Ever wished you had known something when you were younger? Something that would have changed your life for the better?

I sure have. When I was lovingly re-arranging my books during the second London lockdown, I came across a few that I wish I had read when I was 20.

They’re not the usual best sellers everyone talks about, like How to win friends and influence people that helped Warren Buffet to overcome shyness, Awaken the giant within by mega-motivator Tony Robbins, 4-hour Workweek teaching you financial freedom and Think and grow rich showing you the power of our thoughts!

These are the less known ones that changed the way I thought and behaved forever.

My dear readers and friends: Now that we’re moving towards holidays and have more time to read and focus on ourselves, I realised that these books might be something that you’ll also enjoy!

I hope they will help you as much as they helped me!

Top 5 less known books that impacted my life

1. Reinventing your life – Jeffrey E. Young

If there’s one book that changed everything for me, it’s this one. We all have our destructive patterns and the ways we react to the situations, but we’re rarely conscious of it.

Do you keep self-sabotaging and repeating the same things repeatedly e.g. pushing people away or falling in love with unavailable men or women? If you want to stop this, read this book. You’ll discover with a practical test and examples, which patterns impacts you the most and what you can do about it.

Key learning for me: Knowing and recognising your patterns gives you power to change them. Only talking about your problems and past doesn’t help: focus on who you want to become and get there one step at the time.

Easy to read and very powerful. You can get it here.

2. Rich dad, poor dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki

I never wanted to think about money and that definitely showed on my bank account. I was financially illiterate. This book opened my eyes.

They say that you should explain things so that even a kid could understand it. That’s exactly what the author did with a story of two little boys who wanted to understand how to become rich.

Key learning for me: It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. What we think is an asset is actually a liability. Having a nice car and a house doesn’t mean that you’re rich: does your house belong to you or the bank? Stop paying mortgage for 4 months and see who owns it. It’s essential to take control of your finances, know where your money goes, invest part of it, and make money work for you.

Learning about money can be entertaining and easy. If you want to improve your finances or money mindset in 2021, read this.

3. What got you here won’t get you there – Marshall Goldsmith

You’re doing well in your career, but something is stopping you from getting to the next level. You work harder and harder, but nothing happens. Issue is that those habits that brought you success, now stop you from advancing in your career.

I identified with far too many annoying habits author mentions, that turned people off and stopped me getting projects and opportunities.

Key learning for me: You might be competent and great at your job, but if you don’t behave in the way that is expected from a higher role, you won’t get there, e.g. arrogance, not collaborating, blaming… Change your old habits, change your destiny.

If you’re working in a company and want to become more successful, I highly recommend you to get it.

4. The element – Ken Robinson

The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. I read this book in one go: excellent. It has plenty of inspiring examples of people who discovered their hidden talent and how you can get in the flow. It helped me to understand better how I could find my own Element.

One particularly powerful example was a little girl who was always fidgeting in the class, considered a problem case and was sent to a therapist. After a while the therapist put the radio on, left her alone in the room and the girl started dancing. “Look. She doesn’t have a problem. She’s a dancer”, he said to the mom. That girl became a famous choreographer.

Key learning for me: We all have a talent and in the right environment we’ll be in our own Element and shine. We might have suffocated it as a child, because it wasn’t considered a viable career, e.g. dancing, photography, singing, sport, cooking. But each one of us can become a Masterchef 😉

 If you’re searching for inspiration, ideas and your strengths, this is for you! Read more details here.

5. Queens code – Alison A. Armstrong

This one is for the girls who want to become queens. I have read a lot of books about relationships and how to read men, but this kindle book blew my mind and gave me a giant amount of “aha” – moments.

The story telling is excellent and you can truly relate to the story of three women and the challenges they are going through. It gave me a different perspective on how I relate to men, I saw the toxic behaviours we women have, and learned how embracing my feminine side makes me more powerful.

Funny note: when I asked my boyfriend the questions these women had to ask in the book, he replied exactly the same way the fictional men did. Wow.

Key learning for me: Behave like a queen and you won’t have problems with boys. Stop complaining and making men feel insignificant – they are not the enemy, but a powerful ally. Listen, listen and listen – if the man is silent for few minutes, do not offer options or rephrase the question. He’s not stupid or slow. He’s just thinking. Stay silent and the magic happens.

This book is pretty much only available on Kindle, but if you want to find love or get that loving relationship back, I highly recommend getting it.

Do you want more ideas for books or do you have a book you’d recommend me to read?

I hope you found this list useful and if that is so, please do comment below with the area you’re interested in and I’ll happily make another list.

I’d also be curious to know, which book impacted your life the most and you’d recommend me to read?

Let’s learn and grow together, my friends.

Stay amazing x

Pauliina

Ps. Talking about books, if you haven’t downloaded my free e-Book “From Anxious to Unstoppable” yet, feel free to do so here. It has 5 carefully selected stories to improve your confidence at work 🙂