A Beginners Guide to Spirituality

In any walk of life you need to be at your best. Many people in startup business think that they need to look at their accounts or marketing as the first point of call. This is not the right way to look at things. The most important part of business is the most important part of life itself.

Spirituality.

The book A Beginners Guide to Spirituality will transform the way you live your life. It looks at the fact that so many people ignore their spiritual side. Someone who is in tune with this part of their being will have better instincts and be able to grow into a master.

The more whole you are in your personal life then the more whole you can be as a businessman. Get the guide today and learn how you can connect with your spiritual side and unleash your full potential as a human being.

I recommend that you read the guide fully and see where it can take you before you make another move in your startup business life. Spirituality plays a large part in the success of any individual so being in tune with this will help you to grow.

Three weeks off work after an eye operation leaves hours for reading

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It's been a while since I've been on any of my blogs and the main reason for that is an eye operation I had last Thursday. It was quite a major operation, and the main recuperative source of recovery has been to lie face down for fifty minutes out of every hour, day and night for five days and five nights. Quite frankly, it's been horrible.

What it has allowed me to do is catch up in some television (what I would have done without the ipad, Sky Go and the iPlayer I'm not sure) and catch up on some reading.

I've had a stack of books I've been meaning to to read for a while now. It's not that I haven't been reading at all, it's just that I've been reading other things. I think at the rate I'm going (and I still have nearly 3 weeks off work left) that I'll have read everything I currently own before Christmas and I'll be ready to start again. It's not been management, marketing and estate agency books for a little while though, and I need to get back into that as a matter of urgency.

The books I've been reading have been fiction with a little 1970's non-fiction work thrown in-

Brewster by Mark Slouka

This was picked up at Poundland and I found it started slowly hit really fired up towards the middle and end as you could see the potential conclusions forming before the actual end. It's a coming-of-age book set in small-town USA and I'd recommend anyone to read it - there's a style in there that engages and brings in the reader.

The Runner by Christopher Reich

This is an old book I picked up at a charity book sale for 50p and it was gripping. It's set at the end of World War II and is about a US attorney trying to find and stop a German soldier from a plot to reignite the war in some way. The book moves along at a great pace and is something that's difficult to put down.

Strange Days Indeed by Francis Wheen

This is a summary of some of the stranger, more paranoical aspects if the 1970's and was interesting in parts - particularly for someone like me who missed most of it! The fanciful situations and correspondences that politicians got themselves into made it feel like a fiction work. Some of the things you just couldn't make up.

The conclusion of reading these books, particularly the fiction books, is that I want to add some fiction to my bookshelf on Amazon. To do this, I need to take some steps towards making my work more creative and I need to think about some simple areas of creative writing. To this end, I'm going to sign up for a course on creative writing - I looked into one offered for free by the Open University last year. And I'll look again at a course in this area. I've decided that I'll skip photography level 2 course this year. The course at the college I studied level 1 last year has already started and I can't drive there for at least another 2 weeks, the next nearest course is on a Tuesday night (my only late night at work) and the next nearest is £400 more expensive than the others.

After the creative writing course, I'll look to a marketing course that's starting in January and I'll be ready to go back to photography next school year.

Reading 2 religious books at a time has slowed me down

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I'm reading two books at the moment - one at home and one at work and I'm finding them both quite a hard slog. I usually find joy in reading just about any book and I trawl pound shops and charity shops and pick up an array of books on varied subjects and just read away, but it's just not happening with theses two. I'll give a brief overview of the books I'm reading below-

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

I saw all the hype, claim, counter-claim and fatwah when I was much younger and in a way the book had always fascinated me from afar. It was only when I saw it in a bookshop last year that this fascination reignited and I bought it. I am always several books ahead of my purchasing, so it took some time to actually start reading it. And I started earlier this year. It is billed as funny, but I'm struggling to find a great deal of humour in it. The religious (or anti-religious) aspects probably don't mean as much to me as someone who is read and learned in religion but I will persevere with the book. The story is unfolding with some interest, but I find the authors style of jumping backwards and forwards along the timelines of the two main characters quite difficult to follow at times. I do therefore end up reading the same part more than once to re-understand how it fits with whatever proceeds and precedes it.

The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mohandas K Gandhi

This is a translation of the autobiography of the Mahatma Gandhi. As a fairly full autobiography, the start of the book is clearly going to be less interesting than the middle and end of the book, I will encounter the things that brought him to international prominence. Although there are some events in his early life that you can see as a hint to what will come, I don't see much of this early life story as either interesting or hugely significant. I must have faith in the author, though that these things all knit together to form a narrative that allows me to understand him and his life. I don't know whether it's from the reading of two books with religious overtones at the same time that has caused me to struggle and stall with reading at this time. I'm not in any way religious, and I will usually shirk away from religious readings, art, etc. 

After these it's back to reading a fiction book at work and a study book at home to help with the business.

I've not blogged for quite a long time and the 245 days are almost up, but the dream lives on and I can see it happening another year from now, when 245 days has turned into 611 (it's a leap year in 2016.)

Books for Christmas - plenty of reading

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I got several books for Christmas this year. I'm turning more prolific with my reading recent rely and I've been given several books as Christmas presents to keep me going.

I find that reading of any kind keeps my mind going and I always seem to be able to pull ideas out of most books that I feel I can use in business or my everyday life.

For instance, I've just finished an excellent biography of Robert F Kennedy. His ideals and the way he conducted his public life really struck a chord with me and I can relate his insecurities about the way he was perceived.

I received the following books for Christmas this year-

* Thirteen Days by Robert F Kennedy

* Fatherland by Robert Harris

* The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

* An Autobiography by Mohandas K Gandhi

* Roth Unbound by Claudia Roth Pierpoint

Happy reading!

My weekend internet page reading

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Just found these-

http://www.mentorsme.co.uk

http://www.bitc.org.uk/london/what-we-offer/social-enterprise-mentoring-programme

http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan

http://www.icaew.com/~/media/Files/Library/collections/online-resources/briefings/start-up-briefings/01Buspla.pdf

http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/new-ideas/

I've got a lot of reading to do!

Is any reading good reading?

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I'm currently reading a biography if Robert Kennedy, by Evan Thomas. It's a really interesting book, filled with facts and opinion about RFK's life and how the brothers ran America as President and Attorney General. It has got me thinking -

Is any reading good reading?

I ask this because I'm trying to expand my mind and keep learning about this interesting world - not necessarily just reading books directly related to estate agency or marketing (although I've read many of these, as this blog will testify.) I have been thinking about my reading and whether the simple fact that I am reading and learning about something is as good (or near) as actually reading more and more material specifically about estate agency. I'm of the opinion that you can always pick up an idea or two from any source or activity. I'm the type that will sit through a day of seminars for the one gem that will give me an edge over my rivals, or an indication of one part of my operation that I need to question  and improve.

For example, from the book about the Robert Kennedy, I have picked up the relentless nature of his beliefs and how this transformed into the disciplined way he went about his, and his brothers, business. I will ensure that I have clearly defined business goals and I will make every decision and action with these in mind.

What's next on the non-business reading list?

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Fatherland by Robert Harris

Strange Days Indeed by Francis Wheen

The Fatal Touch by Conor Fitzgerald

Any further suggestions?