I already feel like this year is moving a little too fast like every other year that’s gone before it. This year one of my resolutions was Self-Care; It’s my goal to reach optimal physical, mental and emotional health. In this digital era we are living in, it’s so important to unplug from screen’s often and spend time in reflection and meditation. Your choice of unplugging may be taking a walk, meeting with a friend or like me nothing shouts self-care like relaxing with a non-fiction copy of a really good book.
Before I had children, I spent a considerable amount of time reading. Now I have to be intentional about finding pockets of time where I can read. l don’t watch much TV so my choice of relaxation that helps me “unwind” after a busy day is to pick up a good book and read. I read a lot but not every book l read is interesting, to be honest, I just couldn’t get past the third chapter of a few of them. Of the one’s that made it here are my favorites, in no particular order.
Table of Contents
My 2020 books are:
1. The Promise of a Pencil: How an ordinary person can create extraordinary change by Adam Braun –
Such an inspiring book. Adam takes us through his journey from deciding to leave his corporate job to starting a Pencil’s of Promise School for the underprivileged children. The book has 30 Chapters and each chapter is based on a mantra, my favorite mantra being,”Never take no from someone who can’t say yes.”
One of my favorite quotations from the book is, “Many of us spend our entire lives in the same bubble, we surround ourselves with people who share our opinions, speak the way we speak, and look the way we look. We fear leaving those familiar surroundings, which is natural, but through exploration of the unfamiliar, we stop focusing on the labels that define what we are and discover who we are. True self-discovery begins where your comfort zone ends.”
2. Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for developing and maintaining vision by Andy Stanley –
This is by far one of the best books that I’ve read in my life (of which there are a few). I read this book twice in 2016 and l may just read it again this year. In his book, Andy explores the ordinary life of Nehemiah and his God-given vision for accomplishing the extraordinary. He walks us through the story of Nehemiah drawing principles from it that can help us and prepare us to find God’s vision for our lives and follow it through. If you have a burden on your heart for something that you are supposed to do or start but just don’t know how I recommend this book to you.
One of my favorite quotations from this book is; “We serve an intensely creative God. We talk about the fact that no two snowflakes are alike, but God has never made two of anything alike. God’s vision for you does not include pressing you into someone else’s mold. He is not in the business of conforming us to the image of other Christian’s. Your uniqueness and individuality will reach its pinnacle in the context of your pursuit of God’s plan for your life. Manmade visions all begin to look alike after awhile. Unless you discover God’s unique vision for your future your life may very well be a rerun.”
3. The Compound Effect: Jumpstart your income, your life, your success by Darren Hardy. –
One of my closest friends raved about this book and even made me get a copy and told me that if l didn’t like it she would refund my money. I received it. Read it in less that 24 hours. Yes! I could not put this book down. Very simply written but with a profound impact. The basic principle is that decisions shape your destiny, it’s the littlest decisions that shape our lives. He talks about the compound effect in Action, Our Choices, and habits, Keeping momentum, our Influences, and Acceleration.”
I had a hard time choosing a quotation to share because so many stand out. I will share one of the many that l highlighted; “Birds of a feather flock together. The people with whom you habitually associate are called “reference group.” Your “reference group” determines as much as 95 percent of your success or failure in life. Jim Rohn taught that we become the combined average of the five people we hang around the most. The people with whom we spend our time determine what conversations dominate our attention. Eventually, we start to eat what they eat, talk like they talk, read what they read, think like they think, watch what they watch, treat people how they treat them, even dress like they dress. The influence your friends have over you is subtle and can be positive or negative; either way, the impact is incredibly powerful. Watch out! You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life. ”
4. The one thing: The Surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results by Gary Keller.
I’ve read quite a lot of time management books but this book by far trumps them all. After reading this book, l actually implemented a lot of the things that he mentioned and the results have been great. I used to be the queen of multitasking but the master of unproductivity until l started focusing on one thing at a time. Gary’s message is simply that in order to succeed in anything we have set out to do, we must always focus on one and only one thing, regarding the goal we have. Then by accomplishing one step, the next steps towards the same goal becomes easier.
One of my favorite quotes is,”When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal. We become active and busy, but this doesn’t actually move us any closer to success. Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business.” As Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” Knocking out a hundred tasks for whatever reason is a poor substitute for doing even one task that’s meaningful. Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most. And as Margarita Tartaknvsky said, “Productivity isn’t about being a workhorse, keeping busy or burning the midnight oil…. It’s more about priorities, planning, and fiercely protecting your time.”
That sums up my top 4 books of 2016. I’ve already started reading books for 2017. I challenge you to make some time to read this year. My goal is to read at least 15 books this year. Have l set the bar too high? Will see! How many books are you going to read?
“The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read.” – Jim Rohn