If you are looking for books that make you successful, you have come to the right place. These are the books that helped me grow in my 20s and I am beyond glad I started my journey to health and wealth back then. Did you ever feel lost in your 20s? Done with school, not sure what to do now? What is the best next step to take? Who am I now?
You will never be happy, healthy or successful, if you keep repeating the same patterns you developed when you were 5 to 11 years old. And holey moley would those teenage year patterns have led me into disaster!
If you want to set yourself up for success in your 20s, I would highly recommend checking out these six classics! You will find detailed book descriptions / reviews, if you click on the books.
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
- Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini
- The Element by Ken Robinson
- The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal
Main Takeaways: If you’re in your 20s (or feeling like you’re still figuring it out), here’s what I suggest:
Pick up Outliers when you need a reminder that success comes from putting in the right work at the right time, working smart AND hard. But hard doesnt have to feel like burning yourself alive, or lonely, or painful. Let’s be a bit more hopeful, shall we? Learn from one of the most brilliant writers, ever. Sidequest: If you want to understand how commercials and the industry overall guide you towards buying their products etc, read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell as well. It will be worth your time.
If you worry about being late in finding your passions and goals in life, read The Element by Ken Robinson. We often talk about finding your passion like it’s a mythical unicorn. Robinson helped me see that your “element” is about the intersection of talent and love. Once I embraced this, I stopped stressing about finding my passion and started creating it. Being gritty and staying persistently devoted to my slowly growing passions – which were becoming more of a people person, a good listener and the best therapist I can be – I found a peace in myself. Finally, I must say.
Other books who encourage my newly found, growth-mindset oriented kind of perspective on life would be Find your Why by Simon Sinek, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hektor Garcia and Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Each of these books I owned once, but I just cannot find them… welcome to my messy, unorganized state. I am still working on that. Let me know if we should start a series about „how to learn to be organized“ and „how to have a feel-good home at all times“.
Start with Mindset or Grit if you need to strengthen your perseverance and outlook on personal growth. If you believe that you were born with a certain number of intelligence and this number will determine your later outcome in life, you are right – at least as long as you believe it is true. But you can change your fate easily, just by changing your perspective on life. And these two women will proof their point to you. Understanding the relevance of chosing a Growth Mindset over a Fixed Mindset and testing yourself for your Grit Score will change your life. Also, as usual, I was thrilled to find such good books written by female authors who simply understand us better, because they life a womans life, right?
Read The Upside of Stress if you feel like life’s pressure is getting too much. Understanding that your physical stress response is a helpful way of your body to set you up for success and gives you energy might be such a change in perspective that you will re-read this book again and again.
I highly recommend the authors sisters book. Both of them are highly successful in and have written numerous books. Jane McGonigalls SUPERBETTER is a classic that I refer to in my daily work regularly. The matching app has been revived and helps its users to get superbetter after suffering from major life or health events. Never heard of Post Traumatic Growth? Learn more about this concept in the matching article on SUPERBETTER and the Janes TED Talk.
Please remember, no book makes you successful, if you do not implement the inspiration and adapt your everyday life to those lessons learned. Any glimmer you can find – savour it! Write it down. Enjoy each moment and BE PRESENT – even when it gets hard.
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