Theme
Personal Growth & Leadership
How people get better at hard things, and how they get others to follow. Practical more often than inspirational.
44 books
most recent read first
True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
Gretchen Whitmer · 2024 · read Oct 2024COVID-19, a severe flood, a mass shooting at a high school near Detroit, and an FBI-foiled plot to kidnap her: those are the…
Mindfulness: HBR Emotional Intelligence Series
Harvard Business Review · 2017 · read Jun 2024If you've ever been too busy to meditate, two of these pieces argue you can still practice mindfulness in small doses through the…
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
Adam M. Grant · 2023 · read Jun 2024Potential shows in how far you've climbed, not in how high you end up.
The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery
Brianna Wiest · 2020 · read May 2024Wiest's argument is that self-sabotage comes from needs that conflict, which is why you can resist the very change you say you…
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Cal Newport · 2024 · read Apr 2024If your job rewards looking busy, Cal Newport has a name for it: pseudo-productivity.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport · 2016 · read Mar 2024Newport's argument is that your ability to concentrate on demanding work without distraction is getting rarer just as it gets…
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
Anna Lembke · 2021 · read Jan 2024When you keep chasing easy pleasure, your brain pushes back with pain to restore its balance.
Happiness (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)
Harvard Business Review · 2017 · read Nov 2023Happiness is something you can define, measure and deliberately build at work, according to much of this short Harvard Business…
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Eliyahu M. Goldratt · 2004 · read Oct 2023Find the slowest step in your operation and you've found what limits everything else.
The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward
Daniel H. Pink · 2022 · read May 2023Regret has a bad reputation, and the no-regrets creed tells you to ignore it.
How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services
Tom McMakin · 2018 · read Jan 2023Selling a service isn't like selling a product, and the book is for experts trained in their craft, not in sales.
What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
Bruce D. Perry · 2021 · read Jan 2023Swap what's wrong with you for what happened to you, and behavior starts to make sense.
How to Win Client Business When You Don't Know Where to Start: A Rainmaking Guide for Consulting and Professional Services
Doug Fletcher · 2021 · read Jan 2023If you work in consulting or another professional-services firm, sooner or later the job includes bringing in clients, not only…
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
Nir Eyal · 2019 · read Jan 2023Most of what pulls you off task isn't your phone.
I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze (Bk Business)
Deepak Malhotra · 2011 · read Jan 2023Spencer Johnson's cheese parable tells you to adapt when someone moves your cheese.
The Snowball System: How to Win More Business and Turn Clients into Raving Fans
Mo Bunnell · 2018 · read Jan 2023Be strategically helpful, build steady habits, and let the results compound like a snowball.
Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control
Ryan Holiday · 2022 · read Dec 2022Self-control sounds like being hard on yourself, and Ryan Holiday does want you seeking out discomfort.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen · 2001 · read Oct 2022Get every open commitment out of your head and into a system you trust.
Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential
Tiago Forte · 2022 · read Oct 2022Capture, Organize, Distill, Express.
The Infinite Game
Simon Sinek · 2017 · read Aug 2022Chess and football end with a winner.
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday · 2014 · read Jul 2022What do you do with the thing standing in your way?
The 12 Week Year
Brian P. Moran · 2009 · read Jun 2022Brian P.
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience
Brené Brown · 2021 · read May 2022Naming what you feel doesn't hand the feeling more power.
Yoga and the Quest for the True Self
Stephen Cope · 1999 · read Mar 2022Yoga is a practical path of liberation roughly 4,000 years old, in Stephen Cope's telling, and it works on your psyche, not just…
Ditch the Pitch: The Art of Improvised Persuasion
Steve Yastrow · 2014 · read Mar 2022Throw out the script, because your customers don't want the pitch.
The Art Of Less Doing: One Entrepreneur's Formula for a Beautiful Life
Ari R. Meisel · 2016 · read Jan 2022Optimize, automate, outsource.
The 4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss · 2007 · read Jun 2021While running his sports-nutrition company on exhausting hours, Timothy Ferriss wrote a case against the plan you were probably…
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
Michael Bungay Stanier · 2016 · read May 2021When you jump in with advice, you take away someone's chance to find the answer.
The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win
Jocko Willink · 2018 · read Mar 2021Every leadership principle has an opposite pull, and you fail by pushing either one to the extreme.
How to Train Your Mind: Exploring the Productivity Benefits of Meditation
Chris Bailey · 2021 · read Mar 2021According to Chris Bailey, every minute you spend meditating earns back about nine minutes.
The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits
Judson Brewer · 2017 · read Jan 2021Smoking, checking your phone, binge eating and romantic obsession look like separate problems.
Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day
Jay Shetty · 2020 · read Jan 2021Your mind is either a focused monk mind or a distracted monkey mind, in Jay Shetty's telling.
Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness
Gretchen Rubin · 2019 · read Jan 2021Need it, love it or use it.
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Brené Brown · 2012 · read Dec 2020Vulnerability, which Brené Brown defines as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure, isn't weakness.
Braving the Wilderness
Brené Brown · 2017 · read Dec 2020Brené Brown's case is that true belonging doesn't ask you to change who you are.
Dare to Lead
Brené Brown · 2018 · read Nov 2020Leadership can look like a matter of personality or rank.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Lori Gottlieb · 2019 · read Sep 2020Therapists aren't exempt from the problems they treat.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg · 2012 · read Jun 2020Keep the cue, keep the reward and swap the routine.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
James Clear · 2018 · read Jun 2020Getting 1 percent better a day doesn't sound like much.
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho · 1988 · read Jan 2020A young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago keeps dreaming of treasure near the Egyptian pyramids, and goes after it.
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
Miguel Ruiz · 1997 · read Nov 2019Domestication is don Miguel Ruiz's word for the beliefs you absorbed from family and society without choosing them, agreements…
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Stephen R. Covey · 1989 · read Nov 2019Lasting effectiveness comes from character and principles, not from personality techniques.
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts
Gary Chapman · 1990 · read Oct 2019If you show love the way you'd most like to receive it, your partner may not register it at all.
Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It
Dorie Clark · 2015Clark's argument is that doing excellent work won't, on its own, get you recognized as an expert.