Do you want to create greatness in your life? Do you want to tap into old dreams you’ve put on a back burner or launch new dreams into reality this year? Do you want to stop yelling at your kids, save money, or connect better with your husband? Do you want to grow and change into the best possible version of yourself? Good! Me too. That’s half the battle, the desire to improve your circumstances and better your life is where you start. That desire will drive your passion, that passion will be your “why” and your why will be the motivation you need to actually follow through.
But here’s the thing, New Year’s resolutions or dreams will not get you there alone. Without plans, specific goals, motivation and tools to stay on track, you will fail. You must constantly be learning to manifest real change. If you are feeling unmotivated or need a jump start or kick in the pants to get yourself on the right track, start with reading. Fill your mind every day with positive stories, motivation, and information about how to improve your life. I hate the phrase “self-help books” because it’s been given a bad rap. But let’s be real here, there are people in the world doing it better than you, that are more successful than you, that have already pushed through what you need to. Why not learn from them? The truth is, what you surround yourself with and what you put in your mind each day is what you will become. Give yourself an advantage.
These 10 books are building blocks for enormous change. Whether you are already working on your goals or you are starting over fresh, these will encourage you every day. Personal growth should be on the top of your priority list. You deserve to feel amazing about yourself, feel comfortable in your own skin and fulfill all of the dreams you have for your life, yourself and your family.
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She’s Still There by Chrystal Evans
This is a wonderful book to start with if you missing yourself. In motherhood, especially, it is easy to lose yourself. It can also happen in a marriage or another relationship or in your career. You can forget who you are, what you value, what you love about yourself and what you want out of life. When you put other people or things in front of yourself for too long, you can forget about you. This is a beautifully honest account of how one woman found herself again and it includes simple steps you can take with each chapter to remember who you are.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
I told y’all this week in my resolutions post that I will be using this method to clean out and organize my entire house this year. I don’t know about you, but if I am surrounded by clutter, it is very difficult for me to be creative or feel peaceful. Your environment has a direct impact on your mindset so if you want to make real change in your life this year, you will need to get your space in order. Although this is a little over the top (I haven’t been thanking my belongings as I get rid of them), she does have excellent ideas for how to clear your home of excess and clutter and it really is life-changing.
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
Anything that is worth having will probably scare you. If you never take risks, never “step into the arena”, you will probably never get to live your dreams. In order to create greatness in your life, you must be vulnerable. In this remarkable book, Brené Brown talks about how that vulnerability can transform the way you live in every aspect of your life. If you need inspiration and some serious truth bombs, I could not recommend this book more.
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
I love resolutions, I love big, BIG dreams and setting goals. Give me all the checklists, vision boards and, journals. But, none of those things will create actual change. What creates real change in your life is your habits, the little, tiny things you do every single day. The consistency in which you live your daily life is what will add up to enormous transformations. At the end of each day, you will not see much of a difference, but in a year’s time, those little consistencies will have completely re-created your life. The Compound Effect will teach you this principle and how to apply it.
High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
This book builds on the idea of creating daily habits to change your life. High Performance Habits teaches you which habits to change based on extensive research and the world’s largest survey done on high performers. You will learn how to increase productivity to be more effective and give you specific areas of your life to change and exactly how to do it. This is the book that will take your life and habits to the next level.
The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst
The biggest excuse I hear from people about not doing what they need to do is that they don’t have time. I too, fall into the no time trap. Then I look at my life and I see how many unnecessary things I am doing and how I literally have just said yes to everything and everyone. Through this book, last year I learned how to say no in order to say yes to myself, my family and my dreams. If you struggle with telling people no, setting boundaries or prioritizing yourself, read this book as soon as possible.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Once you’ve learned how to say no, free up some more time with this roadmap to a shortened and more successful workweek. You will learn how to prioritize tasks, understand what activities are unnecessary and how to weed out the excess in any business setting. This is the ultimate guide to teach you how to work smarter, not harder and live a mobile lifestyle.
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
There is a fine line between productivity and perfectionism. Technology makes working from anywhere a possibility but it also makes being present in your life even more difficult. In a culture that glorifies busyness and encourages women to do it all, we can get lost in our own to-do lists. This book is a breath of fresh air, encouraging women to be present, give themselves grace and to find balance. Just reading it relaxes me.
This book changed my life. I have been wanting to get up earlier, before my kids and have quiet time to myself for years. I so desperately wanted to be a part of the 5 am club. I love having my first cup of coffee hot in silence. The rare mornings I got to myself before this year were so nice. That stillness set the tone for my whole day and I felt like I was ahead of the day, on the offense, not just reacting to what life threw at me but I could never seem to manage it. This book gave me the tools I needed and the jump start to create a new morning routine and I have never looked back.
The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
Hands down, this is my absolute favorite book that I read last year. My biggest weakness and number one sabotager of success is inconsistency. I get real excited, hot and heavy, worked up about something and dive in, face first. Then my kids get the flu, I’m up all night for a week, I catch a case of cedar fever, fight with my husband or fall of the diet wagon and everything goes to crap. Then all of a sudden, I just don’t feel like it. Commitment is when you decide what you are going to do ahead of time, whether you feel like it or not so I guess I have flaked on my commitments in the past. The 5 second rule is the tool that makes you do it anyway, eliminates procrastination and increases consistency.
These books have been game changers for me and I love sharing what has helped me along the way. I have far more time to listen than I do to read so y’all know I’ve got my Audible account
