Books on work and life

Not in any particular order, here’s my top 5 books I read within the last year or two that has made me better at evaluating my actions (why I do something, why I react a certain way, and so forth) and how I can continually work to be better for myself and in turn for my family and friends. Each book touches on something different – job, personality, choices, the world we live in, and our daily lives.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

By: Susan Cain

This book I actually bought for my sister and later borrowed, now I wish I have my own copy. Being a textbook introvert myself this book spoke to me, sang to me, if you will. I always thought there was something wrong with me being shy at a young age and even after graduating college I still felt being quiet was something I needed to grow out of or that I needed to change. Lo and behold this book happened, it opened me up to finally embracing who I was. I became more aware of how and (more importantly) why I felt a certain way and what I needed to do to be better. Even if you yourself are not an introvert, what about your girl/boyfriend, family member, or friend? This book helps a great deal in how to approach and understand introverts in your life and/or work space.

 Stumbling on Happiness

By: Daniel Gilbert

As the title states, this book is focused on our obsession for achieving “happiness” and what that really means. It’s sectioned into six parts with a total of 11 chapters. This book goes in depth on each idea, but does it in a fun way paired with relatable graphs/charts/drawings that have made me chuckle a number of times. Another thing I found fun to read were the real life experiments they conducted. I did find I read this a bit slower than The Power of Habit (below), and not to suggest it was less interesting or boring, it just took me more time to take in all the information in each chapter. I also started to go back and add post-it notes to passages I enjoyed. It’s one of those books you can come back to to refresh your thinking without feeling like you need to re-read the entire book again.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

By: Charles Duhigg

I let me friend borrow this book awhile back and they haven’t gotten the time to complete it yet (you know who you are!), so I wasn’t able to snap personal photos of it. Nonetheless, this was the first book that got me hooked on reading more psychology/human behavior type books. It’s a super easy, fun read that talks about why we fail at trying to break bad habits, how companies take advantage of habits we’ve formed, and so much other good stuff you never think about. I’m not perfect, but it’s definitely made me more conscious of my own habits (bad and good), which is always the first step!

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

By: Marie Kondo

This book will help you rethink about how you clean! Yes, clean, and it’ll change how you think about cleaning forever. There’s a reason why this book is so popular and it’s another easy (and short) read. I’m a believer that if your home or work space around you is messy it makes it 10x more difficult to relax or concentrate on a task. That’s why this book is so important when evaluating your overall well being and life. I’ll admit I haven’t gotten her steps down 100% yet, but they always pop up in the back of my mind whenever I do any type of cleaning.

Quitter

By: Jon Acuff

Last, but definitely not least is this book. My sister recommended and gave me this book of hers. She actually brought it to me twice because I’ve debated leaving a full time job, twice. Long story short, this book really helped me the second time around. Only because I had already quit my job the first time around when she gave this to me and I advise you to read this before you do that! This is definitely for people debating if they should leave their full time job and “go after their dream job.” Trust me, it’s not as fairy-tale like as it sounds and this book prepares you for that. It asks all the hard questions and actually tells you not to quit your day job (spoiler!), not yet anyway. Obviously, you know yourself and your situation the best, so you can make your own informative decision, but this book will be a huge help along the way in making this important decision. I still think about this book even after quitting my full time job. A must read for anyone in this situation.

Hope that was helpful for someone and I did these books some justice. Let me know if there are any books you recommend reading!