If you are looking for a great personal development read, today I am sharing 3 influential books that I have recently read. These books will help you with setting your goals, going after your dreams, and shifting your mindset into positivity and gratitude. These are my Must Reads for Summer 2019.
Choose to Win – Tom Ziglar
This book talks about different techniques and systems that you can implement in order to win in life. It stresses the importance of goal setting in all areas of our lives.Â
As often happens in life when I came across this book in a library, I was just finishing up my Goal Planner and Tracker tool. And very quickly I discovered that Tom and I share the same philosophy on goals. We need to make sure that we address all areas of our lives. Simply because they are all interconnected.
Let me give you an example. Let say you have a side business and you only set your goals for that area of your life. At the same time you completely neglect two other areas of your life: health and finances. If you do it for an extended period of time you will start feeling the negative impact. You might start getting sick because you are under a lot of stress but don’t include any self-care. Or you might start having financial problems because you keep spending money on the growth of your business without spending any time creating budgets and setting financial plans.
Tom Ziglar is telling us that if we want to win in life, in other words be happy and fulfilled, we need to take a holistic approach and address all areas of our lives.
Here is a FREE Goal Planner and Tracker that will allow you to write down your priorities and set and track goals for each area of your life.
Download HERE
Girl, Stop Apologizing – Rachel Hollis
This is the second book I read by Rachel Hollis. The first one was Girl, Wash Your Face, which was the book that started my personal growth journey.
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Rachel wrote this book to inspire and motivate women to live their lives to their fullest potential. She divides the book into three sections: excuses to let go, behaviors to adapt, and skills to acquire. It is definitely one of the most influential books I have read. Just like in her first book, she describes her experiences, and experiences of other women when she discusses each of the topics. I found it very relatable and said to myself ‘OMG, this is me!’ on multiple occasions while reading it.
One of my take-ways
One of the most important messages that I took from it for myself was in the chapter discussing the excuse of ‘it’s been done before’. Rachel refers here to the excuse we sometimes give ourselves of why we should not follow the dream that we have.
And this was my biggest excuse of why I should not start this blog or my YouTube channel. I kept telling myself that there are thousands of other women doing the exact same thing. And many discussing the same topics that I am. So why should I go after something that is not an original idea?
Rachel’s response to that is that we need to change our perspective. Of course something like that has already been done! But if it has worked for other people, then it will likely work for you as well.For me, I wanted to create content about life balance. I want to talk about productivity, balancing work and life, time management, and personal development.
Well guess what? I’m not the first one, nor the last one who wants to talk about this topic.
But instead of thinking that the market is too saturated, I had to take a different approach. If there are so many women out there talking about this topic, doesn’t it mean that there is a huge demand for it?
If you look at it from that perspective, everything changes. I have to give myself this pep talk every time I come up with a new idea for my blog or channel. I have to mute that excuse and go after my goals!
God Never Blinks – 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours – Regina BrettÂ
I read this book a couple of weeks ago. I came across it when I was visiting my aunt in Poland. We started talking about personal development books we have recently read, and she put a few books written by Brett on the kitchen table. I have never heard of this author but I content looked interesting and it came highly recommended. And my aunt told me to pick a book to keep. And here I am ☺
Like the tile says, Regina describes 50 lessons she has learned in her life. The two biggest challenges she faced was raising her daughter as a single mom and battling cancer in her 40s. I don’t know about you, but I always find it fascinating to read about how people’s perspectives change after a near death experience. And battling cancer definitely falls into that category.
One of my take-aways
There was a lot of great lessons in the book to which I could relate. One particular one that I want to share with you ups and downs of life. The lesson talks about the fact that no matter how good or bad the situation looks like – it will change.Â
It is so true. Nothing ever stays the same. Sometimes we feel like everything is going well and other times we feel like it’s a complete disaster all the way around. But what she points out is that if we look closely at any given point in our lives we will find good and bad things.Â
Even if everything is going well, you always want something to improve. And even if everything seems to be going wrong, when you are having a bad day, week, or month – there will always be something to be grateful for. Â
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I have definitely saw that in practice over the past few months when I started writing 5 things I’m thankful for every single morning. Sometimes we don’t realize that despite the difficulties we are facing in our lives, there are so many things that are going great for us.
*FTC Disclaimer*
This content is NOT sponsored and all opinions are my own. Links above may contain affiliate links. This means that I receive a commission through purchases. It does not affect you as a customer.
Your Turn
Did you read any of those books? Can you relate to any of the messages I have described above? Share your thoughts below!
And if you are looking for more titles to add to your list, check out this PLAYLIST where my fellow YouTubers share their most influential books.
Thank you for the tips! I keep collecting books like these from the library, like a little knowledge magpie. Now I must find time to read them! Both of the Rachel Hollis ones sound amazing. Xx
Thanks Anita! Rachel Hollis gave me the kick in my behind to get me going after the things that I wanted to accomplish in my life.
I’ll have to give them a read I need life assistance 😂
These all look great but I really fancy choose to win, I’m not very good at keeping things balanced and tend to throw myself into one thing to the exclusion of all others!
Yes, I can totally relate to this. I have done this in the past as well. And all it did was make me believe that the thing I was after was a waste of time. When in fact, I should have dedicated more time to other areas of my life instead of completely ignoring them.
The Rachel Hollis books sound really good. I especially love the title of her second book
I loved them both. She also has a podcast called RISE. You can check her out over there as well.
Some interesting recommendations! I’ve heard good things About Girl Wash Your Face, would like to give that and her follow up a try. I’ve never read a self help or personal development book, but it’s on my to do list as part of my journey to positivity and wellness this year.
You definitely should give personal development books a try. I will tell you that I found the Rachel’s first book very therapeutic. I broke down crying reading some of the parts because I felt like I was reading about myself.