Your Bibles And When To Change Them

I was thinking about books this morning. Not just any books, but the ones that you keep going back to again and again and again. The ones that teach you something new or remind you of something vital every time you delve in. The ones that help form the cornerstone of who you operate in the world. Those are your bibles. You probably have a few, I know I do. I broke them down into categories the other day and chose just one for each.

• Magic: Mastering Witchcraft -Paul Huson
• Life Vision: Generation X -Douglas Coupland
• Money: I will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi
• Business: Four Hour Work Week – Tim Ferris
• Mind: Heartdrops of the Dharmakaya – Lopon Tenzin Namdak
• Politics: The Federalist Papers – Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, …. 
• Career: Linchpin – Seth Godin
• Love:
• Service:
• Health/Fitness:
• Parenting:

The first few were easy, the books that I read or refer to on a regular basis. Then it got harder, so hard that I realized I didn’t even have a Bible for some of the most important aspects of my life. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that people should learn to love from a book, or that they need a book for any of these things. I have a wealth of people and experience and hopefully good character to guide me on my journey, and so do you. But still…. If books like Generation X or Four Hour Work Week served as windows to what was possible in those areas, why wouldn’t I seek out texts for these other areas that I have just been winging it in? Relationships are work, service is work, health is work, parenting is a LOT of work.

So I guess I am on quest now to find books that might re-shape my idea of what is possible in these areas.

After I looked at the missing areas, I looked at the books I listed and realized that most of them actually aren’t pushing my forward anymore. What was once revolutionary has become comfort. Mastering Witchcraft helped me bridge the gap between folks magic and ceremonial magic and cut through the BS that people gravitated towards back in the 80s… but I am not 16 anymore, I am 46. Generation X taught me that meaning did not need to come from career, but I know that now, and derived a career from meaning instead of the other way round. Four Hour Work Week showed that this could even be a career – but I ignored as much as I drew from in the book. Time to find New Bibles for those areas well.

I don’t have any lesson to convey here, I am really just writing down thoughts. But maybe you can make a list too. Find the areas that you have neglected to feed with written wisdom. Then look at the bibles and you have and ask yourself if they still serve, or if you should start the hunt for new ones.

I am open to suggestions, maybe you are too.