“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn
The Importance of Lifelong Learning and Mentors
Jim Rohn
I believe in lifelong learning – self-initiated education that is focused on personal development. It recognizes that as humans we have a natural drive to explore, learn and grow. Lifelong learning encourages us to improve our own quality of life and sense of self-worth by paying attention to the ideas and goals that inspire us.
Lifelong learning has generally been taken to refer to the learning that occurs outside of a formal educational institute, such as a school, university, or corporate training. It is best described as being voluntary with the purpose of achieving personal fulfillment.
Whether pursuing personal interests and passions or chasing professional ambitions, lifelong learning can help us to achieve personal fulfillment and satisfaction.
I also believe in the importance of mentors. Mentors are wise and trusted counselors and teachers. Influential senior sponsors or supporters. I have been fortunate to have several mentors in my life. I also consider several authors among my mentors. In addition to these trusted counselors and teachers, numerous individuals have unknowingly mentored me through their autobiographies and biographies as well as through historical accounts of their personal and professional challenges, successes, and failures.
The authors and books I’ve recommended on this page are a representative sample of my mentors. My hope is that by reading them, you will improve the quality of your life and sense of self-worth and that the ideas presented will inspire you.
Chuck Miller
Note: All of the recommended books are available on Amazon.com. Simply click on the title or the image of the book’s cover. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Books by Napolean Hill
The greatest motivational book of all time!
Napoleon Hill’s thirteen step program will set you on the path to wealth and success. Think and Grow Rich reveals the money-making secrets of hundreds of America’s most affluent people. By thinking like them, you can become like them. This powerful 1937 classic, with analysis from self-development authority Tom Butler-Bowdon, will continue to be read through the decades of economic boom and bust, proving that the magic formula for making money never changes.
The Law of Success is a precursor to famous motivational author Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Hill was well known for researching what made millionaires different from the common man, or what it is that is required as an essential to achieve success in one’s goals. This book explains the details of everything that one would need to know to succeed even in tough economic times. By reading this book, the readers will understand what gives certain people an edge over everyone else. By following the advices laid out in this book, the readers will get that edge. It’s time to stop wondering what it’s like to be rich and start knowing. This book has changed countless lives and it can change yours!
Following the success of his 1937 landmark bestseller, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote Outwitting the Devil, an exposé on the methods the Devil uses to ensnare and control the minds of human beings. Exploring the innermost depths of the psychology of motivation to understand why so many individuals, including himself, cannot find the initiative and courage they need to consistently implement the philosophy of individual achievement, Hill went so far as to interview the Devil himself. The resulting confession from the Devil made this book so controversial as to remain unpublished for over 70 years. Now it is your turn to break the Devil’s code and free yourself from the hidden methods of control that lead to ruin.
In this reproduction of the complete text of Hill’s original manuscript is laid out the exact nature of the power by which the Devil disarms human beings with fear, procrastination, anger, and jealousy so that they do not reach their full potential. This is the same power that paralyzed millions of individuals with fear and despondency during the Great Depression and continues to hold people back from their dreams. Complacency and mediocrity are not the root issue; they are symptoms of deeper ills that we are conditioned by society to accept. But you must open your mind to acquire knowledge and consider facts that might not harmonize with your personal beliefs in order to access a greater truth that will, as Hill said in his original preface, “bring harmony out of chaos in this age of frustration and fear.”
If you have been the victim of lost courage, weakened enthusiasm, and lack of self-discipline—if you are demoralized and plagued by fear, anxiety, overwhelm, or apathy—the seven principles to freedom detailed in this book herald your redemption. You will finally become independent of the causes of failure and misery, break the bonds of destructive habits, and unlock the secret of a natural law as significant as the law of gravity so that you can outwit the devil once and for all.
Books by Jack Canfield
Since its publication a decade ago, Jack Canfield’s practical and inspiring guide has helped thousands of people transform themselves for success. Now, he has revised and updated his essential guidebook to reflect our changing times.
In The Success Principles, the co-creator of the phenomenal best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, helps you get from where you are to where you want to be, teaching you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and realize all your ambitions. Filled with memorable and inspiring stories of CEO’s, world-class athletes, celebrities, and everyday people, it spells out the 64 timeless principles used by successful men and women throughout history – proven principles and strategies that can be adapted for your own life, whether you want to be the best salesperson in your company, become a leading architect, score top grades in school, lose weight, buy your dream home, make millions, or just get back in the job market
Taken together and practiced every day, these principles will change your life beyond your wildest dreams.
What is it that keeps us from asking for what we want? So often, the things that we want in our lives elude us for one very surprising (and deceptively simple) reason. We don’t ask for them. From a higher salary… to a better bargain… to a little more help around the house, there are all sorts of desires that we harbor but never achieve, when the fact is, we haven’t taken the most important step of all. Now, from the brilliant team who created the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, comes an all-new audio program that addresses this perplexing yet universal condition – The Aladdin Factor: How to Ask For and Get What You Want in Every Area of Your Life.
The Aladdin Factor teaches you solid, proven techniques for blasting through roadblocks to reach the rewards that lie beyond. You’ll learn how to shed self-limiting thoughts, and feel strong and deserving of the things you want. You’ll discover how to ask and who to ask in different situations… at home, at work, in shops, on the telephone. You’ll master “the technology of making an effective request,” and get a tantalizing glimpse of how different life is when you start asking. Hansen and Canfield weave their sound advice together with inspirational stories of the “Masters of the Lamp”- people who have succeeded in getting what they want by applying the seemingly simple tactic of just asking for it. You’ll recognize yourself in their stories, and realize just how much is out there waiting for you.
Whether they are corporate professionals. budding entrepreneurs. or they own a home business. most people are looking to achieve more in less time. while earning enough money to live comfortably . This book reveals the proven techniques thousands of people have used to attain all of the money they wanted while living healthy. happy and balanced lives. The Power of Focus. the new blockbuster from the coauthors of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul. is a practical no-nonsense guide that shows readers how to reach their business. personal and financial goals without getting burned out in the process.Canfield. Hansen. and Hewitt have taken the best ideas from their own successful careers (seventy-nine years of combined business expertise). and distilled them into ten powerful focusing principles.
Jack Canfield is a master motivator, world-renowned teacher, and bestselling author of The Success Principles. In his latest book, Success Affirmations, he helps readers break through to new levels of passion, purpose, and prosperity with 52 affirmations and time-tested wisdom.
In our 24/7 world, where we move at warp speed, sometimes we let life happen to us instead of taking control of our direction. Other times, we suffer from information overload, and we fail to consciously control our positive thoughts, and we allow negativity to take over. For those who want to rise above, to get unstuck, or to catapult to a new level success, Jack Canfield will show you how positive affirmations can transform your life in extraordinary ways.
Canfield, with the help of esteemed coauthors Kelly Johnson and Ram Ganglani, explains what positive affirmations are (and what they are not), why they are so effective, and how to effortlessly integrate their practice into your life. Pulling the most effective tenets from his bestselling book The Success Principles, Canfield covers all areas of life, from financial prosperity and creative pursuits to your career and positive relationships. Success Affirmations reveals:
How to avoid letting life just happen to you, and how to proactively go after your dreams
How to use the power of deliberate thought to create the reality you want
How to identify your true passions and purpose to direct your affirmations to concrete goals, not nebulous ideas or someone else’s vision
How to harness positive energy to attract what you want in your life through the Law of Attraction
How to unplug from technology and plug into your true source of energy
Canfield, with the help of esteemed coauthors Kelly Johnson and Ram Ganglani, explains what positive affirmations are (and what they are not), why they are so effective, and how to effortlessly integrate their practice into your life.
And much more!
Books by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Intention is generally viewed as a certain kind of determination propelling one to succeed at all costs by never giving up on an inner picture. In this view, an attitude that combines hard work with an indefatigable drive toward excellence is the way to succeed. However, intention is viewed very differently in this book.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer has researched intention as a force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place. This book explores intention — as something you do— as an energy you’re a part of. We’re all intended here through the invisible power of intention. This is the first book to look at intention as a field of energy that you can access to begin co-creating your life with the power of intention. Part I deals with the principles of intention, offering true stories and examples on ways to make the connection.
Dr. Dyer identifies the attributes of the all-creating universal mind of intention as creative, kind, loving, beautiful, expanding, endlessly abundant, and receptive, explaining the importance of emulating this source of creativity. In Part II, Dr. Dyer offers an intention guide with specific ways to apply the co-creating principles in daily life. Part III is an exhilarating description of Dr. Dyer’s vision of a world in harmony with the universal mind of intention.
Within the pages of this transformational book, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer reveals how to change the self-defeating thinking patterns that have prevented you from living at the highest levels of success, happiness, and health. Even though you may know what to think, actually changing those thinking habits that have been with you since childhood might be somewhat challenging.If I changed, it would create family dramas . . . I’m too old or too young . . . I’m far too busy and tired . . . I can’t afford the things I truly want . . . It would be very difficult for me to do things differently . . . and I’ve always been this way . . . may all seem to be true, but they’re in fact just excuses. So the business of modifying habituated thinking patterns really comes down to tossing out the same tired old excuses and examining your beliefs in a new and truthful light.In this groundbreaking work, Wayne presents a compendium of conscious and subconscious crutches employed by virtually everyone, along with ways to cast them aside once and for all. You’ll learn to apply specific questions to any excuse, and then proceed through the steps of a new paradigm. The old, habituated ways of thinking will melt away as you experience the absurdity of hanging on to them.You’ll ultimately realize that there are no excuses worth defending, ever, even if they’ve always been part of your life—and the joy of releasing them will resonate throughout your very being. When you eliminate the need to explain your shortcomings or failures, you’ll awaken to the life of your dreams. Excuses . . . Begone!
Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a God-realized being named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses, which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of our existence. The classic text of these 81 verses, called the Tao Te Ching or the Great Way, offers advice and guidance that is balanced, moral, spiritual, and always concerned with working for the good.In this book, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer has reviewed hundreds of translations of the Tao Te Ching and has written 81 distinct essays on how to apply the ancient wisdom of Lao-tzu to today’s modern world. This work contains the entire 81 verses of the Tao, compiled from Wayne’s researching of 12 of the most well respected translations of text that have survived for more than 25 centuries. Each chapter is designed for actually living the Tao or the Great Way today. Some of the chapter titles are “Living with Flexibility,” “Living Without Enemies,” and “Living by Letting Go.” Each of the 81 brief chapters focuses on living the Tao and concludes with a section called “Doing the Tao Now.” Wayne spent one entire year reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them each day and ultimately writing down these essays as he felt Lao-tzu wanted you to know them.This is a work to be read slowly, one essay a day. As Wayne says, “This is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life, and the result will be that you’ll live in a new world aligned with nature. Writing this book changed me forever, too. I now live in accord with the natural world and feel the greatest sense of peace I’ve ever experienced. I’m so proud to present this interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and offer the same opportunity for change that it has brought me.”
From the inspirational leader and author of the international bestsellers Your Sacred Self and Your Erroneous Zones comes this mind-awakening guidebook for making your desires reality.
Wayne Dyer is an extraordinary sensor of what people want and he moves with the ever-changing times. He focused on the heart of the spiritual with Real Magic and embraced individual sacredness with Your Sacred Self. In this enlightening work, he takes these concepts one step further to focus on meditation and manifesting what you want. Based on ancient principles and spiritual practices, Manifest Your Destiny teaches the process of meditation as a way to streamline your thoughts, desires, goals, and, ultimately, your life. Are the decisions and actions in your life controlled by your ego? Are you weighted down with unresolved troubles? Do you feel out of touch with your environment? Do you complain, find fault, or take for granted more often than you appreciate your life? You can overcome these barriers with Dyer’s technique, as outlined in his Nine Spiritual Principles that will teach you to develop spiritual awareness, reconnect with the world, trust yourself and accept your worth, and let go of demands.
Filled with warmth and insight, this invaluable book will help you achieve your goals and take you to a level higher than you’ve ever dreamed.
Books by Malcolm Gladwell
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?
His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers, and why they often go wrong—now with a new afterword by the author.
A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true?
Talking to Strangers is a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. In it, Malcolm Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt.
Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know, and the resulting conflict and misunderstanding have a profound effect on our lives and our world. Now, with Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell brings us a gripping guidebook for troubled times.
Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell’s dazzling examination of success, motivation, and the role of adversity in shaping our lives, from the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia.
Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David’s victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn’t have won.
Or should he have?
In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.
Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms—all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.
In the tradition of Gladwell’s previous bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw—David and Goliath draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.
