These aren’t the best books I’ve ever read. They’re the ones that found me at the exact moment I needed them. Every book on this list changed something about how I think, how I lead, how I parent, or how I pray. I don’t recommend anything I haven’t lived with.
Disclosure: Links below are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend books I’ve personally read and that genuinely impacted my life.
Faith & Spiritual Formation
John Mark Comer
The book that gave me a framework for faith as daily practice — not just belief. Apprenticeship to Jesus through habit, not just feeling. I return to this constantly.
Viktor Frankl
I read this when everything was falling apart. Frankl survived Auschwitz and built a school of psychology around one idea: the people who survive find meaning in their suffering. That reframing saved me.
Mark Batterson
This is the book that changed how I think about fatherhood after my divorce. Batterson lays out a framework for raising boys with intention — not just instinct — including rites of passage and father-son adventures that mark the transition from boyhood to manhood. It gave me the idea to take my boys on coming-of-age trips. Brock got the Grand Canyon. Jack got Jackson Hole. We’re still planning George’s and hope to be able to make it happen in July.
Mark Batterson
Bill Neusch handed me this book after I told him about my plan to take Brock on a coming-of-age whitewater rafting adventure. I read it last year and it lit a fire under me — stop playing it small, chase after God, and build something with my family that I can be proud of one day. The kind of book that makes you realize halfway isn’t going to cut it. Grateful for you, Bill.
Mark Batterson
Chase the lion. The opportunities that scare you most are often the ones God has prepared for you.
Paulo Coelho
The universe conspires to help those who pursue their Personal Legend. I’ve read this three times at three different stages of life and it meant something different each time.
Mindset & Personal Growth
Eric Jorgenson
Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Happiness is a skill you can practice. Those two ideas together changed my entire operating system.
Eckhart Tolle
The prison is your own mind. Tolle taught me that most suffering comes from living in the past or future instead of right here.
Eckhart Tolle
The companion to Power of Now. Shorter, quieter, meant to be read one page at a time. Perfect for mornings.
James Clear
You don’t rise to the level of your goals — you fall to the level of your systems. This book is why I meditate every single day.
Marcus Aurelius
A Roman emperor’s private journal. 2,000 years old and still the most practical guide to handling chaos with dignity.
Farnam Street
How to think, not what to think. The positioning quote from my journal came from here.
Jim Kwik
Your brain is not fixed. Kwik teaches you to learn faster, read more, and remember what matters.
Robin Sharma
The story of a man who had everything and realized it was nothing. Hit different after my bankruptcy.
Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
Freedom comes from not needing everyone’s approval. This book gave me permission to stop performing.
Alan Watts
The only real security is embracing insecurity. Watts bridges Eastern and Western thought better than anyone.
Business & Communication
Alex Hormozi
How to make offers so good people feel stupid saying no. Changed how I think about value in every conversation — not just sales.
Chris Voss
Voss taught me that the most powerful thing you can do in any conversation is make the other person feel deeply understood — before you ever try to be understood yourself. He calls it tactical empathy. I call it the skill I wish I’d learned 20 years earlier. This book changed how I listen to customers, to my kids, and to my wife.
Dale Carnegie
The original. Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely. Everything in our Carnegie Challenge came from here.
Scott Adams
Systems beat goals. The Dilbert creator on why passion is overrated and systems are everything.
The Moth
The essential guide to storytelling from the people who do it best. Every good blog post is a story first.
Allison Wood Brooks
The science of conversation. How to be someone people actually want to talk to.
Meditation & Contemplative Practice
A note to my Christian brothers and sisters
I know this section might raise some eyebrows. Yoga, meditation, Eastern philosophy — some of you may wonder if I’m drifting from Jesus. I’m not. I’m running toward Him.
If you truly care to understand what Jesus meant by the narrow gate, you have to go inward. The contemplative traditions — Christian mystics, the Desert Fathers, and yes, the yogis like Patanjali — they mapped the interior path that Jesus was pointing to. Through those doorways is something incredible.
This is where I search for Jesus. In the silence. Outside, in nature, in the wind, on the beaches. Sitting still for an hour or more, just waiting — for a feeling, a pull, the answer to a question I prayed about. And then in an instant, it’s there. Peace. A sudden overwhelming feeling of joy. An insight you’ve needed forever.
It’s all there waiting. But you have to believe.
Paul F. Knitter
A theologian’s honest account of how engaging with Buddhist practices didn’t pull him away from Christ — it pushed him deeper. Knitter describes a “double belonging” where Buddhist mindfulness and compassion deepened his understanding of Christian love. If you’ve ever felt like traditional church wasn’t giving you the full picture, this book will either challenge you or set you free. Maybe both.
John Yates, PhD
The most comprehensive meditation manual I’ve found. Maps the entire journey from beginner to advanced with neuroscience backing. 1,392 days of daily practice and I still reference this.
Sri Swami Satchidananda
The 196 sutras that define the entire path of yoga and meditation. Dense, profound, and endlessly re-readable.