Three Books For Massively Shifting Your Mindset and Driving Results
Can simply reading books really make that much of an impact on your life? The short answer is yes, but with an asterisk*. Jim Rohn, a successful entrepreneur and self made millionaire, explains this asterisk well: “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”
The act of just reading itself is not what will make a massive shift in your mindset. What you do with that information you’ve absorbed is what will lead to meaningful change. In order to see that shift, you have to be willing to take the time to actual make those key takeaways be what drives the behavior changes you decide to fold into your day to day life moving forward.
As we wrap up 2021, we wanted to share a list of three must reads that can help drive those massive mindset shifts that will help you make real positive progress in 2022 and beyond. How do we know? EZ FI U founder, Elisa, directly attributes her success reaching exponential growth in 2021 to these three books. We’ll share the key takeaways from each book and examples of how she put them into practice so you can see just how powerful these can be when combined with purposeful action.
1. The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
Two Sentence Takeaway
The one takeaway from the one thing was how to focus on one thing. This book teaches you how to truly prioritize one thing at a time, live in the “high valleys” of your life, and ultimately help you feel you’ve truly achieved something because you of the focus gained by honing in on one thing. By eliminating the time typically spent trying to make decisions as you try to accomplish many different goals and projects at a time, you can truly zero in on what will drive the most impact for your business and personal life.
Putting It Into Practice
Elisa used to have an endless list of to dos every day. After reading The One Thing, she intentionally cut down the list of items to focus on each day from 20 to 5. She even went as far as buying a physical planner that can only fit 5 things on each page to help her get disciplined. By keeping that list small, it forced her to focus on the most important things on her list and say no to (or delegate) the rest. The result? Freeing up her mind from clutter and ultimately being able to do 2x in one year what previously took her 4 to accomplish. Now that’s massive!
2. Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan
Two Sentence Takeaway
People, not tools, technology, or process, are the best resource one can leverage to drive significant growth and progress towards whatever it is you’re trying to achieve. This book is all about shifting to ask who can help you achieve your goals, and by doing so, getting out of the scarcity mindset that typically impedes our ability to actually make progress on our goals.
Putting It Into Practice
By simply using the “Who Not How” concept, Elisa was able to hire her first full time employees, identify partners, and find investors that all believe in the same core values as her. She prioritized nurturing these specific relationships because of this harmonious connection. The positive results of this shift in focus on the “who” was reflected in both the funding and sourcing of deals. The business this year has seen the largest number of repeat investors in deals and benefited from fewer, but more meaningful, partnerships across these deals. Not only did the business benefit, but she noticed a consistent sense of happiness stemming from the feeling of being able to truly make an impact on the people she valued most. Ultimately, she became the “who” that brought value to those peoples lives as well, which is the most fulfilling part of this whole process.
3. The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg and John David Mann
Two Sentence Takeaway
When you focus less on what you are trying to get and more on how you can add value to other people’s lives, it actually leads to better (and often bigger) results. This book will not only humble you, but show you how prioritizing being a thoughtful giver can open doors of opportunity that you never even knew existed.
Putting It Into Practice
Here at EZ Real Estate, we start every one of their discovery calls, podcast interviews and partnership discussions by asking “How can we bring value to you?” We take the time to find what makes our investors, brokers, lenders and partners tick. Our goal is to deliver what they really want and need in that moment, vs what we as a business want and need. Here’s a good example: For years, Elisa (like many of you), has been pounding her head on the table to figure out how to get more multifamily deal flow. After shifting her mindset to becoming a true “Go-Giver”, she noticed that she was getting fantastic deals sent almost exclusively to her inbox because of the strong relationships where she focused on what she could do for them vs what they could do for her. The lesson learned here is if you want to become one of the elite investors, focus on what you can give to others instead of what others can give to you.
Want to hear directly from The Go-Giver Himself? We were incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with the author of this phenomenal book, Bob Burg, on our 10,000 Roads to Financial Independence podcast. If you want to hear directly from the man himself, watch the interview or listen to the episode.
Conclusion
Together, these three books will provide you with a powerful mental toolkit that you can begin to incorporate into your day to day life. As you read each book, write down the one action you will actually put into practice each day from the lessons learned. At the end of each day, reflect on how that practice went. Did you notice anything change? Are you achieving different results than you did before? How are people around you responding?
Remember, the only way to derive true value from these books is to turn the teachings into actions. If you do, you’ll not only see the massive mindset shifts that take place in yourself, but the massive results that materialize in your life as well. Happy reading and massive mindset shifting, do-ers!