Ferate's 5: Book Reccomendations & Resistance With A Capital R. (024)

Let’s Go!!! Pumped You’re Here!

First, my last name is Ferate like karate with an F or kinda like, Ferrari.

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What’s up, everyone? Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you had an incredible weekend. Family, friends, football, food, reflection, reading, running, you name it.

Do you ever catch yourself doing too many things at once? Multi-tasking and not really getting anywhere? Feeling the pull to do several things at the same time?

I feel this often. One of my biggest commitments for the finals weeks of 2023 and going into 2024 is going all in on being present (be where your feet are) and having a presence (flying my freak flag).

It starts with knowing what I want, what is essential, and what is the singular priority with the time/energy I have at this moment. (Fun fact priority means singular. Only in the past 100 years has the word priorities been created, meaning multiple singulars.) CRAZY! Okay okay okay I know get to the point here.

I have been obsessed with Steven Pressfield lately, author of The War of Art and Turning Pro.

60 seconds for Pressfield to change your life.

This time of year I start to feel the pull. Authors need to get those books published and released right before the big holiday boom! When I get excited the stack on the left side of my desk starts to gain some elevation.

I don’t know if this happens to you, but I just need to be a little careful with this cheap dopamine and the anticipation excitement. Cheap dopamine is ordering a book and getting an Amazon package delivered. The real dopamine is doing the thing. Reading, underlining, thinking on it more later, and going back to your notes that you wrote in the margins.

Dopamine really kicks in when reading changes your behaviors, improves your conversations, and the learnings are applied directly to your life.

KEY TAKE AWAY: DIRECT & SPECIFIC APPLICATION TO LIFE.

In November I was the guest on the Hoop Commitment podcast with Mike Nilson, Director of Performance at Gonzaga. Mike is an absolute legend, an incredible human, and hopefully a future guest on my podcast (fingers crossed). To close out the conversation he asked what my 3 to 4 favorite books are.

This was a big deal because I take book recommendations seriously. Broad strokes are not going to cut it here. The same thing happens when people ask what’s your favorite restaurant in Portland.

It all depends are we talking pizza, Mexican or Thai food.

Pizza we got Pizza Thief, Apizza Scholla, Gracie’s Apizza, there are a ton of spots.

Thai Peacock, stop it… we don’t have enough time… I will spare you.

Specifics count when deciding where to eat dinner. Specifics count when deciding what book you are about to spend a solid amount of time with.

Here are 4 of my favorite books in November 2023. Highly recommend you let me know if you check one of these out.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

1. Three Parts: Wealth, Health, & Happiness.

2. This book is one of my most gifted. I carried it around with me in my backpack for years. Can open to any page and just start reading.

3. Power of leverage.

4. “Every man has two lives, and the second starts when he realizes he has just one.”

Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday

1. Those moments of stillness and inspiration are often felt during a long run, after a great workout, during a long undistracted walk, or the infamous “shower thoughts”.

2. This book made me ask the question am I just going to go through life with my fingers cross hoping more moments like this happen by coincidence or am I purposefully going to create more opportunities of stillness?

3. This book means a lot because I read it once before COVID hit, met Ryan Holiday in person at Powell’s Books in Portland December 2019, & then re-read it. Beautiful timing.

Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

1. The only way to compete with time is to take action. When you take action and do the thing, time can never go back and take that experience away from you. Creating memory dividends.

2. Life is like the game Tetris matching up the right sequence of timing, health, & experience. For example, backpacking through Europe in hostels is a 20s thing not a 70s thing.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

1. Crazy science fiction novel.

2. Imagine all decisions you have ever made are lived out in different worlds.

Here’s a list of future books that I am excited to dive into. The stack is starting to resemble Mt. Rainier.

1. Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish - Oh man to be honest I am about halfway through this one and loving it. Gervais’ FOPO & Pressfield’s Turning Pro distracted me. GUILTY

2. The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying About What People Think of You by Dr. Michael Gervais - Pressfield’s Turning Pro has this one pending. GUILTY

3. Building The Elite The Complete Guide to Building Resilient Special Operators by Weller & Pope.

4. Chasing Greatness by Jonathan Watts ***THIS ONE IS UPNEXT

5. The Anthology of Balaji: A guide to technology, truth, and building the future by Erik Jorgenson

6. Silo Series - Woo, Shift, & Dust (Next contender to knock off Dark Matter potentially? Apple TV got me hooked and it is 50% because of Black Friday Cyber Monday so……)

My reminder is dopamine hits deep in your soul when reading changes your behavior. For example, when you start noticing Pressfield’s lessons in your day to day. Within those moments between the moments.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thankful for you reading and supporting me on my writing journey. Hit me with a reply of what book you are reading!

Keep killin it, stacking those daily deposits, and making every day the best day of the year until tomorrow.

Ferate