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Best Motivational Books: Because We All Need Motivation Sometimes
Table of Contents
The best motivational books may seem too right to be true when, in reality, they are precisely what you need. If you’re the type of person who faces difficulties with setting and achieving goals, these titles are surely going to help.
Even though we might assume that we have everything together, that may not be the case, and there is always room for improvement even within the most well-rounded individuals.
Motivation is something that can come from anywhere, as long as it inspires you to set and achieve your goals. It’s one thing to know what you want to do, and it’s another thing to go out and do it, which is why these titles are a fantastic choice for someone searching for permanent improvements. Whether you need the motivation to eat healthier or to make career changes, you are guaranteed to find advice from someone who fits your personal situation.
The superb thing about the best motivational books is that they encourage you to make improvements in less time than you would on your own. While reading through numerous pages of invaluable information and experience from others in the same position as you, you’ll find a new and brighter insight.
Instead of following typical step-by-step instructions, you can create a life plan that works with your daily schedule, allowing you to take full control of your life.
These reads will help to inspire your creativity, change the way you see things, and prompt you to take action, so your dreams become a reality. Above all else, the best motivational books keep you grounded and give you realistic advice that you can actually follow.
Everything that you take in will be practical and will help to guide you through the process of transforming yourself so that you can begin capitalizing on the events in your life. There’s nothing that a fantastic motivational book can’t help, and it’s about time you started taking advantage of the life you’re living.
Best Motivational Books
The Motivation Hacker
Principles for Success
How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets
How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life
I don’t know a lot of people in our business who feels completely at ease with how much they use their phone. After years and years of a tiny minority trying to get our attention about the dangers of phone addiction, it seems like the idea is finally getting a larger audience. I’m certainly in that camp. I use my phone too much, and I’d like to use it less.
This book gave me the motivation to try harder to actually do something about it. There weren’t any novel arguments or statistics I hadn’t heard before, but recounting them all in one place provided the final push to finally do something. This kicked off a thorough review of not just how much time I spend on my phone, but reviewing what that usage has done to both my capacity for concentration and my motivation to go deeper on topics. I didn’t like the conclusions I came to.
So I’ve started taking more sabbaticals from my phone and the addictive apps on it. I credit this book for finally getting that going.
On the Shortness of Life
Running with the Giants: What the Old Testament Heroes Want You to Know About Life and Leadership
Losing My Virginity
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny
The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives
A few years ago, Bill Stixrud and Ned Johnson started noticing the same problem from different angles: Even high-performing kids were coming to them acutely stressed and lacking motivation. Many complained they had no control over their lives. Some stumbled in high school or hit college and unraveled. Bill is a clinical neuropsychologist who helps kids gripped by anxiety or struggling to learn. Ned is a motivational coach who runs an elite tutoring service. Together they discovered that the best antidote to stress is to give kids more of a sense of control over their lives. But this doesn't mean giving up your authority as a parent. In this groundbreaking book they reveal how you can actively help your child to sculpt a brain that is resilient, and ready to take on new challenges.
The Self-Driven Child offers a combination of cutting-edge brain science, the latest discoveries in behavioral therapy, and case studies drawn from the thousands of kids and teens Bill and Ned have helped over the years to teach you how to set your child on the real road to success. As parents, we can only drive our kids so far. At some point, they will have to take the wheel and map out their own path. But there is a lot you can do before then to help them tackle the road ahead with resilience and imagination.
Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
The Ordinary Leader: 10 Key Insights for Building and Leading a Thriving Organization
Finally, a leadership book that I can relate to this book is full of practical and accessible strategies.
The Purpose Is Profit: The Truth about Starting and Building Your Own Business
Willpower Doesn’t Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success
Advertising Secrets of the Written Word
- The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert;
- Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugerman;
- Kickass Writing Secrets of a Marketing Rebel by John Carlton.
Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization
The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World
Positive Psychology in a Nutshell: The Science of Happiness
The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
The Stoic Creative Handbook: Struggling Creatives Are Driven By Passion. Thriving Artists Are Driven By Purpose.
Is Your Business Worth Saving?: A Step-by-Step Guide to Rescuing Your Business and Your Sanity
Too Good: The Scott Draper Story
The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential
Agile Selling: Get Up to Speed Quickly in Today’s Ever-Changing Sales World
The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
The Internet of Money
It's difficult to pinpoint an exact moment because all of the books helped me in a way. Probably a recent example was the book The Internet of Money by Andreas M. Antonopoulos. He is talking about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. After reading this book I was, damn that's the future and I need to start investing in this technology. Didn't stop ever since.
Living with the Monks: What Turning Off My Phone Taught Me about Happiness, Gratitude, and Focus
So Good They Can’t Ignore You
When Panic Attacks
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World
Developing the Leader Within You
The Magic of Thinking Big
Sleep: The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps, and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body and Mind
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
The Sports Gene
Psycho Cybernetics
Rich20Something: Ditch Your Average Job, Start an Epic Business, and Score the Life You Want
Actionable Gamification – Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
The Alchemist
High Output Management
Dottir: My Journey to Becoming a Two-Time CrossFit Games Champion
Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
This book was recommended by Daymond John on page 234 of "Tools of Titans".
Rich Dad Poor Dad
The funny thing is that the books that had the biggest impact (like my Verne’s favourite) are not necessarily the best books, objectively speaking. They were good enough to present a new worldview that I was not aware of. Timing probably was more important than their intrinsic literary qualities. They “managed” to fall into my lap at the right time. Such a book was Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, a mediocre book by my standards of today, but deeply inspirational by the ones from yesterday.
The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
Words That Change Minds: The 14 Patterns for Mastering the Language of Influence
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
I read this book at a time when Udemy was rapidly growing—over the 18 months where we went from 30 to 200 people. It was helpful to read about Horowitz's challenges, worries, and triumphs when addressing the same types of issues at a similar stage of growth. There are so many big decisions you need to make where there's just no clear-cut, right or wrong answer. There are a lot of gray areas. You gather information from your team, but the hard decisions rest with you. This book helped me realize that while I needed to carefully and objectively consider feedback, I was responsible for making a decision in the end—even when it was an unpopular one.
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (2nd Edition)
This is next on my list of technical books to read! Refactoring is one of two programming books that I’ve read multiple times (the other is Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns), and I’m due for another reading. What perfect time then to dive into Martin Fowler’s long anticipated 2nd edition, now using JavaScript rather than Java for the code examples.
Like the stoic books, I read Refactoring and that Smalltalk book again and again not because I’m going to learn something new, per se, but because I want to be reminded about what I already know. And what better time to reread than just as we’re kicking off a new major project that needs a fresh architectural foundation.
Also, these two books just remind every time of how much I love the craft of programming. It’s not just having the programs, it’s not just solving problems, it’s simply using my hands and head to program that in and of itself is sublime.