The Five Audio Books That Made It
Sprout Sweater Episode 15 : Dave's five audio books that made it into his print book collection
Join Dave Algeo aboard "Sprout 1" and take another journey into your inner world where mind, meaning and metaphor collide.
In this episode, Dave shares 5 of his favourite books. These books support the Sprout Sweater philosophy and have the distinction of having made it from Dave's audio book collection into his print book library. Why? Find out and see which book could most help you sweat the right sprouts.
Dave Algeo is a writer, coach, trainer and speaker empowering others to live big, by identifying the small but significant things that can transform the life we are living. Join Dave on the good ship 'Sprout1' as we explore the inner galaxy of the human mind, and find the sprouts that make the biggest difference. These are the sprouts you are looking for.
Search for 'Sprout Sweater' in your favourite podcast feed. To find out more about the podcast, and episode show notes at Podcast — Stress(ed) Guru and more about his in person and online events at www.stressedguru.com. Drop Dave a line at dave@sproutsweater.com to ask questions, offer feedback or suggestions for future podcast content.
Episode 15 Show Notes
The following is a rough draft of the content (not a full transcript - more notes forming the basis of the podcast recording
So how does a book make it from audio to print in the sprout sweaters world?
Welcome aboard sprout1 I’m your host Dave Algeo chief sprout sweater. Get your reading glasses out and dive into a world of books packed with insights and learning to help you set your mind straight on what you expect from it in the future.
It’s episode 15 - The five audiobooks that have made into my print book collection.
As we lift off the pad and before we get into the episode don’t forget if you find that the demands of life and the meaning of it all is leading you to sleepless nights, tossing and turning, deep and not so deep questions rattling around your head, then hop on over to sproutsweater.com to gain access to my free Operation Snooze Sleep Improvement audio program. Start getting your head back and your shit together so that you can start getting life back on your terms, sproutsweater.com.
Well after a bunch of episodes I thought it might be good to share with you some of the books that have influenced me over the last year or so. These books don’t represent the sum total of my research and reading which can get pretty deep and into the weeds but they do capture really well some of the principles of the sprout sweater. Now I use my audible account, I pay that £7.99 a month for 1 book credit and month on month I switch between fiction and self-development. I use my listening when listening to self-development stuff as a bit of a filter really. Often what I will do is I’ll come across a book through research or a particular author or via a recommendation and listen to it. And I’ve learnt loads. But not all books make it from audio into print for me. My criteria, well, they have to be engaging I guess enough to stick with them, that’s a given. But the main reason I find myself getting the print version is because I see that there’s work I can do with the models, the strategies, the tips or the questions in the books. So, I find the audiobook has to satisfy the following criteria:
Is it engaging? Given to be fair I wouldn’t stick with a book if it’s not.
Is the content credible and research-based and/or from a credible person with years in the trenches so to speak, so maybe a clinician for example.
Is there something in there that I can use or do I need to get my hands on so to speak to use it, to tweak it or apply it in my own life and that of my clients.
Do I need to have the book so I can refer back more easily and/or write notes on it and comments on it?
That’s basically it. Today what I thought I would do is I’ll share with you 5 books that have made the cut and that I feel would be most helpful to you if you are a fellow sprout sweater or aspiring to get better at sprout sweating. So here we go at the 5 books.
The first one is Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg. The full title The Tiny Habits, The Small Changes That Change Everything is a great book. Just as a quick side note, just for all of these 5 books you will find the details, links, pictures of the book and what have you in the show notes. So, if you can’t find them yourselves the links are there to take you to them. But this book, The Tiny Habits, The Small Changes That Change Everything by B.J. Fogg. For me, this book is something that really I’ve only just come across but could have done with reading years ago. Or is that true, possibly more that at that the time of reading this year it has helped bring into a coherent focus, what I’ve been talking about all this time. It’s classic sprout territory. I have referred to B.J. Fogg’s work in previous episodes but in a sprout, in a small bite-sized chunk this book encapsulates the research and out of the research some tactics, tools and tips on how we can shape new habits by harnessing the power of the small and by building them onto existing rituals and behaviours that we already have in our day. I guess it kind of breaks down to, well what habit are we wanting to introduce and getting clearer on our why. How then can we shrink that habit down into the smallest size possible and then how do we tag it onto something that we already do? The classic thing is ‘I want to learn how to do press ups’ or ‘get better at press ups’ and ‘well I brush my teeth every day so why don’t I when I put that toothbrush down get down on the floor and I do one press up from knees because I’m not so good at them just yet and I’ve scaled it right down’. So, it’s that kind of thing. How do we shrink it down and tag it onto a behaviour but he builds some additional research around the importance of celebration. Celebrating every time you completed the habit. Rehearsal, how rehearsal is important and not just trusting that because you’ve tagged it on that you will remember to do right from the off. And then how to rebuild and expand upon it as we go. And for me, you can tell I’m excited about it, this is sprout sweating. This is the classic sprout sweating. It’s about saying right I do need to make some changes in my lie and yes I might have some big things to work towards but I can do it by getting some consistent habits embedded in my day-to-day life. And those consistent habits can start small because I’ve got a lot on my plate and a lot going on in my head I don’t want to cram extra stress in there. So, I start small, I start with a sprout sized habitat. Love it. So that’s The Tiny Habits, The Small Changes That Change Everything.
The next book - Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization by Scott Barry Kaufman. Again, the links are in the show notes. I love this book and again it’s a book that I’ve been looking for for a while because I’ve in my journey in self-development, in speaking, training, running workshops I often say it’s not about the stress and that nobody wants to really manage stress. For me it’s how do I deal with the negative stresses and strains, harness the positive so that I can get on with achieving more, living a fulfilled and full meaningful life. Scott Barry Kaufman is a well-established researcher, lots of accolades to his name and what he did in this book was to go back and revisit the work of Abraham Maslow. For many of you, you will know that name. You’ll know Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and often we can kind of label as that’s Maslow and that’s his work. But actually, the hierarchy of needs was never a pyramid in Maslow’s original work that was something that management gurus in the ’60s and 70’s introduced to sort of illustrate it and oversimplify and really rob it of its real richness in terms of his work. But what Scott Barry Kaufman did in this work is he explored not just that hierarchy of needs but all of Maslow’s essays, his presentations, his books and the wider picture. Really got to know the person Abraham Maslow and really got into his mind. For me, it’s a wonderful book that does that but also brings out some of the key elements that building and combining with the latest research, the latest thinking on this really brings back the human aspect of psychology into something that for me is what it’s all about. I mean why do we need to manage stress, what’s the point of getting fitter and healthier and better if it’s not within a container and a context of something bigger. That’s what self-actualization is about. One of the phrases that I loved that Kaufman picked out from Maslow’s work is that he used different phrases for this self-actualization which if you know the pyramid is at the top of the so-called Maslow hierarchy of needs pyramid. But he used different phrases and one of them is to just be more fully human. And I love that because that in essence is what it’s about. We are living a life working towards striving for bringing up families, having friendships, relationships and driving ourselves but in relation to what? What is the bigger picture? For me that being more fully human is something that’s complementary to my own way of thinking and living is that I don’t want to rule the world, I don’t want to be a massive billionaire you know all of those kinds of things that is often associated with self-development and success. But what I do want to do is be more fully human. To tap into what it means to be human physically, emotionally, psychologically and to make the best of it to maximize my potential to achieve what I really want to achieve but have it within that context of that being fully human. So, again I love the book and you can tell I’m enthusiastic about it really great book that explores that.
Third book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. Professor Brian Wansink and I’m going to dig out the links of an interview that I did with Professor Brian Wansink from Canal University in America several years ago. The connection wasn’t great so the interview does break up in terms of the audio but I will put the link in the show notes. This book for me is a counterintuitive book regarding eating because so much of how we frame diet, eating and changing our eating behaviour is focused on being mindful of what we eat. And yeah ok that’s fine being a little more mindful can be useful. But as we know from diets, the vast majority of diets don’t work for so many reasons and what Professor Brian Wansink who is an eating behaviour researcher pulls together in this book is his research from his food lab at Canal University. The research shows how we can mindlessly eat. Both overeat and under eat. He pulls out a bunch of strategies and tactics that we can use to harness the power of mindlessness so that we can more mindlessly undereat or eat less than what tends to be the case nowadays. Mindlessly overeat because there are so many triggers and many things available. Some brilliant tactics and strategies in there and I may well focus an episode actually on that in due course as we go forward. I won’t steal the thunder of the book but there are some great ones, such as setting yourself food policies. Little rules around, small rules that will help you mitigate or manage down when you might be overeating certain things and what have you. Some great strategies in there.
Next one. It’s on the productivity side - Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. Now, this is a book that I approached several years ago not really expecting much ‘I thought ah it’s just another time management book’. But I found it really really did have an impact because yes there are approaches, there are tactics and processes in there, but it’s hard. It’s about a mindset shift and about how we view the stuff we need to do or the stuff that is on our minds. I’ve used this phrase in episode seven. It’s my phrase that I’ve totally distorted from David Allen’s work but I can encapsulate really the principle of the book is that what is on your mind has your mind. So how do we get it off our mind so that we can use our mind for what is best, its best equipped to do, which is to be in the moment with practice, be focused and productive in getting things done, creative and problem solving and those things can often get cluttered out by being preoccupied with the things that are on our mind. The getting things done principal underlining that is to get it off our mind into an extended mind if you like into a journal, a to-do list and those kinds of things. So, there are lots of tips and tactics on there. One of the big shifts for me, and I’ve recently revisited the book so I am doubling down on other areas GTD which is what getting things done is shortened too, but for me the biggest impact in my life when I first read it was the first stage of the GDT process which is capture. And the capture process is all about capturing everything you have to do or everything that is on your mind into and onto something outside of your mind that is reliable. For David Allen, he might say a piece of paper for everything you need to or a to-do list or what have you. But capturing stuff so that it doesn’t stay on your mind and plague you or distract you. That for me was a game-changer in terms of my productivity. Really recommend the book. It can start off very corporatey if you read it if you are not from a corporate background but stick with it and see how you can apply it in your own world of work and life.
And the final book is a book that I would say I’m going to put a caveat here that for me it’s a work in progress, not the book itself but how I am working and developing it. It’s The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smart Phones to Love - Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. That’s a mouthful of a title. It’s by the author Judson Brewer. I really enjoyed the book. Really engaging book dealing with how we get hooked on habits, hooked in our habits and unhelpful habits in particularly those bad habits. How they can become pulsive and we can get dragged away with them I think, I guess effectively. This is where I find it potentially a compliment to the tiny habits book so it’s traversed from the audio to the print book so I can work with it. I found it really promising. I find that Judson’s work focusing on the thoughts and habits and his thinking around it is compelling. His approach to changing and breaking bad habits is compelling and his perspective on using mindful practices, also something I’m enthusiastic about but as I said I do need to do some work with this and read more widely and test out the strategies for myself. So, I’m giving you this one as a book for me that it has made it to paperback but it’s still a work in progress for me in terms of how I’m going to apply it, how do I test it out but I’m excited about it because it’s actually about how do we work towards breaking those problematic and compelling habits and building the ability then switching to building some more tiny habits. As I said a compliment to the B.J. Fogg Tiny Habits book. So, as I said I enjoyed the book. I’m enjoying working with it now but it is a work in progress. I will no doubt report back on this but I did feel it was worthy putting into my top five here for now. I’ve got a bunch of other books but I’m not going to overwhelm you with those.
So, there you have it that’s my five books. I will just quickly run through them. The Tiny habits by B.J. Fogg, Transend by Scott Barry Kaufman, Mindless Eating by prof Brian Wansink, Getting things Done by David Allen and The Craving Mind by Judson Brewer.
As I said I’ve got all the details in the show notes, they’re the ones that have made it from audio to print. Let me know what you think. Have you had a similar process? What books have made an impact on you? Get in touch with me with any of your ideas, your thoughts, your recommendations at dave@sproutsweater.com and please consider popping over to iTunes and leaving me a 5-star rating, it all helps get the podcast more widely shared.
So as our craft sprout1 begins the landing process allowing you to return to your fellow humans think about one book that has really had a big positive impact on your life. Is it time to reread it or what one of my top five books took your fancy, grab a copy and get reading? Take care.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your flight aboard sprout1 for show notes and information on how to get the podcast feed direct to your apple podcast, Spotify or other favourite podcast feed visit sproutsweater.com and touch down!
Links
The Tiny Habits, The Small Changes That Change Everything - Author B.J. Fogg
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0753553244/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Q0R8ZAWNHEQ3RW4TJPYP
Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization - Author Scott Barry Kaufman
Mindless Eating - Author Brian Wansink
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1848502524/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_13MF0DY4YJGN0A9TKHV0
Interview with Professor Brian Wansink can be found here: https://youtu.be/NF21fxAsn_8
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - Author David Allen
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0349423148/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PSB0KCVDD6RARGEFAJYQ
The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits - Author Judson Brewer, Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD
Episode 16 Teaser:
In episode 16 is a big sweat episode in which Dave interviews Dr Ron Lawson, the coaches coach. Dr Lawson has a wealth of experience and specialises in coaching others to achieve goals through shifting the stories they tell themselves.