September 4, 2024 • 14 mins
Have you ever dreaded reading, only to discover that it could be the gateway to personal transformation? Join me, Justin Arrington, on the Freedom First Podcast as I recount my evolution from a reluctant reader to an enthusiastic advocate for personal development through books. I dive into my top five essential reads, starting with Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People," which unveils timeless principles for effective communication and building lasting relationships. I also dissect Tim Grover's "Relentless," exploring the 'cleaner' mindset needed to excel in every facet of life. These books have significantly altered my perspective and habits, and I believe they can do the same for you.
In the latter half of the episode, I encourage you to share the books that have shaped your life. Let's create a vibrant community where we exchange insightful reads and recommendations. Connect with me on Facebook or Instagram to share your top lists and discover common interests. Whether you’re an avid reader or just getting started, this episode aims to inspire you to incorporate reading into your daily routine for continuous growth and self-betterment. Thank you for tuning into the Freedom First Podcast – together, let's embark on a journey of lifelong learning and personal growth!
Follow me on IG @_justinarrington
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome back to the Freedom First Podcast, everyone,
my name is Justin Arrington,I'm the host of this podcast
show and I'm excited for all ofyou guys to be here with me once
again today.
As you guys know, if you havebeen listening to the show for a
while, I drop a new episodeevery single day bringing you
little tips and tricks that youcan start applying into your
life right now so that you canstart living life on your own
(00:40):
terms.
So, guys, I'm going to diveright into it.
Today's actually an episodethat I've been looking forward
to doing, honestly, since thebeginning of this show, and it's
going to be a little bit of afun one for me, because the
topic is about reading and I, tobe honest, I don't think I read
a book cover to cover, until Iwas in my early twenties.
(01:01):
You know, all through highschool, after junior high, like
all of that, I hated reading.
It was something that I justdidn't find enjoyable, and the
reason because of that is justbecause I was told that I had to
read these fantasy books and,you know, none of that ever
interested me and, to be honest,I didn't even really know about
personal development, like Ididn't know that there were
(01:22):
books on, you know, makingyourself better, and it wasn't
until I had signed up for one ofmy first courses that I ever
purchased and one of therequirements was that I needed
to, you know, read this book,and I wish I knew what book it
was.
I don't really don't evenremember what the title of that
book was at the time, but eversince then I've kind of become
(01:46):
an avid reader.
Reading is something that Ienjoy.
It's something that I make timeto do, at least try to make
happen every single day for atleast 15, 20 minutes, and I
think it's a really good habitthat everybody should try and
build up.
Yes, it is, it is timeconsuming, but, um, there's
(02:07):
different ways that you canlisten, like, you can listen to
audible, you can listen to, um,you know, any book on your phone
nowadays, but I actually dolike to buy the physical copy
and then I also listen along toit.
While I read it, I just I'mable to to understand things and
interpret things a little bitbetter that way.
So if you guys don't likereading, maybe try that out.
(02:28):
You know, buy the book, buy theAudible and just read them both
simultaneously side by side andsee if that might help, because
it helped me and so anyway,that's kind of beside the point,
but, like I said, I reallywasn't an avid reader.
I hated reading, but since thenI don't know how many books
(02:49):
I've read.
I'm looking at my bookshelfright now and the majority of
that shelf is those shelves arefull.
But what I wanted to do todayis I wanted to tell you what my
top five books are on personaldevelopment and, to be honest,
other than the scriptures,that's the only kind of book
that I own.
(03:09):
I don't own any fantasy books.
It's all driven towardsself-help and just making
yourself better.
So let's go ahead and dive intoit.
I just want to share my top fivebooks with you guys today and
just give you a little snippetof what these books are about or
(03:29):
what my favorite parts are.
All five of these books you canget them on Amazon.
I highly suggest you guys goout and maybe just buy one.
If you're not an avid reader,go out and buy one of these.
I say my top five because Idon't think that I could narrow
them down to just one for myall-time favorite book.
(03:51):
So there's really no particularorder as to which these ones
are in, but I'm just going tostart off with this one, number
five.
It's probably a book that a lotof you guys have heard about
and it's how to Win Friends andInfluence People by Dale
Carnegie, and if you guyshaven't read it, like I said, go
out, buy it.
But the little snippet that Iwanted to read to you guys about
(04:13):
this one is this it says sixways to make people like you.
Principle number one becomegenuinely interested in other
people.
Principle number two smile.
Principle number three rememberthat a person's name is, to
that person, the sweetest andmost important sound in any
language.
Principle number four be a goodlistener.
(04:34):
Encourage others to talk aboutthemselves.
Principle number five talk interms that the other person
understands, or talk in theterms of the other person's
interests.
Principle number six make theother person understands or talk
in the terms of the otherperson's interests.
Principle number six make theother person feel important and
do it sincerely.
So, as you guys can see, like alot of these things that I'm
going to be sharing with youguys throughout all these books,
(04:55):
like they're just kind ofprinciples, or you know my top
five, whatever, but all six ofthose principles like they're
super important.
If you want super important, ifyou're trying to become a better
salesman or you just want to beable to communicate with people
better, highly highly recommendreading how to Win Friends and
Influence People, book numbertwo, relentless, by Tim Grover.
Tim Grover has a unique way ofwriting and he has a couple
(05:21):
books out.
They're honestly all phenomenal.
But I chose the book Relentlessbecause this is a book that
I've read, I think, twice now,and it really just talks about
really being the best, becomingthe best and just absolutely
dominating in every aspect oflife.
And so he calls this theRelentless 13.
(05:43):
And he's talking about being acleaner.
And so what a cleaner is likeyou go in, you sweep out
everything in sight.
Like you are the best, youdominate, you're not just a
closer, you're above that.
Like you are the best personfor the job.
And so it says, when you're acleaner, uh, these are the,
these are his uh, relentless 13.
(06:03):
You keep pushing yourself harder.
When everyone else has hadenough, you get into the zone,
you shut everything else andcontrol the uncontrollable.
You know exactly who you are.
You have a dark side thatrefuses to be taught to be good.
You're not imitated by pressure, but you thrive on it.
When everyone is hitting the incase of an emergency button,
(06:26):
they're all looking for you.
You don't compete with anyone.
You find your opponent'sweakness and you attack.
You make decisions, notsuggestions.
You know the answer whileeveryone else is still asking
questions.
You don't have to love the work, but you're addicted to the
results.
You don't have to love the work, but you're addicted to the
results.
You'd rather be feared thanliked.
You trust very few people, andthose you trust better never let
(06:50):
you down.
You don't recognize failure.
You know there's more than oneway to get what you want.
You don't celebrate yourachievements because you always
want more.
So, guys, that's Relentless 13.
Again, highly recommend thatbook, that book relentless by
Tim Grover.
Number three this is one ofthem.
I'm going to keep saying is likethese are all my favorite books
(07:12):
, but Ed Milet has a way ofspeaking to me, unlike anybody
else, and so this book, thepower of one more Ed, came out
with it.
Uh, it's probably been like twoyears now.
This book honestly changed myperspective on how I look at a
lot of different things.
Um, because the power of onemore like, uh, take, take this
(07:32):
example, like, say, you're atthe gym.
You do, you know, you do 10 orfour sets of 10.
Um, and then you're just goingto call it no, you're going to
do five sets of 10.
You're always going to do onemore, always do one more rep,
always do one more lap aroundthe track, always, you know,
read one more page, dial, onemore prospect.
Getting into the habit of doingone more of whatever it is that
(07:53):
you're trying to do oraccomplish, it'll help you get
there faster.
And so what I wanted to sharewith you from this book is just
about really your beliefs andyour thoughts and who you can
ultimately become by using thepower of one more.
So Ed states this your beliefsbecome your thoughts.
Actually, this is from Gandhi,but Ed does quote Gandhi in here
(08:19):
, and it says your beliefsbecome your thoughts, your
thoughts become your words, yourwords become your actions, your
actions become your habits,your habits become your values
and your values become yourdestiny.
And what I really took fromthis book is like you have to be
willing to dream absolutelyinsanely big, and you just got
(08:42):
to take a chance on yourself anddo whatever it takes to make
your dreams become a reality.
So the power of one more by EdMilet.
Ed's got an awesome podcast too.
I highly suggest that you guysgo and listen to that.
It's the Ed Milet show.
That's probably the firstpodcast that I really started to
dive deep into when I startedlistening to podcasts.
(09:03):
So shout out to Ed, go andlisten, read his stuff.
It's all amazing, let's see.
The next book is Buy Back yourTime by Dan Martell.
This is a book that I recentlyread for the first time probably
, let's see, two months ago,three months ago maybe and I've
(09:23):
read it twice since then, justbecause the first time I read it
I got a lot of good nuggets,but then I had a buddy of mine
that's like, dude, you need togo back and reread that and
actually start applying thethings that you learned and what
this book talks about more thananything.
I mean it's in the title BuyingBack your Time.
Me as a business owner, I don'twant to be caught in the matrix
of doing things over and overagain and managing every single
(09:47):
aspect of my business, which Ihate to admit it, but I do have
my hands dipped in every singlepart of my business and the
second time that I startedreading this back, I immediately
knew, like you know what I needto hire someone to outsource my
marketing to.
So you know I don't have toworry about it, and they've been
doing that for me now for thelast month or so and it's
(10:09):
something that's not even on mymind, it's not on my plate.
I just make sure that it'srunning every single week and
that's really about it.
So there's five buyback rulesthat I wanted to share with you
guys from this book, and numberone is science shows that people
perform better working on tasksthat they enjoy.
High performance leads tohigher pay.
(10:29):
Step number two is every taskyou perform sits on two axes one
of money and one of energy.
Number two is every task youperform sits on two axes one of
money and one of energy.
Each task is bringing you.
Each task brings you fromlittle money to a lot of money
and either drains you or bringsyou more energy.
Number three many entrepreneurshire away the parts of their
business that they love the most.
This typically happensaccidentally as they grow.
(10:51):
They don't hire to buy backtheir time.
They hire for a position or arole, mistakenly making
themselves the administrator oftheir own company.
Number four 80% done by someoneelse is 100% freaking awesome.
And then number five, the dripmatrix.
He kind of talks about that.
You guys have to go read thebook to get more out of that.
(11:11):
But my favorite thing righthere is actually in step number
four is 80% done by someone elseis a hundred percent freaking
awesome.
And, uh, this book is freakingawesome.
Um, if you guys want to learnhow to buy back more of your
time so that you can spendwhatever it is you enjoy doing,
go read, buy back your time.
Uh, study it, apply what you,what you learned in there, and
(11:34):
it'll change your life.
Uh, the last book, number fiveum, 10 X is easier than two X by
Dan Sullivan.
I also read this book for thefirst time six months ago and
it's very similar to buy backyour time.
Um, I mean, there's trapchapters that are very similar.
Um, but gosh, this book is ohman, it's just, it's awesome.
(11:57):
And just to be frank with you,like a lot of people say, you
know you got to 10X yourbusiness and I mean, if you guys
have read Grant Cardone's book,the 10X Rule, that's also a
really good one.
That's what I thought this bookwas going to be about.
But I was kind of wrong, butthe thing that I wanted to share
with you guys about this bookor at least this paragraph is
(12:19):
10x is fundamentally aboutfreedom the freedom to be, live
and create what you want and howyou want.
Freedom obviously isn't free.
It requires extremeself-honesty, commitment and
courage.
It requires peeling away thelayers of fear and attachment
that would keep you at 2x andliving a life based on need and
not want.
I believe that everybody shouldlive a life based off of wants
(12:44):
versus needs, and this book ittalks a lot about building a
free life and, as you guys know,this is the Freedom First
podcast.
I believe that everybody shouldbe living life on their own
terms.
Everybody should be living afree life.
The book 10X is easier than 2Xwill help you get to that, gosh.
There's a handful more booksthat I'd love to talk to you
(13:05):
guys about, but those are my topfive.
If you guys have not read those, go out, read them.
I'd love to hear about some ofthe books that you guys have
read that have maybe influencedor changed your life in one way
or another, and so, if that isthe case, uh, dm me on Facebook
or Instagram and tell me whatbooks are your favorites.
Maybe give you, maybe give meyour list of, uh, your top five,
(13:27):
or maybe even just top three,and we'll see if we've been
reading the same books.
You never, you never know.
So, guys, with that said, thankyou once again for tuning into
the Freedom First podcast.
Those are my top five books tobuild a free life, living on
your own terms.
Welcome back to the Freedom First Podcast, everyone,
my name is Justin Arrington,I'm the host of this podcast
show and I'm excited for all ofyou guys to be here with me once
again today.
As you guys know, if you havebeen listening to the show for a
while, I drop a new episodeevery single day bringing you
little tips and tricks that youcan start applying into your
life right now so that you canstart living life on your own
(00:40):
terms.
So, guys, I'm going to diveright into it.
Today's actually an episodethat I've been looking forward
to doing, honestly, since thebeginning of this show, and it's
going to be a little bit of afun one for me, because the
topic is about reading and I, tobe honest, I don't think I read
a book cover to cover, until Iwas in my early twenties.
(01:01):
You know, all through highschool, after junior high, like
all of that, I hated reading.
It was something that I justdidn't find enjoyable, and the
reason because of that is justbecause I was told that I had to
read these fantasy books and,you know, none of that ever
interested me and, to be honest,I didn't even really know about
personal development, like Ididn't know that there were
(01:22):
books on, you know, makingyourself better, and it wasn't
until I had signed up for one ofmy first courses that I ever
purchased and one of therequirements was that I needed
to, you know, read this book,and I wish I knew what book it
was.
I don't really don't evenremember what the title of that
book was at the time, but eversince then I've kind of become
(01:46):
an avid reader.
Reading is something that Ienjoy.
It's something that I make timeto do, at least try to make
happen every single day for atleast 15, 20 minutes, and I
think it's a really good habitthat everybody should try and
build up.
Yes, it is, it is timeconsuming, but, um, there's
(02:07):
different ways that you canlisten, like, you can listen to
audible, you can listen to, um,you know, any book on your phone
nowadays, but I actually dolike to buy the physical copy
and then I also listen along toit.
While I read it, I just I'mable to to understand things and
interpret things a little bitbetter that way.
So if you guys don't likereading, maybe try that out.
(02:28):
You know, buy the book, buy theAudible and just read them both
simultaneously side by side andsee if that might help, because
it helped me and so anyway,that's kind of beside the point,
but, like I said, I reallywasn't an avid reader.
I hated reading, but since thenI don't know how many books
(02:49):
I've read.
I'm looking at my bookshelfright now and the majority of
that shelf is those shelves arefull.
But what I wanted to do todayis I wanted to tell you what my
top five books are on personaldevelopment and, to be honest,
other than the scriptures,that's the only kind of book
that I own.
(03:09):
I don't own any fantasy books.
It's all driven towardsself-help and just making
yourself better.
So let's go ahead and dive intoit.
I just want to share my top fivebooks with you guys today and
just give you a little snippetof what these books are about or
(03:29):
what my favorite parts are.
All five of these books you canget them on Amazon.
I highly suggest you guys goout and maybe just buy one.
If you're not an avid reader,go out and buy one of these.
I say my top five because Idon't think that I could narrow
them down to just one for myall-time favorite book.
(03:51):
So there's really no particularorder as to which these ones
are in, but I'm just going tostart off with this one, number
five.
It's probably a book that a lotof you guys have heard about
and it's how to Win Friends andInfluence People by Dale
Carnegie, and if you guyshaven't read it, like I said, go
out, buy it.
But the little snippet that Iwanted to read to you guys about
(04:13):
this one is this it says sixways to make people like you.
Principle number one becomegenuinely interested in other
people.
Principle number two smile.
Principle number three rememberthat a person's name is, to
that person, the sweetest andmost important sound in any
language.
Principle number four be a goodlistener.
(04:34):
Encourage others to talk aboutthemselves.
Principle number five talk interms that the other person
understands, or talk in theterms of the other person's
interests.
Principle number six make theother person understands or talk
in the terms of the otherperson's interests.
Principle number six make theother person feel important and
do it sincerely.
So, as you guys can see, like alot of these things that I'm
going to be sharing with youguys throughout all these books,
(04:55):
like they're just kind ofprinciples, or you know my top
five, whatever, but all six ofthose principles like they're
super important.
If you want super important, ifyou're trying to become a better
salesman or you just want to beable to communicate with people
better, highly highly recommendreading how to Win Friends and
Influence People, book numbertwo, relentless, by Tim Grover.
Tim Grover has a unique way ofwriting and he has a couple
(05:21):
books out.
They're honestly all phenomenal.
But I chose the book Relentlessbecause this is a book that
I've read, I think, twice now,and it really just talks about
really being the best, becomingthe best and just absolutely
dominating in every aspect oflife.
And so he calls this theRelentless 13.
(05:43):
And he's talking about being acleaner.
And so what a cleaner is likeyou go in, you sweep out
everything in sight.
Like you are the best, youdominate, you're not just a
closer, you're above that.
Like you are the best personfor the job.
And so it says, when you're acleaner, uh, these are the,
these are his uh, relentless 13.
(06:03):
You keep pushing yourself harder.
When everyone else has hadenough, you get into the zone,
you shut everything else andcontrol the uncontrollable.
You know exactly who you are.
You have a dark side thatrefuses to be taught to be good.
You're not imitated by pressure, but you thrive on it.
When everyone is hitting the incase of an emergency button,
(06:26):
they're all looking for you.
You don't compete with anyone.
You find your opponent'sweakness and you attack.
You make decisions, notsuggestions.
You know the answer whileeveryone else is still asking
questions.
You don't have to love the work, but you're addicted to the
results.
You don't have to love the work, but you're addicted to the
results.
You'd rather be feared thanliked.
You trust very few people, andthose you trust better never let
(06:50):
you down.
You don't recognize failure.
You know there's more than oneway to get what you want.
You don't celebrate yourachievements because you always
want more.
So, guys, that's Relentless 13.
Again, highly recommend thatbook, that book relentless by
Tim Grover.
Number three this is one ofthem.
I'm going to keep saying is likethese are all my favorite books
(07:12):
, but Ed Milet has a way ofspeaking to me, unlike anybody
else, and so this book, thepower of one more Ed, came out
with it.
Uh, it's probably been like twoyears now.
This book honestly changed myperspective on how I look at a
lot of different things.
Um, because the power of onemore like, uh, take, take this
(07:32):
example, like, say, you're atthe gym.
You do, you know, you do 10 orfour sets of 10.
Um, and then you're just goingto call it no, you're going to
do five sets of 10.
You're always going to do onemore, always do one more rep,
always do one more lap aroundthe track, always, you know,
read one more page, dial, onemore prospect.
Getting into the habit of doingone more of whatever it is that
(07:53):
you're trying to do oraccomplish, it'll help you get
there faster.
And so what I wanted to sharewith you from this book is just
about really your beliefs andyour thoughts and who you can
ultimately become by using thepower of one more.
So Ed states this your beliefsbecome your thoughts.
Actually, this is from Gandhi,but Ed does quote Gandhi in here
(08:19):
, and it says your beliefsbecome your thoughts, your
thoughts become your words, yourwords become your actions, your
actions become your habits,your habits become your values
and your values become yourdestiny.
And what I really took fromthis book is like you have to be
willing to dream absolutelyinsanely big, and you just got
(08:42):
to take a chance on yourself anddo whatever it takes to make
your dreams become a reality.
So the power of one more by EdMilet.
Ed's got an awesome podcast too.
I highly suggest that you guysgo and listen to that.
It's the Ed Milet show.
That's probably the firstpodcast that I really started to
dive deep into when I startedlistening to podcasts.
(09:03):
So shout out to Ed, go andlisten, read his stuff.
It's all amazing, let's see.
The next book is Buy Back yourTime by Dan Martell.
This is a book that I recentlyread for the first time probably
, let's see, two months ago,three months ago maybe and I've
(09:23):
read it twice since then, justbecause the first time I read it
I got a lot of good nuggets,but then I had a buddy of mine
that's like, dude, you need togo back and reread that and
actually start applying thethings that you learned and what
this book talks about more thananything.
I mean it's in the title BuyingBack your Time.
Me as a business owner, I don'twant to be caught in the matrix
of doing things over and overagain and managing every single
(09:47):
aspect of my business, which Ihate to admit it, but I do have
my hands dipped in every singlepart of my business and the
second time that I startedreading this back, I immediately
knew, like you know what I needto hire someone to outsource my
marketing to.
So you know I don't have toworry about it, and they've been
doing that for me now for thelast month or so and it's
(10:09):
something that's not even on mymind, it's not on my plate.
I just make sure that it'srunning every single week and
that's really about it.
So there's five buyback rulesthat I wanted to share with you
guys from this book, and numberone is science shows that people
perform better working on tasksthat they enjoy.
High performance leads tohigher pay.
(10:29):
Step number two is every taskyou perform sits on two axes one
of money and one of energy.
Number two is every task youperform sits on two axes one of
money and one of energy.
Each task is bringing you.
Each task brings you fromlittle money to a lot of money
and either drains you or bringsyou more energy.
Number three many entrepreneurshire away the parts of their
business that they love the most.
This typically happensaccidentally as they grow.
(10:51):
They don't hire to buy backtheir time.
They hire for a position or arole, mistakenly making
themselves the administrator oftheir own company.
Number four 80% done by someoneelse is 100% freaking awesome.
And then number five, the dripmatrix.
He kind of talks about that.
You guys have to go read thebook to get more out of that.
(11:11):
But my favorite thing righthere is actually in step number
four is 80% done by someone elseis a hundred percent freaking
awesome.
And, uh, this book is freakingawesome.
Um, if you guys want to learnhow to buy back more of your
time so that you can spendwhatever it is you enjoy doing,
go read, buy back your time.
Uh, study it, apply what you,what you learned in there, and
(11:34):
it'll change your life.
Uh, the last book, number fiveum, 10 X is easier than two X by
Dan Sullivan.
I also read this book for thefirst time six months ago and
it's very similar to buy backyour time.
Um, I mean, there's trapchapters that are very similar.
Um, but gosh, this book is ohman, it's just, it's awesome.
(11:57):
And just to be frank with you,like a lot of people say, you
know you got to 10X yourbusiness and I mean, if you guys
have read Grant Cardone's book,the 10X Rule, that's also a
really good one.
That's what I thought this bookwas going to be about.
But I was kind of wrong, butthe thing that I wanted to share
with you guys about this bookor at least this paragraph is
(12:19):
10x is fundamentally aboutfreedom the freedom to be, live
and create what you want and howyou want.
Freedom obviously isn't free.
It requires extremeself-honesty, commitment and
courage.
It requires peeling away thelayers of fear and attachment
that would keep you at 2x andliving a life based on need and
not want.
I believe that everybody shouldlive a life based off of wants
(12:44):
versus needs, and this book ittalks a lot about building a
free life and, as you guys know,this is the Freedom First
podcast.
I believe that everybody shouldbe living life on their own
terms.
Everybody should be living afree life.
The book 10X is easier than 2Xwill help you get to that, gosh.
There's a handful more booksthat I'd love to talk to you
(13:05):
guys about, but those are my topfive.
If you guys have not read those, go out, read them.
I'd love to hear about some ofthe books that you guys have
read that have maybe influencedor changed your life in one way
or another, and so, if that isthe case, uh, dm me on Facebook
or Instagram and tell me whatbooks are your favorites.
Maybe give you, maybe give meyour list of, uh, your top five,
(13:27):
or maybe even just top three,and we'll see if we've been
reading the same books.
You never, you never know.
So, guys, with that said, thankyou once again for tuning into
the Freedom First podcast.
Those are my top five books tobuild a free life, living on
your own terms.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.