Help with self-improvement

[Jake10]

Just recently started with No Fap again. I'm only 18 years old now but me and my friends discovered porn really early because of their older brothers. Started watching porn at age 7! And been fapping almost as long as I can remember, from age 8 or 9. I tried last spring with No Fap but only made it to day 10 then I quit it. Trying again now and only at day 4 and it's been a rough couple of days. But now I realise how addicted I was to porn and fapping. But same as the last time I got an encredible amount of energy over for productive things. I ran across "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson. I really recommend it! It was an eye opening for me in a sense, the things which Jeff tell us, the reader to do it simple but effective stuff. Such as reading 10 pages a day, if you continue that habit you will have gone through roughly 12-15 books in a year ! Aiming for atleast 30 min of reading each night. It has a lot of more stuff regarding simple but beneficial actions in the long run. Aiming for atleast 30 min of reading each night.

I'm looking for books to read every night and when I have nothing better to do, could be about anything. Not looking for fiction though, that my brother has covered, he has maybe around 300 books in that area. I wanna soak in all the knowledge I can which is useful in a sense, so no books about horses or such. Also looking for audibooks to listen while commuting to school (30 min, one way) during my bicycle rides to the gym and during my walks.

I'm open for anything else that you guys see as productive or that will have an impact on my life as well. Right now i'm pulling myself together and getting closer everyday to the person I wanna be. Started lifting weights around 6 months ago because of this site actually and i'm loving it. Being strict with my diet now as well and seeing great progress. Also seeing progress in my day to day life in social interactions and at work too. Can almost give all the credit to the awesome crew here at GC and its members, been following the forum since fall.

Cheers!

 

[Ergon]

Hey Jake,
Great goals, in my opinion. Exercise, diet, no-porn, and reading are some of the most significant boosts for well-being. Besides that, some form of journaling might be worth a shot. For me, it had noticeable effects in creativity, problem solving, observation and optimism. (Disclosure: I keep one for seduction in this forum)

For non-fiction, some books I've read and found thought-provoking are:

The Full Facts Book on Cold Reading - Ian Roland
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species In 23 Chapters - Matt Ridley
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics - Simon Blackburn
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnagie
Social Psychology - Elliot Aronson
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini

Pick whichever interests you more, and remember to read critically.

 

[BlackBolt]

I second dale Carnegie how to win friends and influence people and Influence. I had to read the latter for class and it is great. I'd also recommend Pitch anything.... Can't think of the author but it touches on frame control and venture capitalism. Haven't personally read this one yet but i heard great things about 7 habits of highly effective people. I would also suggest rich dad poor dad. I personally love Benjamin Franklin's autobiography: he was VERY self improvement focused and was a polymath... Meaning he was VERY skilled pretty much mastery level in various fields i.e. politics, business, science, inventing, etc.

Also if you like to learn new things there are alot of free online courses from great schools like MIT and Stanford.

There are also sub reddits some i would suggest are r/personal finance and r/financial independence.

Hope that helps.

 

[Jake10]

Thanks for the advices guys! I really appreciate all help I can get. Soon first with my first book this week, it is ficiton because when I decided to begin to read I had no other book at home the the time. But tomorrow after school I will take a trip by the library and see if they have the books you guys recommended.

My No Fap journey is soooo much harder than I thought, god! Relapsed after 5 days and now trying to extend the streak with atleast a few days each time. Have any of you guys tried it or doing it right now and have some helpful tips regarding that too?

Cheers!