2022 was an amazing year and I would call it my year of "launching into the deep" (More on that when I review the year). Today, I'll be sharing my favorite things of this year. Reducing all the life-changing vehicles I encountered this year to just 15 things was quite hard. You can be sure it was only the very best that made the cut. Here are 5 books, 4 podcast episodes, 3 apps, 2 quotes, and 1 discovery that changed my life in 2022.
Books:
Redeeming Your Time - By Jordan Raynor: This is the most impactful book I read this year. How we manage our time is how we manage our lives. There are 7 time management lessons we can learn from the life of Jesus. Jordan shared them in this book. I really love this book, I had to make a video reviewing it which you can check out here.
Building a Second Brain - By Tiago Forte: This is a book for anyone who wants to build a knowledge management system. Which is everyone in this information age. We come across things every day that we don't need now. But we'd need it in the future. Instead of pressuring our brains to remember them (when we need them), we can keep them in our second brain.
Ego is the Enemy - By Ryan Holiday: This book provided the missing link to the greatest commandments of Jesus for me. There is no way you can love selflessly if you have an ego. Ego is worse than pride because you could be thinking that you're humble when you're actually not. This is a book I would still read again next year. To become a success, you must suppress your ego. When you become successful, you must suppress your ego so you don't fail. If you fail, you must suppress your ego to become successful.
The ONE thing - By Gary Keller: This book changed the way I work. I've always loved the Pareto principle and it's how I have shaped some areas of my life. I love to-do lists and that means at every point in time I have so many things I want to do. This book made me see that it's one thing that would cause the most change in that area. I also learned how to work in 4-hour blocks as well.
Storyworthy - By Matthew Dicks: Who else to learn storytelling from than the teacher who has bagged so many storytelling awards. I am analytical and that makes me love facts and numbers. Human beings don't live receiving information that way. They love hearing stories (myself included). This book taught me how to be a better storyteller and spoilt every movie I have watched since I read it. It taught me the major secret of all movies.
Podcast:
The Happiness Expert Making 1 Billion People Happier - Mo Gawdat - Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal: This is my best out of the 52 Deep Dive episodes this year. Before I listened to this episode, I thought happiness was a feeling, I found out that it's a choice. Happiness is not about the event but your expectations. Happiness has a formula. Happiness = (Events - Expectations) > Perception of the event.
David Green (CEO of Hobby Lobby) and Bill High (Co-author) - Mere Christians: David Green is over 80 years old and still hasn't retired. He doesn't believe in retirement (just like me). The Bible says "He that doesn't work shouldn't eat". He wants to eat so he'll keep working. He believes his ONE THING is to be a merchant. That's why he gives more to his employees than to missions. I really loved this episode.
Q&A with Tim Tebow: Earning Respect as a Leader - Craig Groeschel: I was searching for how to earn respect, and I found it in this episode. Tim Tebow is an athlete, author, and philanthropist who stands for Jesus. He even spoke about your life partner not being "someone you can live with" but "someone you can't live without".
I Challenge YOU... - SPI: This is the episode behind my 30 days shorts challenge (which I have completed and I'll talk about in another newsletter). 30-day challenges are a great way to get a head start on anything.
Free Apps:
Evernote: This is the app where I built my second brain. It captures images, articles, tweets, notes, and several other things. Might be a little confusing at the start but you'll love it in no time.
Instapaper: This is my read-later app. Articles I see online or sent to my email, I just send to Instapaper where I read them when I'm free. I even forward emails I don't want to read yet there.
Otter: This is the voice-to-text app. It is really advanced. It recognizes when different speakers are talking and separates them accordingly. I use it for meetings and then send the proceeds to Evernote (my second brain).
Quotes:
Verum ipsum factum (“We only know what we make”)
~ Giambattista Vico
“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls— family, health, friends, integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
~James Patterson from his novel Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas.
New Discovery:
The most important thing in life is decision-making. I need to have a vision (an expected end goal) and mental models to help me make better decisions. Anything and everything I would achieve in life are based on the decisions I made.
Learned from Dr. Myles Munroe.
Have a great weekend and a new year in advance.
Zubby