Books Read and Courses Taken in March 2018

The month of March was lovely here in Virginia with some great weather. A nice change in weather always inspires me to want to take that next step in life, to take on that next challenge to make some improvement. 

Here's a great quote from one of the books listed below about a little thing called the Kaizen Principle:

The Kaizen Principle is to endeavor to create tiny incremental improvements in your daily life with an aim for mastery over performance, while forsaking external comparisons, unless such comparisons inspire.

Mull over that for a few minutes. It's a powerful quote. 

As Spring comes in, think how you can create these tiny, incremental improvements in your own daily life. 

One way is to begin reading good books and learning new skills.

Overview

As for me, here are the books read in March 2018 and courses that I enrolled in to create incremental improvements in my own life.

Books Read In March 2018

UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship by MJ Demarco

Aside from it being over 400 pages and littered with foul language, this was a really good book. Why? Because DeMarco really takes the time to explain HOW to break from our subconscious "scripted" lives and carve out our own paths vocationally, financially, mentally, practically, through proven processes, and memorable diagrams that only make sense after reading about it. AND….there is actual value in every page, not the same parroted 'quit your job and live free' books out there. Humorous, enlightening, and thorough.

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simply Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

This one lived up to the hype for sure. With so many distractions today, it's important to identify your ONE THING, and work all other goals around it. Keller debunks a number of myths that continue to hold us back, offers a solution of "goal setting to the now," and really drives home the importance, theoretically and practically, the significance of not drifting through life. I think everyone would benefit greatly from this book especially those learning to code!

The Millionaire Morning by Lewis Howes

This booklet is free, but you have to pay the shipping (almost the price of a normal book!). My intention in reading it is not financial, but to better shape my morning routine for daily and weekly achievement. When it arrived I was a bit disappointed as it seemed quite small. However, it's packed with solid information, its very practical, and presents lots of opportunity to take action. 

This booklet teaches you how to create a "money vision" goal, how to break it down realistically, how to create successful habits to reach this goal, and it all beginning with how you structure your mornings. Highly recommended. 

Ben the Luggage Boy, Rufus and Rose, and Tattered Tom by Horatio Alger

Ben the Luggage Boy and Rufus and Rose are the final books in the Ragged Dick series. Tattered Tom is the first in a new series. As mentioned in last month's post, these are fictional stories about the lives of entrepreneurial New York street kids who decide to take a change in moving up in the world. I read these with the kids every night and each story is filled with examples of good morals, honesty, and entrepreneurial and enterprising thought. In addition, the 19th century New York life is always fascinating and these stories do not disappoint. You can find them all free on Gutenberg.

Courses Taken in March 2018

Intro to Gutenberg by Creator Courses

If you have NO experience with the new Gutenberg WordPress editor, this is a great place to start. Joe at Creator Courses goes over what Gutenberg is, how it works, and walks you through a demo. On the positive side, it's an informative course and Joe is adding to it regularly as we get closer to a WordPress 5.0 upgrade. On the negative side, it's very basic and though more content has been added, I feel like I could have learned the information in about 10 minutes. I don't think I wasted time in taking it, but perhaps as an alternative this video may teach you the same thing for free and in about 15 minutes. 

Let's Build a Custom Developer's Genesis Starter Child Theme by Know The Code

Tonya is an absolute coding master and this course was phenomenal…and loooong. But I learned so much not only about the Genesis Framework, but about refactoring, converting CSS to SCSS, and setting up Gulp. In addition, I walked away not only with a nice, minimal, Genesis starter theme that I can use in my business, but with a full understanding of how to use it effectively when building websites. Take this course, you won't regret it!

Conclusion

What books are you reading these days? What courses are you taking? Have you read any of the above? Shoot me some suggestions below, I would love to add them to the list. 

Previous Months

February 2018