Posted on 1st November 2017 0

2017 has been a very interesting year of self-discovery; learning what I like, what I don’t like and what I’m worth as a person. As I was taking this journey I came across these two phenomenal books that really helped me learn more about myself.

ROADMAP by Roadtrip Nation

Roadmap transformed my life’s outlook. It isn’t your conventional self-help book, but a workbook, that taps into your true self. It touches on various concepts such as understanding “noise” in your life.

The noise they refer to is the societal expectations we internalize as our own; what your school, teachers, parents, family or popular culture expect of you, and how that distorts our own perceptions of our life.  The book guides you on how to sift the noise out to find your true self.

This book also highlights how life should be “Living in Beta”. The beta version of any software program, before its final launch, is the period whereby the software is continually improved until all the bugs are fixed, to allow it to operate optimally. Roadmap points out we should always realise life is about constant growth and improvement. It is ok to start something, review, adjust or even ditch it all together and start over. There is nothing wrong with that.  It is about striving to be better.

OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell.

Outliers demonstrated just how people’s unique realities draw them towards success. Success isn’t a singular route; it is diverse, for some, it may seem serendipitous, while for others it revolves around hard work; like the 10,000-hour principle. The principle holds that to become a world-class phenomenon in any particular field, you must deliberately practise each skill needed for a minimum of 10,000 hours.

These two books removed a huge chip off my shoulder, I finally felt that my life journey was just that, mine. There is no way I can be anyone else but who I was born to be. Who is that? Well, it is a constant deliberate work in progress. It’s about experimenting and giving life my best, if it works great, if not, try something new; but the bottom line, I need to be relentless in my pursuit to find my perfect self.

First published on the Leap Network Blog.