Top 10 Books
business + career development:
Atomic Habits
ABOUT: This book equally helps you understand why we do the things we do and gives you the tools to make changes. It’s filled with endless resources, you’ll walk away from this book motivated to create positive change in your life.
BEST FOR: All of us right now! It’s such a perfect time to move away from your bad habits and create new systems that will bring you toward accomplishing the things you’ve dreamt of.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Willpower isn’t a fallback plan - instead, create systems for yourself so it’s easier to do the things you want to do than it is not to.
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems”
Real-world examples of how the most successful people in their respective fields have overcome and accomplished amazing things.
WHY I LOVE: I couldn’t put this book down. It just flat out makes sense and I love that there are exercises along the way that allow you to walk away from this book with a new structure for your life.
Designing your life
ABOUT: Written by 2 professors from Stanford University that taught a class of the same name. They discuss how design principals can apply to the way you approach building a meaningful life.
BEST FOR: Anyone looking to infuse their life with meaning and understand what makes them happy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Accept what you can’t change, but get curious about what you can
Pull yourself away from the standard life plan that seemingly everyone falls into, and get clear about what makes you happy and what doesn’t really matter to you.
Discover which tasks bring you energy and which take it away; then set up a system or structure that allows you to do more of what you like and less of what you don’t
WHY I LOVE: I think it’s a great time to take inventory of our lives and our careers as so many of us have been pulled out of them for the time being. You often have more control over certain factors in your life than your limiting beliefs will allow you to acknowledge and this book acts as a blueprint to help you discover where and how to make adjustments.
Maximize your potential
ABOUT: Curated by Behance’s educational program 99U - each chapter is written by a different creative and the chapters are organized to take you through a journey of creating opportunities, building expertise, cultivating relationships, taking risks, and finally reflecting on your work.
BEST FOR: Those that need to pivot or infuse their existing career with a little inspiration.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
“When you’re working, give it everything you’ve got, for relatively short periods of time. When you’re recovering, let go and try to refuel.” - Tony Schwartz pg 85
“Ask yourself: ‘What problem am I solving? What do I want to create? What do I want to change?’” - Jocelyn K. Glei pg 54
“Building a network is like cultivating a botanical garden: You don’t want everyone in your network to be one color or one species. You want a variety of ages and stages and professions and passions, and to tend them carefully.” - Sunny Bates pg 153
WHY I LOVE: I love books like this - you can read a chapter a day, pick it up when you need to feel inspired or read the whole thing in one sitting. I find myself recommending this book to the most successful people in my life as I’ve found these ideas and concepts to be so innovative. I’m also a big fan of “Manage Your Day-to-Day” for strategies that foster creativity.
Think and grow rich
ABOUT: Oldie, but a goodie. This book was written back in 1937, but so many of the principals are applicable in today’s world. The principals and ideas are a little esoteric but are backed by examples of concrete successful businessmen like Ford, Carnegie, and Edison.
BEST FOR: Motivated individuals that want to contextualize success and the accumulation of wealth within a fulfilling life.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
How thoughts and subconscious beliefs bring us success or failure.
Education is a life-long process and shouldn’t stop when school is finished.
When two or more people get together, their minds form a separate entity called a mastermind. The mastermind allows us to draw freely from the experience, training, skills, and knowledge of others who align with our definite major purpose.
WHY I LOVE: This book introduced me to the idea of a mastermind group - which has become such an important part of my business development as someone who works with and for herself.
personal development:
nonviolent communication
ABOUT: Written with exercises and many detailed examples, this book will help you understand how we communicate and connect with others - as you’re reading, you can’t help but go back through arguments and conflicts you’ve had in your life and wonder how they would be different had you read this book earlier.
BEST FOR: Anyone that’s felt frustrated by conflict and at a loss for how to communicate in a way that allows you to express your needs as well as understand and meet the needs of others.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
When people react with criticism, name-calling, anger, judgment, etc. - they are unable to express their needs (oftentimes, they aren’t even aware of what they’re needing).
A conflict or disagreement on the surface might look impossible to solve, but once you get deeper and honest about what is really being asked for/what needs aren’t being met, both parties can arrive at a solution without a compromise needing to be made on either end.
WHY I LOVE: I was so hesitant to read this book, taking the suggestion from a friend as an accusation that I communicated violently, but what I came to find was that I indeed did. The skills and awareness I’ve been able to develop as a result of reading this book are priceless. Humble yourself and learn how to effectively communicate for the sake of everyone you care about in your life.
womancode
ABOUT: Finally understand your hormones: what’s normal and what’s not, and even how to reset through diet.
BEST FOR: Women (but also anyone) that seek to understand the endocrine (hormonal) system and want an understanding of why certain fitness and wellness approaches or tactics just don’t work.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Menstrual health acts as a gauge of vitality and overall health.
An understanding of how to soothe external stress.
How to balance masculine and feminine energy and how this balance (or imbalance) has an impact on the hormones we produce.
WHY I LOVE: Looking at my body through my hormones and their cycles has been so enlightening. It’s important to understand that intense workouts aren’t ideal during certain phases of your cycle.
going to pieces without falling apart
ABOUT: The author is both a Western Psychologist and a Buddhist scholar, giving him a very unique perspective on how Buddhism can be applied to our lives in the western world.
BEST FOR: The person that needs a WHOLE reframe on things.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
“A mind that is full cannot take in anything new.”
“To become oneself, one must lose oneself.”
Happiness doesn’t come from possessing things - physical nor psychological - it instead comes from letting go.
WHY I LOVE: I’ve been interested in Buddhism since high school, but found it difficult to relate to the ideology. This book was recommended to me by my therapist and I found it to reframe the way I look at myself.
fitness + movement sciences:
the body keeps the score
ABOUT: This book takes you through a journey of understanding how the things that have happened in our lives can shape the way our bodies respond to our world. It gives a perfect and thorough explanation of trauma which equates more to “a shock to the system” - proving that each of us has experienced countless instances of this. *Note: This isn’t a light read and there are many emotionally heavy examples in here.
BEST FOR: Anyone involved in the fitness or movement field - this information is so important to know.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
How to understand, prevent and heal after traumatic experiences.
How trauma impacts the brain, body, and mind.
How our nervous system is conditioned to respond through the experience of traumatic events.
WHY I LOVE: I think we all know I love the Nervous System, but this book was the catalyst for my obsession.
starting strength: basic barbell training
ABOUT: You dive right into the essential barbell movements from the beginning of this book. You’ll walk away with a thorough understanding of how each barbell lift is meant to be performed and the mechanics behind why that is.
BEST FOR: Trainers, Fitness Professionals, and advanced lifters that want to optimize their form when training with barbells.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Extremely detailed step-by-step instructions on how to perform the essential barbell exercises.
Variations and modifications of the essential movements.
The mechanics behind why each movement is done the way it is.
WHY I LOVE: I read this at the beginning of my training career and it gave me the confidence to coach these major lifts to ex-collegiate athletes who’ve been doing them for years.
starting strength: basic barbell training
ABOUT: If you want a textbook that will not only help you understand exactly how the most common strength movements are performed, but also how to make adjustments and program supplementary mobility that will make a real-time difference, all written through the lens of athletic movement - this is your bible.
BEST FOR: Trainers, Fitness Professionals, and advanced lifters who want to know how and where mobility fits into their strength programming.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Spinal mechanics must be your priority when it comes to movement.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach: You must systematically consider an individual’s positional and movement-related issues, soft tissue stiffness and joint restriction.
End-range static stretching does not work (but find out what to do instead).
WHY I LOVE: A lot of times when people venture into improving their mobility and flexibility, they completely stop doing strength-based movements in fear that they’ll “make things worse” or reverse their progress. This book proves that you can continue to complete the athletic movements you love with tweaks to greatly increase your capacity to perform.