bought one of his later books and found it a bit preachy, but I still have the yellowed leafed copy of Your Erroneous Zones right on top of the dozen or so "self improvement" books I have bought over the years.
Watch:
Up in the Air - There are no fireworks here, no right angles, only slow, steady eye-openers. Like life.Read:
Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan ThomasI know people are scared to mention it these days…it's a pretty uncool option…but it has changed more lives than any other book out there.
The Bible.
If you're just starting out with it, try beginning with the book of Mark.
If you're just starting out with it, try beginning with the book of Mark.
Good idea!
The sheer absurd implausibility of the first book would taint the gullibility of (almost) anyone for the rest of it.
If the Bible was so absurdly implausible, then it would be unlikely to be such a life changing book.
Indeed, many throughout history and even in the present have had their lives changed by reading the Bible, and probably the most read book throughout history of mankind. Given OP was looking for a life changing book, the Bible definitely should be on the top of the suggested reading lists. There is even an added bonus that given its so popular it is very easy to find somebody to read it together and have a life changing experience together.
You've got a strong point. It's the number one selling fiction book of all time, and there can be no denying that it's changed more lives, for better or worse, than any other book.
That experience you speak of was what I had when I read a science book. I was raised to be religious and had no knowledge of evolution.
Learning about Gondwanaland was by far my biggest life-changing moment.
@Cubist: Actually it's the number one selling non-fiction book of all time: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selli…
@Warier: The Guiness book of world records isn't a scientific publication where standards of truth are set. It's a book of interesting "facts" originally conceived by a beer company, and now owned by the parent company of "Ripley Entertainment" proud owners of "Ripleys Believe It or Not".
It's been scientifically disproven on multiple fronts. If we could all move on past the point of accepting the bible as non-Fiction, and choosing whether or not to accept it as a set of metaphors/parables to live our life by, it'd be a great collective move forward for everyone.
If the Bible was so absurdly implausible, then it would be unlikely to be such a life changing book.
The Bible predated widespread scientific education by more than a millennium.
Have you read it?
I first read the parts of it that I was instructed to. The language used made no sense to me in boyhood nor to my peers so we were given an interpretation of what we "read" by the "teacher".
I later took it upon myself to read the beginning and was quickly bemused by the assertions that:
- God created the Earth before the Sun.
- The sky is made of water.
- God created biodiversity on Earth in six days.
- God formed the first human male from dust and the first human female from the male's rib.
- All of humankind are descended from these two.
etc.
@Scrooge McDuck: that's about what I've read too - although I read Revelations for kicks. Obviously the bible is bad at science. If you want to read what it is good for, try the introduction of "A history of god" by Karen Armstrong. Essentially you can think of the bible as 2000 years of evolved text to answer the question of how to live in an imperfect world. It does somethings like forgiveness well. Not so much the science.
@Scrooge McDuck:
If you read Genesis with modern eyes, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The style that it is written in is not the style of a scientific text book, but is written in the style of the "creation stories" of other ancient cultures (Mesopotamian mythology). It is not clear whether the 7 days referenced in the book is a literal or non-literal 7 days, but it is not the point of this book to be a scientific reference.I would agree that science says that many things in the bible are impossible or extremely improbably, but this is unsurprising if you accept the premise that the world and all the scientific rules of the universe were created by God.
An understanding of the context of each book of the bible will definitely help in understanding it.
The bible was written in parables and allegories NOT to be read and understood literally.
You will understand a lot more from the Videos by Bill Donahue.
Currently reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss and it could be up your alley.