Self-help books, coaching books, management books? Every now and then, they form the drainpipe of the book world. They promise a lot, and after reading them, woefully little or nothing changes. Fortunately, that is not always true. I decided to investigate which books strongly influence me. It turned into a nice list of twelve books. Here is the first book.

THE CELESTINE PROMISE

We are in the nineties. Reading “The Celestine Bell” marks the start of my quest to be more myself. I was working at a large advertising agency (PMSvW/Y&R), and almost all of us in our management team read this book. Why did it resonate so much? It was quite a New Age book. It combined adventure with mystery and spirituality. According to this book, synchronicity, energy, and awareness were more important than being successful. And ‘Coincidence does not exist’ was the motto.

The story follows the protagonist who searches for an ancient manuscript in Peru that supposedly contains insights into human spiritual development. For years, I wanted to go to Peru to hike the Inca Trail myself and soak up some magic. That didn’t go as planned. Crawling up the high temples in Yucatan, I discovered that I suffer terribly from acrophobia. Climbing up is manageable, but at the very top of the temples, I get terrified. Eventually, Machu Picchu disappeared from my bucket list. And that feels like a relief.

Back to the book. Oprah Winfrey promoted it too, and she linked the search for oneself to writing a gratitude journal. Now that was practical. Thanks to Oprah, I have been writing in such a journal every day since 1996. At first, they were beautifully bound leather notebooks that I filled with writing in a virtually illegible handwriting. Later, I did it digitally: that was easier to read back. And in recent years, I have been brightening up my journals with photos. What a wealth it is to write down every day what you are grateful for. From a greedy caterpillar, it helps me transform into a butterfly that is happy with what is and sees all that is yet to come.