Books

Every human being is walking toward something they believe is missing

People are attracted to what they themselves do not possess.

The lonely seek belonging.
The uncertain seek confidence.
The fearful seek strength.
The ordinary seek greatness.
The confused seek certainty.
The poor seek wealth.
The wealthy seek meaning.
The famous seek peace.
The powerful seek trust.

“Every human being… is walking toward something they believe is missing.”

We do not come into this world to become extraordinary.

We come into this world…

to become fully human.

The world may know your story.
Only you can know your soul.

Book: What I Truly Want by Dr. Ankit Barot

Life is not going to wait for you

Every person you meet had a life before you and may have a life after you. Sometimes your paths cross only briefly, but that doesn’t make the moment you shared meaningless.

The same is true of life itself. There may never be a perfect time when everything becomes quiet, easy, and under control.

If something matters to you, don’t keep waiting for life to make space for it. Life keeps moving.

Do what matters while you have the chance.

Book: This Too Shall Pass, compiled by Momentary Existentialism

Every strong story needs a challenge

The strongest stories aren’t built around information alone. They’re built around challenges—external forces you can’t control, internal friction within a team or organization, and personal fears or doubts that live inside you.

The deeper the challenge, the more powerful the story can become.

But good storytelling starts before technique. First get clear on what you’re trying to accomplish. Your mission creates meaning, meaning creates structure, and structure guides how you tell the story.

Don’t start with, “How should I tell this?” Start with, “What am I actually trying to do?”

Book: The Story Map by Sandeep Nair

A meaningful life requires more than happiness

A fulfilling life isn’t built on pleasure alone. Happiness comes from a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and a sense that your life has meaning.

But meaning often requires vulnerability. Love, relationships, and connection involve the possibility of rejection—and avoiding that pain completely can also mean avoiding experiences that give life depth.

Don’t build your life around never getting hurt. Build one meaningful enough that some risks are worth taking.

Book: The Meaning of Your Life by Arthur C. Brooks

The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself

You are more than your mistakes, anxiety, or worst moments. Treat yourself with the same patience, kindness, and encouragement you would give someone you deeply care about.

And remember, true wealth isn’t measured by money, status, or possessions. It’s reflected in how you treat people. Success means little if it costs you your humility, kindness, and empathy.

Be gentle with yourself. Be humble with others. What matters most is not what you own, but how you make people—including yourself—feel.

Book: You’re Worth Loving by Tanisha Mishra

Stop outsourcing your life

Expecting others to always stay, understand you, or guide you can leave you dependent on something you can’t control. Learn to create enough space within yourself that being alone feels safe rather than empty.

The same applies to your mind. Constantly consuming other people’s opinions, advice, and social media can drown out your own judgment.

Spend time alone. Listen to yourself. Your heart can help you decide what matters, and your mind can figure out how to move forward.

Let other people add to your life—not become the foundation of it.

Book: The Art of Being Alone by Renuka Gavrani

A simple morning system for changing your life

How you end your day can influence how you begin the next. Set an empowering intention before bed instead of falling asleep focused on stress or overwhelm.

Then build your morning around six practices:

S — Silence
A — Affirmations
V — Visualization
E — Exercise
R — Reading
S — Scribing

You don’t have to transform everything at once. Start one step at a time. Practised consistently, these habits can strengthen your mindset and accelerate personal growth.

Book: The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Your thoughts have power only when you accept them

Other people’s words don’t control you unless you give them your attention and belief. The moment you accept a thought as true, your subconscious begins acting on it.

To create change, don’t force your subconscious. Give it a clear, positive idea, feel it as real, and let your mind work toward it.

The thoughts you repeatedly accept become the life you experience.

Book: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy

Why read The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy?

First published in 1963, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind is one of the most influential personal development books of all time. Joseph Murphy explores how your beliefs, thoughts, and subconscious patterns shape the way you experience life.

Key insights:

Your subconscious accepts what you repeatedly believe: The ideas you consistently feed your mind influence your actions and results.

“Feel its reality now and the law of your mind will do the rest.”

Other people don’t control you: Their opinions only have power if you accept them.

“The suggestions of others have no power over you.”

Your thoughts become your experience: Positive and constructive thinking creates different outcomes than fear and doubt.

You always have a choice: No matter your circumstances, you can choose your response and the beliefs you reinforce.

“Choose life! Choose love! Choose health!”

Why read it?

If you’re interested in mindset, self-belief, and understanding how your thoughts influence your life, this timeless classic offers simple ideas that have inspired millions of readers for decades.

Why read Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza?

In Becoming Supernatural, Dr. Joe Dispenza explores how thoughts, emotions, meditation, and daily habits shape the way we experience life.

Key insights:

Your habits create your reality: Repeated thoughts and emotions can keep you stuck in the same patterns.

Change starts within: You don’t have to wait for external circumstances to feel differently.

“Your personality creates your personal reality.”

Meditation builds awareness: It helps you observe your thoughts instead of reacting automatically.

The mind and body are connected: Stress, emotion, and attention can influence how you feel physically.

Growth requires the unknown: Real change begins when you stop returning to what feels familiar.

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”

Why read it?

If you want to break old patterns, become more intentional, and explore meditation as a tool for personal change, this book offers a practical framework to begin.

Your Body and Heart Can Change Your Brain

Book: Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza

Discipline is not a punishment

Discipline is not a punishment, it’s a way to avoid punishment.
We do it because we love ourselves, we value ourselves and what we do.

Seek yourself, not distraction.
Be happy, not hedonistic.
Let the mind rule, not the body.
Conquer pleasure, make yourself superior to pain.

By the standard of pleasure, nothing is more pleasant than self-control…
and nothing is more painful than lack of self-control.
Nobody who has given themselves over to excess is having a good time.
No one enslaved to their appetites is free.

Book: Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday

You Can’t Live an Extraordinary Life Sitting on Your Couch

“You can’t understand the world if you never see it.”

Traveling is the best education you will ever receive.
It immerses you in another culture.
It shows you how other people live day-to-day.
And it gives you a greater appreciation for your own opportunities and privileges.

You are going to die — we each get a finite amount of time on this earth.
So do something bold.
Something courageous.
Something ambitious.

Book: How to Live an Extraordinary Life by Anthony Pompliano

Confidence Is Built in the Next Step

Confidence might begin with that first step, but it’s built in the next one.

I brought a new kind of understanding down the mountain with me; an understanding that I was capable of far more than I had ever allowed myself to believe.

What I’ve come to realize is that climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is no different than asking for a raise, sharing your ideas in a boardroom, or applying for a job that seems beyond your reach. Climbing Kilimanjaro was me—yes, ME—saying yes to a version of myself that I didn’t even know existed yet.

What about YOU? Have you ever said no to something you wanted to do because self-doubt stopped you from even trying? Turned down a project at work because you doubted your ability to succeed? Let someone dismiss your idea in a meeting because you didn’t feel confident to stand up for yourself? Skipped applying for a job you really wanted because you thought you didn’t meet every qualification? Stayed home from an event because you felt you wouldn’t fit in?

Those are just a handful of ways that self-doubt can show up in our lives. I bet most of us have experienced some, or all, of these moments.

What Did You Fail at Today?

The best way to overcome failure?
Change the way you see it.

Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, grew up with a father who understood the importance of failure and the growth it can bring us. Every day at the dinner table, her father would ask one simple question: “What did you fail at today?”

If Sara couldn’t think of anything she had failed at, like tripping in the locker room or missing some questions on a math test, her father would be disappointed. That one question, “What did you fail at today?” helped Sara reframe failure as proof that she was trying new things and seizing opportunities. If she wasn’t failing, her father reminded her, she wasn’t really trying.

With this mindset, experiencing failures became a positive thing and nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes, her best failures were even rewarded with a high-five from her proud father. For Sara, the greatest tragedy wasn’t failure; it was never trying or risking anything.

Oftentimes, it’s your own thoughts and fear of failure that hold you back from accomplishing the things you really want to achieve in life. That is, the fear of failing can be much more paralyzing than having to deal with actually failing!

Book: Real Confidence by Simone Knego

SLEEP FOR THE BRAIN

Sleep is not the absence of wakefulness. It is far more than that.

Described earlier, our nighttime sleep is an exquisitely complex, metabolically active, and deliberately ordered series of unique stages.

Numerous functions of the brain are restored by, and depend upon, sleep. No one type of sleep accomplishes all. Each stage of sleep—light NREM sleep, deep NREM sleep, and REM sleep—offer different brain benefits at different times of night. Thus, no one type of sleep is more essential than another. Losing out on any one of these types of sleep will cause brain impairment.

SLEEP TO FORGET?

Up to this point, we have discussed the power of sleep after learning to enhance remembering and avoid forgetting. However, the capacity to forget can, in certain contexts, be as important as the need for remembering, both in day-to-day life (e.g., forgetting last week’s parking spot in preference for today’s) and clinically (e.g., in excising painful, disabling memories, or in extinguishing craving in addiction disorders).

Moreover, forgetting is not just beneficial to delete stored information we no longer need. It also lowers the brain resources required for retrieving those memories we want to retain, similar to the ease of finding important documents on a neatly organized, clutter-free desk. In this way, sleep helps you retain everything you need and nothing that you don’t, improving the ease of memory recollection. Said another way, forgetting is the price we pay for remembering.

Book: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Do You Ask These and/or Similar Questions?
1. ‘What is the problem?’
2. ‘Why did I fail?’
3. ‘Why are my relationships not working?’
4. ‘Why am I not able to earn as much as I should?’
5. ‘In which subjects is my child weak?’
6. ‘Why am I not getting what I deserve?’
7. ‘Why am I sick so often?’
8. ‘Why are people so insensitive?’
9. ‘Why are people so unhelpful?’
10. ‘Why did that person insult me?’

Try asking the above questions of yourself; see the kind of answers you get, and also observe the kind of mental themes you are creating for yourself. The themes which may emerge are:
‘I am unlucky.’
‘Life is difficult.’
‘Life is uncertain.’
‘People can’t be trusted.’
‘I can never succeed.’
‘It is not in my destiny.’
‘People are selfish.’

Instead, Prefer to Ask These Questions:
1. ‘What keeps me happy and smiling?’
2. ‘What are the things happening in my life which I value?’
3. ‘What do I value in my relationships?’
4. ‘What is the one thing critical to building happy, healthy and stable relationships?’
5. ‘What changes have I made that have positively impacted my life?’
6. ‘What has inspired me lately?’
7. ‘What does career growth mean to me?’
8. ‘How can I enhance my happiness and positivity today?’

Use ‘I Am’ Statements
1. ‘I am alive at this moment and thank God for that.’
2. ‘I am safe at this moment.’
3. ‘I am grateful for what I have today.’
4. ‘I am worthy and deserving of love.’
5. ‘I am focused only on what I can control now.’
6. ‘I am open and present to this experience.’

In case your habitual ‘I’ statements are negative and disempowering in nature—
‘I am stuck’, ‘I am not enough’, ‘I am worthless’—
replace them with empowering ‘I am’ phrases.

‘I deserve happiness and I am capable of creating my own happy moments.’
‘I love and accept myself as I am.’
‘I have the capability to deal with challenges.’
‘I am in an adventurous moment, I will make it a memorable moment.’
‘I have inner resources and I am learning to use them appropriately.’

Changing ingrained mental habits takes practice.
Regularly practising the above for 21 days will bring a sustainable change.

Book: Psychology of Self-Talk by Prof. Manju Agrawal

Influence ≠ People Pleasing

If you’re bending over backwards just to convince people, you are not influencing.
You are auditioning.

Because being sweet is easy.
Being taken seriously requires a lot of work.

You won’t be remembered for always nodding along.
You’ll be remembered for speaking up when it mattered.
For asking the question no one else had the guts to.

Rudeness ≠ Boundaries

When you’ve spent your life shrinking yourself,
the first time you speak up might come out like an explosion.

“I’m done!”
“Stop it!”
“Not happening!”

You don’t need to attack anybody to protect your space.
You don’t need to offend anybody to be clear.

Boundaries don’t have to burn the house down.
They can close the door—gently, firmly, kindly.

Instead of saying: “I’m not doing that.”
Try: “That doesn’t work for me right now,”
or “That’s not something I can take on.”

Book: Winning People Without Losing Yourself
Ankur Warikoo

Understanding Fear’s Many Faces in Trading

Fear is the most potent emotion traders face, and it’s responsible for more trading mistakes than all other emotions combined. The irony is that fear, which evolved to protect us from danger, often becomes our biggest enemy in the market. Fear isn’t something you need to eliminate from your trading. Instead, you need to understand, work with, and channel it into better decision-making.

Fear in trading isn’t just one emotion—it’s a complex web of anxieties that can paralyze even the most experienced traders. Each type of fear affects your trading differently, and recognizing which one you’re dealing with is the first step toward managing it effectively.

The most obvious type is the fear of losing money. This hits hardest when you’re watching a profitable trade turn against you or sitting on a losing position that keeps getting worse.

Then there’s the fear of missing out, commonly known as FOMO. This fear drives you to chase moves you’ve already missed, often entering positions at the worst possible moments.

The third primary type is the fear of being wrong. This one is particularly insidious because it simultaneously attacks your ego and confidence. It keeps you on the sidelines, watching opportunity after opportunity pass you by.

The fourth primary type is the fear of leaving money on the table—the anxiety traders feel about exiting profitable positions too early and missing out on additional gains. This fear can be just as destructive as losing money because it causes traders to hold winning positions longer than their strategy dictates.

Each of these fears feels different in your body and mind, but they all share one common trait: they push you to make emotional decisions instead of logical ones. The key is learning to recognize which fear you’re experiencing so you can respond appropriately.

The Biology Behind Your Trading Fear

When your brain perceives a threat—like watching your position move against you—it triggers an ancient survival mechanism called the fight-or-flight response. Within seconds, your brain floods your system with stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. Your heart rate spikes. Your breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Your rational, analytical brain—the prefrontal cortex—can’t function properly.

Instead of thinking clearly, weighing options, and making calculated decisions, your brain defaults to quick, emotional responses designed to get you out of danger as fast as possible.

Book: A Trader’s Guide to Mastering Your Emotions by Steve Burns & Holly Burns

Your Self-Image Determines Your Life

All your actions, feelings, behaviors — even your abilities — are always consistent with your self-image. In short, you will “act like” the sort of person you conceive yourself to be. Not only this, but you literally cannot act otherwise, in spite of all your conscious efforts or willpower.

The man who conceives himself to be a “failure-type person” will find some way to fail, in spite of all his good intentions or his willpower, even if opportunity is literally dumped in his lap. The person who conceives himself to be a victim of injustice, one “who was meant to suffer,” will invariably find circumstances to verify his opinions.

The self-image is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self-image and you change the personality and the behavior.

But more than this: the self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment. It defines what you can and cannot do. Expand the self-image and you expand the “area of the possible.” The development of an adequate, realistic self-image will seem to imbue the individual with new capabilities, new talents, and literally turn failure into success.

Book: Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Your Best and Worst Choices Are Separated by Noise

Your best choice and your worst choice are rarely separated by values and skills, and almost entirely by the crowd noise in your brain over those choices.

So, Chasing 10Hz is really the goal, not just to be present but especially for higher orders of decision-making and focus.

Book: Life Explained: Chasing 10Hz by Dr. Izzy Justice

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You Have Time

If your time had passed, you would have passed away too. The fact that you are here, your time to make IT happen is still here too. Whoever you believe is sitting up in heaven won’t call you back until you DO the work that you feel inspired to do.

You have time. The only time you lose is when you feel scared of running out of it instead of using it to go after what ignites your soul.

Book: The Life Beyond Fear by Ella Heart

Choice Is Creation

Choice is creation.
To choose is to create.
Through my choices I create my reality.

At every moment in my life I have a choice.
Moments add up to a lifetime; choices add up to a life.

What kind of life do I want for myself?
What choices will create this kind of life?

Book: Choose the Life You Want by Tal Ben-Shahar

The Difference Between Thoughts and Thinking

Thoughts are the energetic, mental raw materials from which we use to create everything in the world. We can’t experience anything without thought. It’s important to know that thoughts are nouns and aren’t something that we do, but something we have. A thought takes no effort or force on our end, and it is something that just happens. We also cannot control what thoughts pop into our minds. The source of thoughts comes from something that is beyond our minds—the Universe, if you will.

Thinking, on the other hand, is the act of thinking about our thoughts. This takes a significant amount of energy, effort, and willpower (which is a finite resource). Thinking is actively engaging with the thoughts in your mind. You don’t have to engage with each thought in your mind, but when you do, that is thinking.

Thinking is the root cause of all our psychological suffering.

Now you might be wondering, where do positive thoughts fit into the picture? Positive thoughts, or thoughts that feel good, are not a result of thinking. They are, instead, generated by our natural state of peace, love, and joy. They are a byproduct of a state of being, not a state of thinking. We will go into depth about this in the next chapter.

Book: Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

The smartest people I know:

1. Obsessively read books.
2. Pursue new mental models.
3. Enjoy intelligent discourse.
4. Quickly admit when they’re wrong.
5. Are comfortable changing their opinion.
6. Surround themselves with intelligence.
7. Seek to understand every perspective on a topic.

Book: How to Live an Extraordinary Life by Anthony Pompliano

The root cause of our suffering is our own thinking.

Our perception of reality is very real. We will feel what we think, and our feelings are real — that is completely undeniable. However, our thinking can look like an inevitable, unchangeable reality until we begin to see how our reality is created.

If we know that we can only ever feel what we are thinking, then we know that we can change our feelings by changing our thinking. In this way, we can change our experience of life by knowing that it comes from our own thinking.

Book: Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

Your late night scrolling could literally be hurting your heart.

Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.

Fitting Charlotte Brontë’s prophetic wisdom that “a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow,” sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.

Book: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Why Alcohol Is More Dangerous Than Any Illegal Drug

People fear cocaine, heroin, and drugs.
But not alcohol.

And yet…

Alcohol kills 3 million people every year (WHO data)
More than 200 diseases are caused or worsened by alcohol
Alcohol is the leading cause of liver failure and cancer
Alcohol destroys more families than any drug

Even worse:

Alcohol is the only drug that people pressure you to take.

Nobody will ever say:
“Come on, have some heroin. Be a sport.”

Book: Alcohol Is Poison: How to Stay Away by M. K. Devidasan

Being present is a great thing, but like many things in life, don’t overdo it.

That’s why I like to live like I’m immortal. Because when you live forever . . .

You have all the time in the world to build something.
You can make mistakes and learn from them.
There’s no pressure to make things happen fast.
You treat people with respect because other people will also be around forever.

This small tweak in my mindset has helped me to take a different view on life. I’m not afraid to look 10 or 20 years ahead. That helps me to make better decisions TODAY. For example, I’d rather save my money or invest it instead of spending it because I know that “future Darius” will benefit from that.

Book: Do It Today by Darius Foroux