The new year has begun, so there’s no better time to take advantage of the fresh start and change your life. This is the time to reflect on what you’ve always wanted to do but have never taken the time to plan out accomplishing.
Let me help you out. Three notable books have come across my desk that I believe will help you experience a happier and more productive year, no matter what specific goals you hope to accomplish.
1. Choose Your Story, Change Your Life: Silence Your Inner Critic and Rewrite Your Life from the Inside Out
Kindra Hall, WSJ bestseller and Chief Storytelling Officer at SUCCESS Magazine, says it’s time we stop telling ourselves negative self-stories. In her new book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life, Hall points out that none of us recognize the self-sabotage we do to ourselves daily. The book will help you control the stories you’re telling yourself.
Hall writes, “While you don’t get a choice in whether or not stories are being told–like it or not, the story is happening–the good news is that the choice of which stories you tell is entirely yours. Because while there are certainly stories that keep you stuck, that make you feel heavy, and cause you to wonder if you’ll ever cross the great divide, there are also stories that can set you free. There are stories that can propel you forward. There are stories that can lift you up and over the challenges, stories that can break through the barriers. [The] science, research, and the evidence from each of our own experiences in this difficult, wonderful, story-filled world point to one powerful thing: If you can change your story, you can change your life.”
2. Take Charge of You: How Self Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career
Today, everyone seeks a new career or opportunity, and many hire a coach to push them to go from merely dreaming to actually achieving. Unfortunately, good coaches are either too expensive or unavailable.
Now, a method called “self-coaching” is available to all with the publication of Take Charge Of You: How Self Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career by David Novak, co-founder & former CEO and Chairman of Yum! Brands and Jason Goldsmith, coach to some of the world’s best PGA golf stars in the world.
Novak and Goldsmith write, “As important as coaches are, there just aren’t enough good ones to go around–in fact, there’s a real coaching deficit out there. And the coaches who do exist are often far too expensive and in too high demand for most people to consider hiring their own. But that doesn’t mean you should go without. Your life is too important to leave your personal growth and professional development up to chance. It’s time to take the responsibility for coaching into your own hands and give yourself what you need to succeed, grow, and lead a more fulfilling life. It’s time to take charge of you and learn how to coach yourself.”
3. Bridge the Gap: Breakthrough Communication Tools to Transform Work Relationships from Challenging to Collaborative
Jennifer Edwards and Katie McCleary are coaches to Fortune 500 companies and social enterprises. As authors of the forthcoming book Bridge the Gap, Edwards and McCleary acknowledge the consequence of living in a divided world: we’re no longer understanding and respecting our colleagues. This book will help you advance your communication skills, and nurture your relationships at work.
Edwards and McCleary write, “Every interaction you have has the power to improve or deteriorate a critical professional relationship. You have the power to propel your work by showing up with an intention to connect, engage, and communicate. . . even through tension, conflict, or awkwardness. Equally, you also have the power to shut people down, build divisive walls, create drama, shame, and blame, and stonewall your own success and that of your company. Most of the time, the choice is truly yours. Of course, there are times when you may not have a choice–the other person might be sabotaging you, harassing you, or thrashing your values because they are meanspirited. We call these canyons, not gaps…. However, overwhelmingly, most people are able to bridge gaps and enhance their work (and life) experience using our tools.”