What we feed our minds matters.
A short list of the writers, thinkers, and do-ers that have impacted me the most.
While an imperfect analogy, it’s helpful to view your mind as a funnel.
At the top of the funnel is all of the content you consume - articles, podcasts, news, videos, social media, etc. At the bottom of the funnel is your mindset, and more broadly, your life.
The content gets squeezed, filtered, and ultimately becomes the framework for how you operate in the world around you.
The funnel doesn’t produce immediate results. Instead, it’s a funnel built by density and consistency over time. Our mindset over a long enough arc is shaped by what we feed it. Which is why paying particular attention to the inputs is incredibly important, and admittedly easy to overlook.
Below are the creators* that have shaped my thinking and ideas the most over the past decade plus. I hope they’ll be helpful to you as well.
*Note that several of the people listed have written multiple books. I’ve included the ones that were most impactful for me. I encourage you to check out the range of their work.
Work + Leadership
Seth Godin
📚 Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Cal Newport
📚 So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Steven Pressfield
📚 The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Greg McKeown
📚 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Jerry Colonna
📚 Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up
Jason Fried
Habits
BJ Fogg
📚 Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything
James Clear
📚 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Mindset
Derek Sivers
🌐 Sive.rs
📚 How to Live: 27 Conflicting Answers and One Weird Conclusion
Dr. Joe Dispenza
📚 Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon
Eckhart Tolle
📚 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Health
Shawn Stevenson
📚 Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success
Wim Hof
📚 Becoming the Iceman: Pushing Past Perceived Limits
Dr. Andrew Huberman
James Nestor
📚 Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art