I wanted to be the best version of myself… and this is where I started

I went into a cocoon for whole of last year drowning myself into reading/researching on how I can be the best version of myself. Immersed in learning, I totally neglected the ‘doing’ bit. So much so that I even missed renewing the domain for my blog and lost all the posts/data. I know! What a doofus you must be thinking (big time #facepalm). In this era of uber tech tools and unlimited cloud storage, I didn’t keep a back up. I probably did not value my blog as much and it was the universe’s way of taking that away from me. Nevertheless, thanks to Google (being just next to universal forces), I retraced a few of them.

 With the endless reading I did, I managed to dig out some real ‘gold’; here’s my collation of some of the most awesome self-help coaches I subscribed to. This is my 2016 round up – it’s all i’ve done this year.

James Clear (Habits & Self-improvement): James writes about behavioral psychology, habit formation, and performance improvement. I love his work for being of highest quality and the simplicity it brings. Easy to understand and follow, no jargons. James work is based on research, observation and personal experiment. I’d strongly recommend anyone interested to start with a collection of his best articles.

Vishen Lakhiani (Self-empowerment, mindfulness, philanthropy): Vishen is an entrepreneur and founder of Mindvalley-a company that I’m extremely fond of. He works to revolutionize education globally providing transformational and holistic learning by introducing mindfulness and personal development into global education and perpetual learning. Vishen conceptualised the Awesomeness fest which takes place twice a year in paradise locations across the world. Having watched many videos from the fest, I believe the A- fest to be truly epic. I’m currently reading his book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind and it’s rather funny that I tend to ‘highlight’ every other line from this book on my kindle. Brilliant stuff!

Leo Babuta (Mindfulness & all things zen): Leo blogs at Zen Habits. He writes about finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives. He runs program called Sea Change – a year long tool that helps embrace change, clear clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness. It costs just $19/month.

Marci Shimoff (Happiness evangelist): Marci is a New York Times best-selling author and world-renowned transformational expert. I read her book ‘Happy for no reason’ and it got me hooked. It’s a beautiful book and gives you enough reasons (in conflict with the title :)) to be happy every moment. I later found out that Marci is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul – the book I grew up reading in my teens. She’s also featured in the popular film – The Secret.

Seth Godin (Entrepreneurship & Marketing gyaan): As cliche as this sounds, I’m sure this name needs no introduction. Seth is the quite a god in the marketing circles. I love him for his real short blogs/notes, sometimes as concise as 3 lines and yet they’re profound and witty all at once. Do visit his site that has a real cute message which reads ‘click on seth’s head to read his blog!’

Marie Forleo (Entrepreurship & Self-empowerment): I love her talkshow on Marie TV. She’s bubbly, fun, wise and interviews some of the most sought-after minds. Watch out for Marie’s tweetables. Her tag line truly speaks to my heart – ‘Create a business and life you love.’ Being a girl, I cant help but admire her choice of wardrobe :P, her elegant style of mannerism and dressing. Marie Forleo was named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation and one of Inc’s 500 fastest growing companies of 2014. She runs an online Bschool too; be sure to check out some freebies she’s got here.

Kathy Caprino (Work & Purpose): Kathy focuses on helping women feel empowered by helping them build a successful career they love. She writes on Forbes, Huffington Post and other platforms. I attended an online workshop on ‘The quickest path to your happiest work’ and found the content she shared to be worthy of my time, considering it was a free workshop.

Late Scott Dinsmore (Work & finding Passion): Scott was on a mission to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing. He found LiveYourLegend which is a revolution, a community and more. The courses they offer are very specific, practical and way more reasonable than other similar ones. I much admire his sweet wife, Chelsea Dinsmore who now puts all her soul into championing her husband’s mission.

Mark Mason (Travel, Photography & Self-improvement): Mark is an internet entrepreneur. He writes on Happiness, Self knowledge, Relationships and Relationships among other topics. His lingo, ideas and thoughts are very ‘i dont give a sh*t kinds’. You could relate him to be the prodigal son who came around and found himself. I particularly remember enjoying his ebook on Habits that I could finish on a short duration flight.

Dr. Walter Staples (Self-help): Dr. Staples belongs to the older gamut of motivational gurus; you may relate to names like Jack Canfeild, Brain Tracy and the likes with him. I read his book ‘In Search of Your True Self‘ during the most challenging situation in my life so far and it did elevate me, brought in that transformational thinking I needed. I credit my most courageous acts to this book and swear by it.

Yiye Zhang (Intuition, Abundance, Spirituality & Manifestation): A healer, communicator & financial psychic; Yiye brings with her a unique approach by connecting with nature spirit guides to find solutions to what you may seek. She’s focused on intuitive development, self-worth healing, manifesting daily miracles & abundance. I first came across Yiye through a testimonial she offered for Marie Forleo’s Bschool program. I loved her articles as I could relate to it, being an energy healer myself.

James Altucher (Entrepreneurship & Ideation): James writes on investing, entrepreneurship, daily practice and has a kickass podcast where he interviews the most amazing people of our times. I’m midway through his book ‘Choose Yourself guide to wealth’. One big takeaway for me which he iterates often is ‘Write 10 ideas everyday’ and his ideology of the idea economy.

Dr. Biswaroop Chowdhury (Health & Nutrition): Biswaroop is focused mostly on cures to the world’s most prevalent illnesses. I’ve included him in this personal development guide because I believe that good health is the basis for any kind of development. Dr. Biswaroop gives a real simple diet plan that could be afforded by everyone and claims guaranteed cure. However, most of his video content is in Hindi catering to local masses.

Erin Stutland (Fitness): Erin’s primary objective is to MOVE people – Mentally, Spiritually, Emotionally, Financially, Physically. She coaches and mentors to help issues with work, business and life. Erin is passionate about getting people get that hot bod they yearn for. If you’re looking for a health guru, Erin makes for a great choice. I love her soul stroll audio track.. it’s free, go grab it!

Drew Canole (Health & Nutrition, Fitness): Drew is a Nutrition Specialist and national spokesperson for the benefits of juicing vegetables for health and vitality. He is the founder of Fitlife.TV where he shares “Educational, Inspirational and Entertaining” videos and articles about health, fitness, healing and longevity. I got started with watching his videos where he makes juicing seem so simple and a quick way to consume healthy.

Paul Nison (Raw food propagator): After suffering from severe health issues at age 20, Paul started to leave out all unhealthful foods, and the healthy foods he was left with were raw, ripe, fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. After turning to a more simple diet called “the raw food diet” consisting of just that, raw foods, Paul was amazed at how quickly his health returned. This led Paul to simplify all areas of his life. Do check out The Raw Life Health Show which plays on his youtube channel.

When I started out writing this blog, I didn’t think the list would be this lengthy and now I’m literally pressing myself to stop, because there are so many wonderful people I’ve learnt from this year. Nevertheless, will do a quick mention of their names & areas of focus and may be you can delve into what catches your  eye. Here they are:

Taylor Pearson (Entrepreneurship & Self empowerment) | Gretchen Rubin (Happiness & Well being) | Rijuta Diwekar (Celebrity Dietician, Nutritionist) | Mohit Pawar (Entrepreneurship & Life) | Robin Sharma (Business & Life coach) | Conor Neill (Public Speaking) | Janet Bray Attwood (Finding your passion) | Peter H. Diamandis (Technology, Inspiration & Abundance) | Tim Ferris (Skill building & time management) | Eckhart Tolle (Spirituality & Evolution)

Few others resources I found most useful:

Headspace | Pranic Healing | TEDtalks | Brainpickings.org | Local communities like Entirely So!, BHive & relevant Meetups.

2017 will be my year of ‘doing’/’putting to practice’. Let the action begin! (drumroll ?). Signing off with what the Live Your Legend team swears by ‘Change the world by doing the work you love.’