600 + of the top optimal
living books…ever.

Would you like to ignite and sustain the fire of genius? Well, Michael Gelb's your guy, then. Gelb is one of the world's leading thinkers + teachers on applied genius creativity. He wrote the life-changing book, "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci" and is back with more goodness in this gem. Specifically, he teaches us how to cultivate our creative mindset + creative mojo via tapping into universal life force, or qi = good stuff!

This is one of the three books by Campbell we cover and in this Note, we'll learn why following our bliss is so important (hint: our bliss is the transcendent wisdom within us bubbling up!) and how we can more courageously follow it in our lives (hint: say "Yes!" to life more often!). We'll also look at how we can make the simple things in our life part of our heroic journey and how going for it isn't an ego trip.

Eric Maisel is one of my favorite writers and teachers and thinkers. In addition to being one of the world’s leading creativity coaches (and therapists), he’s also an amazing exemplar of creativity—having written dozens of books on a broad range of subjects. Big Ideas we explore in this Note include the fact that anxiety goeswith anxiety (yes, “goeswith” = one word!), existential decisiveness and why it matters, enervators —> energizers, a cool mantra, cognitive restructuring and step 1 to creativity.

Would you like to be the greatest version of you? Og Mandino's classic can help with that. The best selling book on sales ever written is really a fun fable about how to achieve success in any/ever domain. In the Note, we unroll the "10 ancient scrolls" of wisdom to discover that obstacles are our friends, good habits are essential and other such goodness.

This is a fantastic, old school psychology classic. Written in 1975, Albert Ellis (see Notes on A Guide to Rational Living) says it’s “One of the best self help books ever written.” Lazarus and Fay walk us through 20 of the most common mistakes that can ruin our lives and, of course, how to correct them. Big Ideas include myths about change, the 2 things we need to do to change, and optimizing our locus of control.

Want to get Bulletproof? Then Dave Asprey is your man. An uber-successful entrepreneur who weighed 300 lbs before bio-hacking his way to optimal awesome, Dave gives us a guide to upgrading our lives. Big Ideas include the 10 Diet Myths, inflamma, fruits and vegetables, and making health a means to a much bigger end.

Dave Asprey is a fascinating guy. He’s a professional bio-hacking machine whose publicly-stated goal is to live to 180. We covered his last book called The Bulletproof Diet and our kitchen’s pantry is filled with a bunch of his Bulletproof products. In this book, he unveils his best bio-hacks for, as the sub-title suggests, “activating untapped brain energy to work smarter and think faster.” Big Ideas we explore: Your brain on energy, kryptonite dust (what’re yours?), mitochondria (one QUADRILLION!), EZ water (how to drop into that spot between a gas and a liquid), and junk light.

I’m a big fan of Kelly McGonigal and her ability to help us apply scientific wisdom to our lives. We’ve covered two of her earlier books: The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. So... When I got this book, knew I’d enjoy it. But, I didn’t anticipate JUST how much I’d love it. We have some great Notes on Movement (Spark, Spartan Up and No Sweat among my favorites), but Kelly’s book will be our new go-to for the science of WHY exercise/movement is so essential to our well-being. It’s PHENOMENAL. Reading about the SCIENCE behind stories of transformation (and how, as per the sub-title of her book: “Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage”) also made me that much more clear on the power of what we’re doing with all of our work and the importance of focusing so much on Energy (especially with our Mastery and Coach programs). Big Ideas we explore include: Hope Molecules (and how to create them), persistence highs (and how to create them), collective effervescence (and why it's so awesome), how we endure (hint: TOGETHER!), and OMMS!!! (Obstacles (literally!) Make Me Stronger!).

Dave Asprey is a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and professional biohacker. In fact, he’s basically the founder of the whole biohacking movement. We’ve featured two of his previous books: The Bulletproof Diet and Head Strong. As we discussed in our other Notes, his explicit aim is to live to 180. This book is basically his operating manual on how he’s going after that astonishingly ambitious (and equally inspiring) goal. The book has three parts: Part I: Don’t Die. Part II: Age Backward. And, Part III: Heal Like a Deity. Big Ideas we explore include: The #1 rule of biohacking (and Optimizing), How not to die (aka Rules 1 ,2 and 3), Food = Anti-aging drug (how's your nutrition?), Sleep or Die (featuring a view of Dave's crazy Oura stats along with mine from last night), and getting ready to celebrate your 180th (!) birthday.

This is a quick-reading, smart, practical guide on how to, as the sub-title suggests, “Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done. My kind of book. I *highly* recommend it. Big Ideas we explore include rats + rewards (real vs. random), progress hacks to conquer the progress paradox, saying “YES!!!” en route to saying “No” plus the physics of emails and 21st century superpowers.