Time management tips: Stephen R. Covey's First Things First is the gold standard for time management books. His principle-centered approach for prioritizing gives you time management tips that enable you to make changes and sacrifices needed in order to obtain happiness, and retain a feeling of security. First Things First: The Interactive Edition takes Dr. Covey's philosophy and remasters the entire text to include: videos, infographics, analysis and more. Credit: Stephen R. Covey; First Things First.
Large-scale organizational transformations usually don’t work. What originally starts as a way of improving an organization becomes an all-consuming distraction, a value-destroying set of activities that, even as it becomes clear they will fail, must be completed at any cost. But there is a better way: becoming an Octopus Organization.
The octopus is everything you need your organization to be in these turbulent times: extremely smart, endlessly adaptable, and highly resilient. Its eight arms work beautifully in concert, but crucially, each arm can think for itself if it needs to work independently. Your organization can work as intelligently and as beautifully as these amazing creatures, if you change your operating model. Credit: The Octopus Organization.
Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can—except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. They rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; they lavishly reward “thought leaders” who redefine “change” in ways that preserve the status quo; and they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. Giridharadas asks hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? His groundbreaking investigation has already forced a great, sorely needed reckoning among the world’s wealthiest and those they hover above, and it points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world—a call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike. Credit: Penguin Random House; Anand Giridharadas.
The process of sanctification is personal and organic―not a one-size-fits-all formula.
Many popular views try to reduce the process of Christian growth to a single template. For example, remember past grace. Rehearse your identity in Christ. Avail yourself of the means of grace. Discipline yourself. But Scripture portrays the dynamics of sanctification in a rich variety of ways. No single factor, truth, or protocol can capture why and how a person is changed into the image of Christ. Weaving together personal stories, biblical exposition, and theological reflection, David Powlison shows the personal and particular ways that God meets you where you are to produce change. He highlights the variety of factors that work together, helping us to avoid sweeping generalizations and pat answers in the search for a key to sanctification. This book is a go-to resource for understanding the multifaceted, lifelong, personal journey of sanctification. Read more here. Credit: David Powlison.
Filled with common sense and practical, actionable, advice, Nick Huber’s book reveals that you don’t have to be a genius with a world-changing idea to build a business empire and become a multi-millionaire. Business media, television and movies, and top college courses all tell entrepreneurs the same thing: To succeed in business, you need to have a revolutionary idea. To them, success is about changing the world through constant innovation. But the truth is, 99.999 percent of businesses that pursue this strategy will fail.
In The Sweaty Startup, Nick Huber shows us that you don’t need a ton of money, a brilliant new idea, complex technology, or extreme scale to succeed. There is another way to do business and find success by keeping things simple. Nick encourages readers to pursue opportunities with good odds, low risk, and moderate rewards that will set you up for a successful life, not just a successful business. Forget about mastering your craft, Huber advises. Focus on mastering sales, hiring, and delegation instead. It’s not about doing what you love or pursuing your passion. It’s about following the path of least resistance and executing on a proven idea in a proven market to win. Read more at Harper Collins.
Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter
Overview
Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.
In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions--no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today's increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs. Read more here. Credit: HBR.
The key to a more meaningful life? It's right there in your mind. That's where it all begins. If you've been living with false narratives in your head, they've been keeping you locked up in a prison of unfulfilled dreams and untapped potential. But here's the game-changer: you can cultivate a brand new mindset, one based on what's actually true. Dr. Josh Axe, in Think This, Not That, is your guide to this amazing journey. He’ll help you unpack those top twelve mental barriers that have been holding you back from becoming the person you're meant to be. For each barrier, Dr. Axe presents a brand new empowering mindset. Credit: Dr. Josh Axe.
Credit: A Generous Life; David Green with Bill High
Overview
As the founder and CEO of the largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer in the world, David has amassed material wealth, yet has learned the secret of generous living. As someone who gives away half of his profits to charity, lives with integrity and faith, and enjoys the peace of crafting a legacy now, David has found peace and fulfillment.
A Generous Life:
- guides you through ten simple but life-changing action steps - helps you establish a generous mindset, determine where and how much to give, how to create a family legacy plan, and more - teaches you how to identify your blessings—friendships, family, work, education, or talents
The business triumphs of Bill Gates are widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education. Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world. Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it’s a fascinating portrait of an American life. Credit: Amazon; Bill Gates.
Recognize the value of each day, seize every moment and make each one count towards living the life you’ve always dreamed of! Discover the life-changing power of decision and determination in Jim Rohn's enlightening guide, How to Have Your Best Year Ever. Jim Rohn, master motivator and business philosopher, unfolds the blueprint to achieving unparalleled success and fulfillment in every aspect of life. From harnessing the precious value of time and money to mastering life's five puzzle pieces, this book is a comprehensive roadmap to personal and financial independence. The wisdom encapsulated in this book emphasizes the importance of personal progress, cultivating a wealth-filled library, leveraging your five best abilities, and the miracle-working power of words. Credit: Best Year Ever.
If life were a house, then every room holds a story. What do we do when a room we’re in is no longer a room where we belong?
What do you do when you start to feel a shift and must decide if it’s time to make a change? When it comes to navigating big decisions about when to stay and go, how can we know for sure when the time is right? Though we enter and exit many rooms over the course of our life—jobs, relationships,communities, life stages—knowing how and when it’s time to leave is a decision that rarely has a clear answer. Podcast host, spiritual director, and bestselling author of The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman offers guidance to help us recognize when it’s time to move on from situations that no longer fit, allowing us to find new spaces where we can flourish and grow. Read more here. Credit: Emily P. Freeman.
10 Surefire Ways to Design a Workplace That Is Good for People,
Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World
As human beings, we are built to connect and form relationships. So, it should be no surprise that relationships must also translate into the workplace, where we spend most of our time! Companies that recognize this will retain the most productive, creative, and loyal employees, and invariably seize the competitive edge. The most successful leaders are those who actively form quality relationships with their employees, who honor fundamental human qualities--authenticity, openness, and basic politeness--and apply them day in and day out. Paying attention and genuinely caring about the effects people have on one another other is key to developing a winning culture where people perform at the top of their game and want to work. As a workplace strategist and business coach, Erica Keswin has spent over 20 years working with top business leaders and executives to build successful organizations that honor relationships.Credit: Bring Your HUMAN to Work; Porchlight Books.
As leaders, we know that change is a fact of life and we need to learn to manage it before it manages us. A tall order? Not when you have the wisdom of two business icons, Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein, to show the way. This easy-to-use book will help you and your team stop conducting business as usual. Change is the key that unlocks the doors to growth and excitement in any organization. More importantly, without it...your competition will pass you by. You don't have a choice about change, but you do have a choice about how you and your team react to it. Don't wait another minute to inspire, motivate, and encourage your team to move forward and embrace change.
In many ways, we’re more comfortable than ever before. But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, under challenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues? In this gripping investigation, award-winning journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counter-intuitive solution: discomfort. Easter’s journey to understand our evolutionary need to be challenged takes him to meet the NBA’s top exercise scientist, who uses an ancient Japanese practice to build championship athletes; to the mystical country of Bhutan, where an Oxford economist and Buddhist leader are showing the world what death can teach us about happiness; to the outdoor lab of a young neuroscientist who’s found that nature tests our physical and mental endurance in ways that expand creativity while taming burnout and anxiety; to the remote Alaskan backcountry on a demanding thirty-three-day hunting expedition to experience the rewilding secrets of one of the last rugged places on Earth; and more. Along the way, Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging the power of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human. The Comfort Crisis is a bold call to break out of your comfort zone and explore the wild within yourself. Credit: The Comfort Crisis
Brief Overview: The counter-intuitive approach to achieving your true potential, heralded by the Harvard Business Review as a groundbreaking idea of the year.
The path to personal and professional fulfillment is rarely straight. Ask anyone who has achieved his or her biggest goals or whose relationships thrive and you’ll hear stories of many unexpected detours along the way. What separates those who master these challenges and those who get derailed? The answer is agility—emotional agility.
Emotional agility is a revolutionary, science-based approach that allows us to navigate life’s twists and turns with self-acceptance, clear-sightedness, and an open mind. Renowned psychologist Susan David developed this concept after studying emotions, happiness, and achievement for more than twenty years. She found that no matter how intelligent or creative people are, or what type of personality they have, it is how they navigate their inner world—their thoughts, feelings, and self-talk—that ultimately determines how successful they will become.
The way we respond to these internal experiences drives our actions, careers, relationships, happiness, health—everything that matters in our lives. As humans, we are all prone to common hooks—things like self-doubt, shame, sadness, fear, or anger—that can too easily steer us in the wrong direction. Emotionally agile people are not immune to stresses and setbacks. The key difference is that they know how to adapt, aligning their actions with their values and making small but powerful changes that lead to a lifetime of growth. Emotional agility is not about ignoring difficult emotions and thoughts; it’s about holding them loosely, facing them courageously and compassionately, and then moving past them to bring the best of yourself forward. Credit @ Emotional Agility Learn more about author Susan David here.
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Learn more here.
James Clear is a writer and speaker focused on habits, decision making, and continuous improvement. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits. The book has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Credit: Amazon
“Departures: Smart Packing, of Life’s Essentials, for On-Time Arrivals” touches upon the sensitivities of balancing the awkward moments in the realm of communication, relationships, career, death and ultimately change. The concept of Departures challenges man to know when to reinvent himself, deviate from societal norms and when to truly walk away from a cause. This reality prompts man to engage in introspection to extract answers instead of relying upon society to deliver. Such reliance often fails people because society only mirrors what we feed it. There is a disconnect among individuals and society as a whole..." Credit: Sasha Laghonh, R&B Show
A 'Departures' audio commentary will be available soon on Sasha Talks.
Spencer Johnson, M.D., is one of the most beloved and respected authors in the world. He has helped millions of readers discover how they can enjoy better lives by using simple truths that lead to fulfillment and success at work and at home. Dr. Johnson is often referred to as the best there is at taking complex subjects and presenting simple solutions that work. He is the author or co-author of numerous New York Times bestselling books including #1 International Bestsellers Who Moved My Cheese?— An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change and The One Minute Manager, the world’s most popular management method, co-authored with Kenneth Blanchard.
After graduating with a B.A. in psychology from the University of Southern California, Dr. Johnson received his M.D. degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and completed medical clerkships at the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School. He served as Director of Communications for Medtronic, the inventors of cardiac pacemakers; Research Physician at The Institute for Inter-Disciplinary Studies; Consultant to The Center for Study of the Person; and Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Business School.
His work has captured the attention of major media, including CNN, ABC, NBC, the BBC, Time, New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, Reader’s Digest, Associated Press and United Press International. Dr. Spencer Johnson’s stories of timeless, simple truths have changed the work and lives of millions of readers around the world. Credit: MindPerk Biographies.
