Books you must read!

Growing up reading was not my favorite thing to do. When I had to read, I tried to find every way I could (most times unsuccessfully) to get out of it.  In adulthood I’ve found the joy and the value of reading a good book.  So I’ve decided to share a list of books that have impacted my world tremendously.  These books are just a few of the that are now a permanent addition to my library.  I  suggest you add them to yours too.

 

Work and Money

  • Total Money Makeover – Dave Ramsey


  • The Millionaire Next Door -Dr. Thomas Stanely



  • Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki


  • The Millionaire Mind – Dr. Thomas Stanley




  • The Grow your money – Jonathan Pond


Relationships

Leadership and Success

  • John Maxwell and Jim Dornan- Becoming a person of influence
  • Robert Greene-  Mastery
  • Rabbi Daniel Lapin – Thou Shall Prosper
  • Napoleon Hill – The Law of Success
  • John Miller – QBQ
  • Entreleadership – Dave Ramsey

 

Building New Habits

The last few books I’ve read have been on Organizing and developing new habits. I’ve discovered that the your habits have a way of creating the person that you present to the world. If your work on removing more of your bad habits and focus on your bettering and creating more good habits This could mean more success for you.

I recently read a blog post by Michael Hyatt that spelled out 5 tips toward developing a new habit that I though encompass everything that I have read. These are his 5 Tips:

  • Envision the future.
  • Track your progress.
  • Develop a ritual.
  • Establish accountability.
  • Schedule check-ups.

As Darren Hardy, Publisher of success magazine said in his book “The Compound Effect”,   Your habits, good or bad, will find momentum and spiral you toward  success or failure.  The more good habits you can create the more you can lay the frame-work for success.

Beauty from the Beast

As many of you know, I’ve jumped feet first into this DIY craze! I must tell you, a midst the pain, heart beak and tears, this journey is turning out to be one of the best times in my life. A few weeks ago I started working on a project that my wife and I have nick named “The Beast”; and rightfully so, this piece weighs a few hundred pounds.

Bookshelf from Spare 2 x 10’s

This has been one of the most difficult yet the most rewarding pieces that we’ve built yet.  We saw the designs on The Design Confidential and instantly fell in love with it.  We started out looking for a project that would use some of the existing scrap wood that we have accumulated.  We jumped right into the project without fully reading the instructions. Needless to say, we made multiple trips to Lowe’s, to buy more wood.   It took 3 long weekend’s to complete the building. Now all that remains is agreeing on a color (we’re thinking a honey colored stain). Throughout the process we had some issues with the measurements of the frame and the cuts for the top. We went through about 5 pieces of 2x10s before we got it right. We ended up using the extra 2x10s to build a quick but beautiful bookshelf.  What’s more, we did not use any of our scrap wood, as we planned to (what wasn’t too short, wasn’t wide enough).

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One of the thing that I’ve learned from this experience was not to be afraid to take your project to Lowe’s or Home Depot to ask them questions. After 3 broken jig saw blades, I finally went to the experts who recommended I use a hand saw to cut the space out for the 4×4 legs, in addition to the jig saw. All in all, this is an amazing piece of furniture. Hardest part was fitting the top.  Now, not only do I have this beautiful buffet, I also have someplace to place food during movie night with the kids so the dogs wont get in to it.

With the help of TheDesignConfidential.com we saved $1200 on this Big Sur Inspired Buffet . Take a look at the real Crate and Barrel product