Time to Reset: Books to Improve Your Work, Life, and Relationships
How time flies, we're already in 2023! If your 2022 has not gone the way you imagined, you keep falling into the same habit loops, or looking for a fresh start in the new year, it might be time for a reset!
Resetting need not be reserved for the start of the year, although it is often the time when people make resolutions for the year ahead. Remember to continue to check in with yourself regularly - be it weekly, monthly, or quarterly, take time to reflect on how you are doing, and then plan your next steps forward.
Here are some books that you could pick up for some inspiration or for helpful next steps. Here's to a happier and healthier you, and to making the most of the year ahead.
Browse by Category:
1. Work/Performance
2. Mindful Living
3. Relationships
Work/Performance
Work is a big part of our lives - did you know that an average adult spends approximately 23% of their life working?
To make this big part of our lives easier and more meaningful, learn about the science behind motivation, mastery, grit, and more!
Peak
How do experts get to where they are? How do they perform the way they do? In this book, Anders Ericsson distils three decades of research into a learning strategy that will redefine the way you think about acquiring new abilities.
If you want to get better at what you are doing this year, this book is packed full of research and anecdotes as well as advice on how you can reach your fullest potential.
Work Clean: The Life-Changing Power of Mise-En-Place to Organize Your Life, Work and Mind
If you find the way your work messy, disorganised, and chaotic, how about taking a page out of a chef's book? It might transform the way you work. Chefs live by the philosophy of mise-en-place, which means 'putting in place'. In high-pressure and fast-paced environments, mise en place is often the differentiating factor between a messy, disorganised kitchen or one that runs like clockwork.
In Work Clean, Dan Charnas interviews culinary professionals and executives and how mise-en-place changed the way they worked and took the concepts of mise-en-place out of the kitchen and made them applicable to daily life. He offers a simple system to help you to focus your actions and accomplish your work cleanly through the 10 principles of mise en place.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Feeling unmotivated in work and life? Daniel Pink draws on four decades of scientific research on human motivation and unpacks what it takes to have true motivation. Humans need to direct their own lives, learn to create new things and do better by ourselves and our world in order to be satisfied.
Learn the techniques to put the above elements into mention and achieve high performance and satisfaction in all areas of your life.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
When pursuing our goals, we'll face all sorts of challenges and perhaps wish that we were born more talented instead. However, the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but rather, grit. Angela Duckworth shares insights on her landmark research on grit, focused persistence, and why talent doesn't guarantee success. Instead, to succeed one needs to have focused attention, resilience, perseverance, and dedication to deliberate practice.
An insightful read for those who want to learn more about what grit is and fight through life's obstacles.
Beginners: the joy and transformative power of lifelong learning
Starting something new can be transformative and joyful! Beginners is a playful and thought-provoking investigation into how learning at any age is good for us.
In a time when we are becoming increasingly cut off from the outside world, or fall prey to mind-numbing digital distractions, Vanderbilt encourages readers to rediscover the world through the eyes of a beginner. If you need a push or a reason why you should pick up new hobbies this year, this is the book for you.
Mindful Living
Taking care of our minds, body and surroundings is the foundation for a happy and healthy life. If you're looking for inspiration, or need some help, these books will teach you how to be more intentional about small moments, the way you use technology, how you spend money, and what you bring into your home.
It's time for you to start taking good care of yourself.
Digital Minimalism : Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
We spend a significant chunk of our lives digitally, and it can get noisy and overwhelming - how do we use technology intentionally without letting it rule our lives?
Cal Newport, bestselling author of Deep Work, introduces the concept of Digital Minimalism and helps us to rethink our relationship with technology. Drawing from range of real-life examples, he shows you how you can rediscover offline pleasures, reconnect with yourself and a thoughtful method to decide what tools you want to use, for what purposes and under what conditions.
If you're tired of wasting so much time scrolling social media endlessly and want to be more intentional about how you use technology, this is the book for you.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up : The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Did a spring clean at the start of the year or during Lunar New Year, only to find your home in a mess a few weeks or months later?
Marie Kondo proposes a way of tidying that will ensure that you won't face this problem again. Taking the world by storm when it was published, Kondo's method of organisation takes tidying to a new level. By simplifying your home, her category-by-category system, and only keeping what sparks joy, the philosophy of Marie Kondo might just change your home into a calm and tidy one for good.
The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way
Sometimes, our days and weeks can feel like they are blurring into one another and it can be hard to live in the moment. The Japanese phrase ichigo ichie captures the idea of how every moment in our lives happen only once, and we lose it forever if we let it slip.
This book talks about the concept of ichigo ichie, and contains lessons on how to live more intentionally. Learn how to focus on the present moments, and anchor yourself in the present through all five of your senses and experience a new kind of mindfulness.
No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
A lot of advice today tells us to live our best lives now. But what happens when the life that you hoped for is put on hold, indefinitely?
Kate Bowler recounts her emotional journey after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, as she searches for a way forward. How do we come to terms to our limitations in a culture that tells us that anything and everything is possible? She finds out that life is both beautiful and terrible, full of hope and despair, and ultimately, there is no cure for being human.
A thoughtprovoking read about what it means to be human.
Finance for the People: Getting a Grip on Your Finances
It might be intimidating to navigate the world of money or finance, but whether we like it or not, this is something we have to learn sooner or later. This approachable, practical and empathetic will make is easier for you!
Our experiences with money are shaped by a host of factors - personal experiences, family, societal expectations and more. De Leon asks readers to examine their beliefs and experiences around money mindfully, as well as makes financial concepts accessible.
Go on a journey of financical self-discovery and change your relationship with money with Finance for the People.
Relationships
Strong and healthy relationships can make one's life so much richer and worth living. After all, when you're on your deathbed, you won't be thinking about spending more time working or sleeping!
If you're looking to improve your relationships with those around you and take them to the next level, or simply looking to make more connections, check these books out.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0
We are often measured by our intelligence, but emotional Intelligence (EQ) is just as important in helping us to get through life and our relationships. Emotional intelligence helps us to get along more healthily and face less conflicts in our lives - emotionally intelligent people are self aware, know how to manage themselves and their emotions as well as their relationships with other - but this isn't something that we are often taught.
In this book full of research, you will be able to take tests to see where your EQ stands, and find proven strarefies used by leaders and companies to improve your EQ. This is a valuable book for anyone who wants to learn to be more emotionally intelligent.
How to Talk to Anyone : 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships
Some people just seem to have a knack for making friends and being instantly loved and respected by those around them.
In How to Talk to Anyone, Lowndes offers 92 effective techniques on communicating for success from making a great first impression to how to work a room. If you need a little help in your social life or want to get better at talking to strangers, the tips in this book might work for you!
Eight Dates
Looking to deepen your relationship with your significant other? Go on eight dates with these life-changing conversation topics.
Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz from the famous Love Lab provide a step-by-step guide to help you and your partner communicate about the things that matter most - trust, conflict, sex, money, family, adventure, spirituality and dreams. Filled with tips, prompts and activities, Eight Dates will help you to discover your partner like never before.
We hope these titles have inspired you to make some changes to improve your quality of life. Remember to always pause and check in with yourself, and it's never too late to hit 'reset'. If you want more books like this, check out our Personal Development section.
Happy reading, and happy growing!