#One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

art-of-manliness · 7 years ago

Text

Podcast #341: The Kaizen Method — Get 1% Better Each Day

When it comes to self-improvement, most people set big, audacious goals. Setting those goals feels good. It pumps you up and you feel like you can conquer the world. But then . . . it happens. You have a setback and within a matter of days, your fiery ambition to change yourself is extinguished. And so you’re back to where you started, only you’re even worse off than before because you’re saddled with the sting of failure. But what if I said there’s a much more effective way to improve yourself and it just requires getting 1% better each day? It’s called the Kaizen method. It sounds like a mystical Japanese philosophy passed down by wise, bearded sages who lived in secret caves, but it actually has a surprisingly American and modern origin. My guest today has written a book about this philosophy of small, continuous improvement used by Japanese carmakers for over 60 years. His name is Robert Maurer and his book is One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. Today on the show, Robert explains the American roots of this Japanese manufacturing process and how the Japanese re-introduced it to America in the 1970s. He then digs into the psychology of why the Kaizen method of improvement works so well not just for organizations but for individuals. We end our conversation with the practical ways you can incorporate Kaizen in your own life. Show Highlights * The history of the Kaizen philosophy * The American roots of Kaizen * Kaizen in car manufacturing * What Japanese companies taught American ones in terms of manufacturing * The myths that people believe about behavior change * Incorporating Kaizen into individual lives vs. big corporations * How Kaizen can help you get better sleep, exercise more, and live an overall healthier lifestyle * The power of visualization * Why you should be asking yourself small, seemingly trivial questions * Using Kaizen to get yourself out of debt * How managers and parents can use small questions * How small is small enough when it comes to thoughts and actions? * The way that small steps can actually lead to big steps * How Robert used Kaizen to write his book about Kaizen * Reinforcing your actions with equally small rewards * How Robert got himself to floss every day * Finding small problems that will have a big payoff when solved * How Kaizen in one area of your life transfers into other areas Resources/People/Articles Mentioned in Podcast * The Machine That Changed the World * W. Edwards Deming * Podcast: The Science of Lasting Behavior Change * Get 1% Better Every Day: The Kaizen Way to Self-Improvement * Become a Self-Starter: The Importance of Autonomy * Mind Sculpture * Microhabits: Creating Habits That Stick If you’re tired of fits and starts in your self-improvement, you need to read One Small Step Can Change Your Life. Robert does a great job providing research-backed advice on how to start and maintain growth for the long-term. Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!) Listen to the episode on a separate page. Download this episode. Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice. Podcast Sponsors Mack Weldon. Their underwear and undershirts are second to none. If you don’t like your first pair, you can keep it, and they will still refund you. No questions asked. Go to MackWeldon.com and get 20% off your purchase using the promo code MANLINESS. Cooper Tires. Your four tires are all that connect you and your car to the road, so it’s important to be sure you can rely on them. Cooper Tires has more than a century of experience in manufacturing comfortable, capable tires. Visit coopertires.com today. Click here to see a full list of our podcast sponsors. Recorded with ClearCast.io. Read the Transcript Coming soon! The post Podcast #341: The Kaizen Method — Get 1% Better Each Day appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/PpZFCn

5 notes · View notes

sanest24 · 8 years ago

Text

Good Clean Fun

“Having fun is a significant part of life.”

Not all Birthday celebrations end in a drunken night but rather calmness and pure love on a mountain.

Runyon Canyon Hiking

Growth The outdoors can be a way to inner peace. Runyon Canyon was a great experience. The place was amazing. We hiked the mountain for hours facing our fears of not falling on our asses. Okay. Okay. Sounds too good to be true? Yeah, well maybe you’re right This year for my birthday all I wanted was to enjoy the day and reflect on the long journey it has been. I’ve come a long way, but I’m here to share that one of the most significant part of journey’s is Growth. Are you growing or wallowing? If family, co workers, friends aren't adding to your life; I bet it’s hard to grow and feel supported. Sometimes it’s better to be alone then hangout with the wrong people out of fear and loneliness. Birthday’s are a time to look at how far the years has taken you.

“What’s not nurtured can't grow.”

A Fun Filled Day

Free This day was filled with fun, and a lot of physical exercise. Not only outdoors but indoors as well. For instance, my friends and I decided to attend Sky Zone, which is an indoor trampoline park. Yes, we are big kids, but its important to keep your inner child’s peace of mind. It keeps you free. Why grow up and be stale? Our visit to the trampoline park we probably burned more calories then we put on. This experience felt so freeing. Nothing could compare to jumping up and down as high we could go, well at least me. I think I had the most fun. I was all in it with no filter, just, loving and letting go of all the weighed me down. It didn't have any power. Sadly, not every adult can jump, so just being present in this type of active environment can give the same pleasure as if you were right in the action with the younger kids and adults.

What do birthday really mean? The first thing to realize are that birthday’s should represents a turning point in wisdom, but also experience. Every year, I on this day, I decided to do something that I have never done before, or go somewhere that I've never been, and if I am not excited to go anywhere than that means I’m doing something wrong, or something went wrong.

The Flash Back It’s important to acknowledge your born day but also reflect. Three years ago I’ve drove to Los Angeles in my 2004 Dodge Neon, and decided to move to this magical place. It was one of the most exciting days of my life. I was crossing a bridge, from good to greatness. I guess I believed in myself then because I knew I had what it takes to survive in this big expensive city. The plan was to first finish college while work, and staying healthy which is quiet crucial as a new adult on your own. “Believe it or not”. Sounds easy enough?Next after graduation the plan is to pursue theatre arts and become and actor and a writer. So far my subconscious is sticking to the plan. The message is sometimes when we take small steps towards bigger goals we end up receiving more because we have kept the momentum going. Kaizen

Philosophy This Japanese term has recently pop in my head, it “One Small Step Can change Your Life.” Robert Maurer, P.hD. this book signifies the essence of what it means to take small steps towards what the bigger journey entails. As an illustration, all alone I was doing this. But my name for this practice was called Baby Steps. Baby steps was a fancy way of keeping things together, but one step at a time. Like I would just only focus on one task, for example, passing a class, but keep my mind on it for the entire semester. Honestly focusing and just trying to past myself with one skill became challenging for me because I would always find something to distract what I was doing. It could be anything. Like a guy I was dating, or perhaps, something would happen in my family, a fight with my mom, or just simply stress. I had to mediate on the things I want and mattered in my life. One I begin to medicated everything would fall into place.

“Sometime giving yourself a personal intervention is the best truth to treasure.”

Photo Credit Barnes and Noble

Journaling is a powerful entity. Keeping a record even just a small one can have positive changes and holds one accountable for achieving big dreams and goals. Journaling has always been sort of like a secret power of mind. I have always used it as a way to calm myself, keep record, but most significantly journaling symbolized prayer and inner dialogue. It was like writing on a mirror except the reflection are the words that most captured moments of happiness, pain, pleasure and even lost. It almost works like therapy, but free.

Jotting down things that are frustrating, or even happy thoughts can keep a person in the right mood, always coming back to what works. I believe journaling helps people get to know themselves. Each and everyday there is something that is new or a memory that becomes a piece of treasure. This is something valuable that cannot be replaced. Year after year I journal. I’ve been journaling since I was about ten, and on and off throughout my adulthood. In 2012 I made a serious committment to journaling, and now I’m on my 6th journal. Yay, congrats for me.

By Sanestina Hunter

Educate yourself The Number One Secret to Life Success Journaling Saves Prolific Living Getting to know yourself.

#love #selflove journey free blog reading educating hiking la fit

1 note · View note

sunshineweb · 5 years ago

Text

Writing, the Kaizen Way

About one year back, I remember telling Vishal that we should create a course on “How to become a better writer.”

Go ahead and create it, he said, “What’s stopping you?”

With a lot of excitement, I immediately started working on it. Now, we haven’t published any such course yet and that tells you something about the eventual state of my initial excitement. It barely lasted a few days.

“You know Vishal,” I messaged him a few days back, “the reason I haven’t been able to make much progress on the writing course is that I keep getting bogged down by the enormity of the task. The thought of creating an online course on writing is so overwhelming that I find it hard to resume the work on this project.”

“Remember Robert Maurer’s book — The Kaizen Way?” he replied.

“Yes. I remember reading it a few years back.”

“Then, it’s time to re-read it and apply its lessons. Don’t think about creating a comprehensive online course. Focus on writing one lesson, one chapter, or maybe one writing tip.”

That’s the advantage of having an intelligent friend. He doesn’t just recommend you good books but he also tells you which book you need to re-read today.

For all those who are starting out, starting over, feeling burned out, or wildly successful, the question is always the same — How to keep going? And the answer is Kaizen.

It’s a Japanese term which means taking small steps to continual improvement. In other words, the idea is to make such small changes in your life that your brain doesn’t even know you’re changing, and therefore, doesn’t get in the way.

Famous ancient philosopher Lao Tzu captured the essence of Kaizen when he said —

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

In 2016, I published the Mental Models e-book — a collection of 50 mental models. Writing that book would have been an enormous task had I started out with a goal to write a 100,000-word volume. However, the way it became possible was that I wrote one mental-model article every week for 50 weeks consistently. And then compiling all that into a book didn’t look so enormous.

So this post is my first step towards piecing together a few learnings and thoughts about writing. My focus in this series will be to share with you a few insights that I have picked up from Vishal and many other sources in my four years of active blogging.

Let’s begin.

Lesson 1: Imitate

Imitation is perhaps one trick that has helped me the most.

Imitate people who are good writers. And the imitation could start from borrowing their words verbatim. I am not asking you to plagiarise other people’s work. Just do it in private, when you’re practicing.

The great American inventor and statesman, Benjamin Franklin devised a system based on imitation to improve his writing skills. Franklin wrote –

I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand.

Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer.

Benjamin Franklin’s method is an excellent example of how Deliberate Practice can be used to master any skill.

Here’s an interesting experiment. Read the following paragraph from Gary Provost and then write it (or type it on a keyboard) as it is with your own hand.

Notice how it feels to have those words flow through your hands. It’s not just our eyes and ears that help you in learning a language. Even your fingers have their own intelligence. It’s called kinesthetic intelligence. When you learn a skill, a lot more parts in the body get involved in the learning than you can imagine.

Now, how do you find stuff worth reusing and imitating?

By reading. A lot.

It’s a cliche but let me repeat it anyway because it’s so true — All good writers are voracious readers.

So that’s the first tip for becoming a good writer.

Now, the best thing you could do today is to take action on this advice.

Pick up your favourite book and pull out a paragraph from it and copy it the way I have described above. Even better, type it out as a comment for this post. Plus, I would love to know if you have any writing tips for me.

Charlie Munger said, “Go to bed a little bit smarter than you woke up.” In other words, learn something new every day. Today, I hope I have helped you in your quest to become a life long learner.

The post Writing, the Kaizen Way appeared first on Safal Niveshak.

Writing, the Kaizen Way published first on https://mbploans.tumblr.com/

0 notes

education30and40blog · 5 years ago

Text

How 1% Change Adds Up to a Big Impact for Schools and Districts - Education Elements

See on Scoop.it - Education 2.0 & 3.0

By: Dana Britt on October 16th, 2019 Print/Save as PDF How 1% Change Adds Up to a Big Impact for Schools and Districts TEAM HABITS Share: I was on a phone call with two principals earlier this week who shared a concern I hear often in working with school districts through large change management initiatives. Three years into their personalized learning journey, there are still at least a few teachers in their building who are resistant to the instructional shifts necessary to make learning personalized for each child. If you are a leader facing a similar situation, here are four key strategies for moving forward. Return to the “Why” Your number one go-to before any of the other tips below should be to remind your staff of their “why,” or why they want to make instructional shifts in the first place. Is it to help students become more self-directed? Is it because more than half a million students are enrolling in college unprepared for college-level work? Is it because the skills most employers look for are not often practiced in our classrooms? Encourage your teachers to shadow a student throughout the day or to ask students to create two “stories,” one describing how they experience school today and one describing how they’d like school to look different in the future. I once asked a group of kindergarten students if they had a magic wand how they would change their school. I thought I’d hear “more pizza at lunch” and “all day recess” but what I actually heard was “I could go at my own pace.” Related Resource: A New Way to Think About Innovative School and District Leadership Be clear about your expectations Often, teachers are unclear about what exactly the instructional shifts you’re hoping to see look like. Be sure to have a set of common commitments or a rubric of what “dipping your toes in” the water looks like versus being in the “deep end.” Understand the root cause of the resistance to change The best research about resistance to change is from Harvard Business School’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter. If your school has a culture of openness, have teachers read this article about the ten reasons people resist change and have a conversation about which two or three reasons feel most relevant in this case. Keep an eye out for The NEW Team Habits releasing this fall! Co-authored by Anthony Kim, Keara Mascareñaz, and Kawai Lai, The NEW Team Habits is the follow-up guide to the best-selling The NEW School Rules, created to help leadership teams transform the habits that keep them from success. Pre-order Now Help identify the 1% change Education Elements co-founder Anthony Kim encourages finding an action that is “safe enough to try” (for more, check out his book, The NEW School Rules) and in finding the “1% change.” Robert Maurer, in his book, The Kaizen Way: One Small Step Can Change Your Life , and James Clear, in Atomic Habits, both write about the compounding effect of 1% gains. It doesn’t have to be 100% or nothing. The two principals I was working with shared that teachers in their buildings were keeping students in the same differentiated groupings for the entire year because it was too much to commit to changing them all the time. Instead of 0%, start with 1%. Ask yourself: What’s one group of students who could use an intervention? What’s one part of my lesson that I could make differentiated? What’s one choice I could give students today? Who’s one student who could benefit from a 1-1 conference today? Watch as the 1% changes compound over time and completely transform your work. In order to create consistent change, making changes needs to become a habit. Though there is a lot of focus on shifting individual habits, team habits have a large impact on how we work, and the success of our initiatives. Join us at the Team Habits Leadership Institute next month to learn how to break bad habits and create good ones - as a team. About Dana Britt Dana Britt is an Associate Partner focused on leading innovation in the state of New York. Prior to joining Education Elements in 2015, she worked in the District of Columbia Public Schools for six years, first as a high school English teacher, then in the district office as the manager of educational technology. In that role, she supported the district-level rollout of blended learning across 111 schools and built up a particular expertise in designing district-wide professional development and selecting, purchasing, and adopting new digital content and tools. At Education Elements, Dana has supported schools over 100 schools in 16 states. She has led the implementations of Fulton County Schools (GA), Syracuse City School District (NY), Marion Central School District (NY), and Waterloo Central School District (NY). Dana holds a B.A. in English from Wellesley College and an Ed.M. in Technology, Innovation and Education from Harvard University. When not thinking about personalized learning, Dana enjoys rock climbing and training for her next marathon in Washington, DC. First Name Last Name Email Website Comment*

0 notes

enzocalamo · 5 years ago

Text

The Kaizen Way: ONE SMALL STEP CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Robert Maurer

youtube

1-Page PDF Summary: http://www.productivitygame.com/upgrade-one-small-step/ Book Link: http://amzn.to/2nKXwpJ FREE Audiobook Trial: http://amzn.to/2ypaVs

0 notes

atomicsuperhero · 6 years ago

Text

Artist Interview: Andrea Becker

Back in October I had a chance to interview and photograph my friend Andrea, an artist in Seattle, Washington. She has been drawing since she was 7 years old. In 2014 She decided that she wanted to see if she could find a way to make money off her art.

Here is our interview, my questions are in bold.

B: How did you discover or decide that you wanted to make art full time?

A: 4 years ago, when I was living in Lacombe I was looking to make art full time, but I had no idea when it would actually happen. It wasn’t until I’d been in Seattle for 2 years that I was like “ok, I can actually do this as an artist.” and so I had to figure out, and I’m still discovering, what platforms are going to be the most beneficial. I’m exploring, I’m in a creating zone, so I’m creating constantly. but as for how to sell it, that's still in transition.

I find a lot of it has to do with networking, who you can connect with that kind of dictates how you’re going to sell your product, your art.

B: who are some artists online that really inspire you.

A: When I started pursuing this, one artist that actually inspired me is Yuko Shimizu. She’s an illustrator from NY and her style is really unique. She does a Japanese Edo-period style with a modern twist. Shes worked for DC, Marvel, Times Magazine, she’s done tons of stuff.

I like her because Japanese stuff has always fascinated me, but also because she went back to school when she was 34.

She’d been in the PR business in Japan for 10 years and so she got to a point where she was like you know, I have to do this art thing. So she took out her savings, went to New York, went to school, and got into the art scene. To me, she was a huge inspiration. She came to Calgary and led a workshop. So I had to go. I met a ton of artists there who were in the industry and most of the people who took her class were fans.

There was maybe two of us who didn’t have an art background, but were interested in it. So just going there was fantastic because there were so many people that I was able to talk to who had done an art degree, and just about everybody there was working a part-time and doing art. To me, that was a huge wake up of “oh, I don’t need to go back to school. I just keep working and make my art, and eventually, at some point, I’ll start transitioning and be able to do the art thing.” I had a lot of feedback from everyone like “just keep doing what you're doing.” I thought I needed to do colour theory and to figure out my medium.

B: So was that your wake up moment? like this is a thing I can do?

A: Yep! This is something I can do. I can actually do it, it's just going to take time. That was four years ago. So now, I’m at that space where I am doing art, and I am selling. But now it's building it up to making it a little bit more income. And finding out where my niche is. I can create, I’ve developed my style, I’m comfortable enough, I know that pen and paper are my preferred medium. I’m also learning photoshop. I’m comfortable enough with photoshop that I can now do commission work for people.

So now it's just going “ok, so what/how I can I make this consistent enough. I’ve only been at it for 3 months.

B: How do you come up with ideas for your work?

A: Instagram. I look at a lot of artists, I have a lot of artists that I follow because I like their particular style. Or I have a specific genre that I follow on Instagram. So in my feed, just about every day I come across something I like, a particular style, or how someone drew a character's eyes, or how they made use of space. So I actually have file folders in my Saved Posts on Instagram, that when I like something I drag it into one of those folders.

Since I’ve developed my style, I’ll keep drawing in my style, but to invigorate it I’ll just go “hey this week I want to create more forest creatures.” So I’ll go back to my files and review, and I’ll look at style, or use of space, or anatomy, and let that influence my drawing. When I feel like I need to have a refresher, I need something new, I’ll go back and look at stuff.

I try to follow other artists whose styles I really draw me in, that I really enjoy. I don’t try to duplicate but I always find influence. Every artist is gonna say that they don’t duplicate but that they’re heavily influenced by other artists. But yeah, Instagram is my main source of inspiration.

B: what three books would you recommend to an aspiring artist

A: One Small Step Can Change Your LIfe: The Power of Kaizen by Dr. Robert Maurer, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.

Those are the three that I’ve read cover to cover and I’ve taken the ideas and applied them to my life. They all kind of mesh with each other. They all actually tie-in to each other.

And I read a lot of stuff on Medium. There is tons of stuff on habit building, which I think is essential for artists. The nice thing is the articles are very piecemeal. Sometimes there's a lot of stuff that you can find in the books I mentioned, but every so often I’ll come across a writer who’s got one additional idea I never thought of. So it's really nice because these are people who are applying the same concepts in their lives.

I’ve read tons of articles about the importance of being up early in the morning. I’m a night owl but I was able to transition because I found all of the elements I need to get me up. So 1 key thing for waking up early - a natural light alarm. I found another thing, to help me get out of bed, was having something to look forward to, which was coffee. That's literally the first thing I started doing. I would go to the kitchen and start my coffee. I’d have that to look forward to every day.

I haven’t been drinking coffee lately, so what I’ve been doing now is water and vitamins. Because vitamins create stability for my mind. So literally, that will get me out of bed because then that creates my mental stability for the day.

But you have to find something to get yourself out of bed that you have to look forward to. So it was coffee for the longest time because I enjoy it, now it's vitamins. Getting out of bed has to be something that you can look forward to like you’re treating yourself.

B: I started doing the Artist’s Way workbook earlier this year and I got to chapter 8 and then fell off the wagon. But I was like getting up half an hour early and writing.

A: what season was that?

B: I started in January, fell off the wagon at the beginning of the summer

A: I find it's a seasonal thing, I started in November. I did it for 6 months, and the key thing is, is doing it 7 days a week. ‘Cause that’s the only way it’ll stick. I started in November, and by March, when daylight savings changed, I stopped.

B: June to August is usually when I struggle to write or create every single day. And then September I’m usually back into it.

A: Yeah, I think it's a seasonal thing because come spring, I stop. For me, it worked in winter because I’d get home late, it’d be dark. I’d get up early, it would be dark. But I found that for me it was a way of enjoying myself in the morning. Because in the Kaizen book it talks about enjoying little moments, and I think that's really important.

In our apartment, we have a huge huge window looking out into the street, and it's framed by trees and I can kind of see the Seattle skyline. So in the morning, I’d have my coffee, and I would journal. Sometimes I’d pause and look out the window and just enjoy the moment. There is something very key and raw about just simply stopping and reflecting in that space and looking out. Finding a space you really like can help. If it doesn’t work, if you fall out of the habit, then Kaizen theory would say you have to go back to the drawing board and make it simpler. So you have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what worked, and what can I do that's similar that might work again. So I like to find a physical space that you enjoy. And then adding food or a drink you like, so coffee or tea or the fizzy water or a snack. I’ve found little things, little treats, that I can be like “hey, I have coffee! Sip and enjoy!”

And then, if it doesn’t work for me, I’ll try something different, like I’m going to try to do my journaling in bed, or I’m going to try sitting on the couch with a cosy blanket, and maybe light candles. I try to find what triggers that I enjoy or like what I kind of gravitate too.

You can find, and purchase, Andrea’s work online in her etsy shop, society6 shop, and on Instagram.

#artists I love #artist feature #inspiration #interview #artist #professional artist #habit building #Self Care #coffee #portraits #portrait photographer #lacombe photographer #art #make art not war

0 notes

tonyfahkry · 6 years ago

Photo

Cultivating greatness involves attending to the smallest details that may show little results initially because they are foundations that lead to the realisation of our goals. Let’s face it, the smallest tasks can be laborious and tedious at the best of times. Mostly, they are tasks that must be attended to daily, yet many find excuses to skip over them because of the boredom involved. How do you feel about this? Are there tasks you dislike doing, yet know they must be done because they contribute to your goals? It is what author Robert Maurer refers to in One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way as looking for solutions in uncomfortable places: “When life gets scary and difficult, we tend to look for solutions in places where it is easy or at least familiar to do so, and not in the dark, uncomfortable places where real solutions might lie.” https://www.instagram.com/p/BpAihS5lyCt/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=inrjln1mqatl

0 notes

misselaineousme-blog · 7 years ago

Text

A little light reading ...

I have found myself thinking about the library of Alexandria lately. It’s usually when I hit the button on Amazon that says “Deliver to Elaine’s Kindle” and I marvel at the fact that the written word, which for thousands of years could only be accessed in certain places by a tiny fraction of the population, is now available on demand, anywhere, at any time.

After all, there has never been a time on our planet when so much information is literally at our fingertips. We can fact check the news and urban myths, see the weather on the other side of the globe, and access a dynamic encyclopedia on a device that weighs less than a deck of cards. Books, once written by hand, can be downloaded at the touch of a button to a laptop, mobile phone, or eReader, and reading is cheaper than therapy for stress relief and better for brain cells than television.

Although I grew up with a love of fiction, much of my current reading material has been more eclectic. Indeed, those who know me are familiar with my tendency to say “Oh, I just read this great book that says …” and then spouting off the latest factoid that caught my attention (sorry about that, I’m trying to stop). I decided to continue to publish an annual list of what I’ve been reading, in part to help me keep track, but also to share some fascinating books that may be overlooked. They’re (mostly) in no particular order, and for full disclosure Amazon Affiliate links are used ... but spare a thought for those ancient Alexandrians who could only dream of such easy access to information!

Barking up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong (Eric Barker): With its engaging writing style and sound scientific backing, I have to admit this was one of my favourite discoveries of 2017. Barker shows that there is evidence to support conflicting claims about what makes someone successful, then demonstrates to the reader how a balance can be achieved for greater happiness. If you’re looking for a book that is both interesting and uplifting, I highly recommend this one. At the very least, get on over to his website and sign up to his mailing list for a weekly dose of inspiration and information.

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way (Robert Maurer): While I cannot say this book has changed my life, it has changed how I think about things: namely, important goals cannot be achieved overnight! If you want to make long-term, lasting changes, then small and steady really seems to be the way forward. When coupled with Stephen Guise’s Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results, this is a good foundation for making positive changes.

Mini Habits for Weight Loss: Stop Dieting. Form New Habits. Change Your Lifestyle Without Suffering (Stephen Guise): Amazon is a clever corporation. They saw I had purchased Better than Before, a book about habits, and recommended this one as well. And I am so glad I fell for their marketing trick as I enjoyed this one so much more than BtB. It has a kaizen-esque vibe (start small) and I really like the underlying philosophy behind it. It can basically be boiled down to choose a small goal and carry it out every day. This might be running in place for 30 seconds or doing one push up (or reading two pages of a book or writing 50 words a day if weight loss isn’t one of your goals). You can of course do more if you want, but the idea is to change your mindset and use the momentum of small wins to carry you forward. After all, a full year of running in place 30 seconds each day is better than running for 30 minutes three or four times a week if you abandon the latter after a few workouts because it doesn’t fit into your schedule.

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness (Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein): Finally! This one has been on my should-read list for a while, and the authors winning the Nobel Prize for Economics finally encouraged me to take the plunge. It was an interesting look at the world of “choice architecture” and how careful design regarding defaults and decision making can be used to help people (or for evil … your choice). I still haven’t figured out a way to make not littering easier than littering, but it’s always useful to have a bit more evidence in my arsenal.

The Happiness Hypothesis: Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science (Jonathan Haidt): Improving well-being, a spot of history, and scientific backing all rolled into one book—what’s not to like? While some of the writing is slightly more academic than other books listed here, I found this one to be quite enlightening, and worth a read if you’re looking for ways of better understanding and improving your mood.

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Laura Vanderkam): I wouldn’t exactly call this a time-management book. It’s more about being aware of your time, where it goes, and how you can use it better to achieve your goals. While I greatly enjoyed it overall and would definitely recommend it if you’re trying to figure out how to prioritise your activities, the author doesn’t really discuss the fact that time is not created equal. If you spend a day doing a mentally exhausting job, trying to complete your own project(s) in the evening is not necessarily going to yield the best results. Which brings me to …

Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done (Josh Martin): This book fills in some of the gaps of 168 Hours, and is overall a good reminder that (1) multi-tasking doesn’t exist, and (2) be aware of your peak times so you can get your most important work done then, not during the times you’d prefer to be taking a nap.

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (Daniel Pink): I love the author’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, so queued up his latest book that delves into chronotypes, the importance of harnessing the power of beginnings, middles, and ends, and basically goes beyond what to looking at when is the best time for certain activities. With its engaging writing style and useful summaries, this is a good introduction to the power of timing.

Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade (Robert Cialdini): I am a big fan of the author’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (in fact, I read it again this year), so it was great to see this new one out that also deals with the importance of timing, especially as regards influencing. If you are short on time, however, I’d recommend starting with Influence.

Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8AM (Hal Elrod): I’ve written about my experience with Miracle Morning before, and in general I still think highly of it. I have to admit I fell off the early-to-rise wagon with the arrival of autumn and darker mornings, but I am hoping that spring will set me back on the right path.

The Art of Thinking Clearly (Rolf Dobelli): If you liked Daniel Kahnehahn’s Thinking Fast and Slow, you should enjoy this book that collects various fallacies and biases into one place. Clear, concise writing and bitesize chapters makes this book great for dipping in and out of while commuting or on the loo.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions (Dan Ariely): I found Predictably Irrational to be a solid companion to Kahnehahn and Cialdini, and one that had me nodding along as he explained the psychology behind seemingly irrational decisions that everyone makes. If you’ve ever wanted why people tend to choose things that go against their own best interest, this is a good book to start with.

The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick) (Seth Godin): The problem with being in the middle of something is that you don’t often know exactly how long this phase will last. The enthusiasm of starting something has worn off, the finishing line is not in sight, and you don’t know whether you’ll soon be hitting your stride or hitting a wall. Godin’s book shows how powering through can take you to new heights … but also to be aware that sometimes it’s necessary to abandon ship to stop from going round in circles.

The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand (Chris Anderson): This is a book that is often cited as a game changer, and its title is regularly used to describe the opportunity offered by digital technology. I found it interesting to an extent, but with of an original publication date of 2006, it already felt out of date. Overall it’s a decent reference, but I would suggest looking for more recent take on the long tail phenomenon.

TED Talks: The official TED guide to public speaking: Tips and tricks for giving unforgettable speeches and presentations (Chris Anderson): This was a book that popped up on Amazon as a result of reading The Long Tail, and since I had my own forthcoming talk to give at the time, I decided to give it ago. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give their own powerful presentations, learn what goes on behind the scenes at TED, or is just interested in what some of Anderson’s recommended TED talks are.

Better than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Life (Gretchen Rubin): Occasionally books just don’t work for me and this was one of them. The author’s tone comes across as holier-than-thou, and what she typically describes aren’t habits but behaviours (yes, there is a difference). She lost me with an impassioned defence of diet soda, despite current scientific studies showing that they’re equally as bad (or worse) than regular cola (carbonation alone is even shown to increase calorie consumption). This cherry picking of evidence doesn’t sit well with me, so I moved on to Mini Habits, which I would recommend instead.

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway (Susan Jeffers): This is a classic of the self-help genre and there is a good reason for that: it is the one book that I would recommend to anyone feeling a bit stuck. It simultaneously serves as a kick up the backside and a warm hug.

Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life (Susan David): Some may find Feel the Fear a tad too New Age-y. In that case, I would recommend Emotional Agility as it is an engaging, practical book grounded in psychology and academic research. If that still seems too airy-fairy for you, may I recommend …

The Chimp Paradox (Steve Peters): There’s a very good reason the author is used by a number of athletes to help improve their performance: this is another classic that will help you look at your brain and emotions in a completely different way. If neither of the previous two books worked for you with regards to reprogramming troublesome thoughts and breaking out of existing ruts, then this one should do the trick.

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long (David Rock): I loved this book. Rock uses storytelling to get his point across about how the brain works, especially when dealing with problematic work situations. This blend of fact and fiction works incredibly well together to help the reader remember the neuroscience and lessons he is trying to impart.

Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice (Matthew Syed): Both this and Gladwell’s Outliers make the point that often what we perceive as talent is in fact the result of hundreds or thousands of hours of practice. But not just any practice or rote activity: it must be deliberate, with feedback, so that improvements can be made. I enjoyed both books, so would recommend reading them back to back to aid in remembering the points made by the authors.

Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell): See above.

Smartcuts (Shane Snow): First of all, I have no idea why this book is considerably cheaper as a paperback than on Kindle, but if you’re interested in it, get the physical version instead. Second, this is a fun, fascinating read through real-life ways of skipping up the career ladder. Even if you’re happy with your current rung (and quite frankly half of the books listed here are about being happy where you are now), I strongly recommend this as it is an entertaining read.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiate As If Your Life Depended On It (Chris Voss): As a former FBI hostage negotiator, Voss has written a compelling book that makes you re-think how you interact with people. This was another favourite and one that I am already planning to read again sometime over the coming year.

Dear Fahrenheit 451 (Annie Spence): This is a bit of light reading that I absolutely loved. Quite simply it’s a librarian’s letters to her books, and if you are an avid reader or book collector then you’ll understand it perfectly.

Rivers of London series (Ben Aaronovitch): The only proper fictional entry on this list, but one which I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is looking for a laugh (with a bit of darkness thrown in). Imagine Harry Potter crossed with Law & Order and a soupçon of the best sci-fi comedy writing and you’ll get close. Start with Rivers of London, then proceed to Moon Over Soho, Whispers Underground, Broken Homes, Foxglove Summer, and The Hanging Tree.

I also squeezed in a few old favourites:

The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg): I am a bit obsessed with how habits can be used to improve lives, and the underpinning neuroscience behind habit formation and changing habits is absolutely fascinating.

Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth about Success (Matthew Syed): If you haven’t read this, you’re missing out. Both it and Syed’s Bounce work well together to underscore that perfection doesn’t exist, but that constantly striving for improvement is a better way forward.

12 Week Year (Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington): I am currently using this system to help me focus on goals I want to accomplish and prioritise activities; it uses the psychology of small wins and short time periods to motivate, and it’s one that I would recommend if you want to accomplish a lot in a limited period of time.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini): This is a fascinating view of common compliance techniques and ways around them; very useful for the next time someone offers you a free sample.

What are some of your favourite books of the past year? Drop me a line or share them on Facebook.

0 notes