*Pin Now for Inspiration Later
The New Year is the perfect time to reflect on our life and start new habits. Although it can happen any time of year, there’s something about January and after the holidays that trigger something in me to start new and look for ways I can become a better me.
These 10 Books are full of wonderful and inspiring ideas, ways to simplify or find happiness, and make the most of this beautiful life we’ve been given. Book descriptions from www.GoodReads.com
Now a New York Times Bestseller! As a college student he
spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate
of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour
to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in
Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan
consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed
to date him. His grades weren’t good enough to get into law
school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean’s office for
seven days until they finally let him enroll. Bob Goff has
become something of a legend, and his friends consider him
the world’s best-kept secret. Those same friends have long
insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts,
musings, and stories from one of the world’s most
delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his
impact? Love. But it’s not the kind of love that stops at
thoughts and feelings. Bob’s love takes action. Bob believes
Love Does. When Love Does, life gets interesting. Each day
turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that
makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that
forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don’t want to
miss. Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn
from Bob’s life and attitude just might inspire you to be
secretly incredible, too.
Simple ideas, lasting love, Falling in love is easy.
Staying in love-that’s the challenge! How can you keep your relationship fresh and growing amid the demands, conflicts,and just plain boredom of everyday life? In the #1 New York Times bestseller The 5 Love Languages, you’ll discover the secret that has transformed millions of relationships worldwide. Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing,
Dr. Gary Chapman’s proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner-starting today. The 5 Love Languages is as practical as it is insightful. Updated to reflect the complexities of relationships today, this new edition reveals intrinsic truths and applies relevant, actionable wisdom in ways that work. Includes the Couple’s Personal Profile assessment so you can discover your love language and that of your loved one.
Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Do you
simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized? Are you
often busy but not productive? Do you feel like your time is
constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas? If you
answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the
EssentialistThe Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting
more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things
done. It is not a time management strategy, or a productivity
technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is
absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not,
so we can make the highest possible contribution towards
the things that really matter. By forcing us to apply a more
selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit
of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices
about where to spend our precious time and energy
•instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
Essentialism is not one more thing – it’s a whole new way of
doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or
individual who wants to learn who to do less, but better, in
every area of their lives, Essentialism is a movement whose
time has come.
Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the
unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the
years are short” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not
focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that
moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness
project. In this lively and compelling account, Rubin
chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she
spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific
research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be
happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and
challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can
help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order
contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of
changes can make the biggest difference.
Being a Lazy Genius isn’t about doing more or doing less. It’s
about doing what matters to you. The chorus of “shoulds” is loud. You
should enjoy the moment, dream big, have it all, get up
before the sun, track your water consumption, go on date
nights, and be the best. Or maybe you should ignore what
people think, live on dry shampoo, be a negligent PTA mom,
have a dirty house, and claim your hot mess like a badge of
honor. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by the mixed
messages of what it means to live well. Kendra Adachi, the
creator of the Lazy Genius movement, invites you to live well
by your own definition and equips you to be a genius about
what matters and lazy about what doesn’t. Everything from
your morning routine to napping without guilt falls into place
with Kendra’s thirteen Lazy Genius principles, including:
Decide once – Start small – Ask the Magic Question
– Go in the right order – Schedule rest Discover a better way to
approach your relationships, work, and piles of mail. Be who
you are without the complication of everyone else’s
“shoulds.” Do what matters, skip the rest, and be a person
again.
Full of beautiful, heart-wrenching, and hilarious stories, A
Million Miles in a Thousand Years details one man’s
opportunity to edit his life as if he were a character in a
movie.Years after writing his best-selling memoir, Donald
Miller went into a funk and spent months sleeping in and
avoiding his publisher. One story had ended, and Don was
unsure how to start another.But he gets rescued by two
movie producers who want to make a movie based on his
memoir. When they start fictionalizing Don’s life for film-
changing a meandering memoir into a structured narrative-
the real-life Don starts a journey to edit his actual life into a
better story. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years details that
journey and challenges readers to reconsider what they strive
for in life. It shows how to get a second chance at life the first
time around.
With wry wit and boundless heart, Eva Woods delivers an
unforgettable tale of celebrating triumphs great and small,
seizing the day, and always remembering to live in the
moment. “It’s simple, really. You’re just meant to do one thing
every day that makes you happy. Could be little things. Could
be big. In fact, we’re doing one right now..” Annie Hebden is
stuck. Stuck in her boring job, with her irritating roommate, in
a life no thirty-five-year-old would want. But deep down,
Annie is still mourning the terrible loss that tore a hole
through the perfect existence she’d once taken for granted-
and hiding away is safer than remembering what used to be.
Until she meets the eccentric Polly Leonard. Bright, bubbly,
intrusive Polly is everything Annie doesn’t want in a friend.
But Polly is determined to finally wake Annie up to life.
Because if recent events have taught Polly anything, it’s that
your time is too short to waste a single day-which is why she
wants Annie to join her on a mission… One hundred days. One
hundred new ways to be happy. Annie’s convinced it’s
impossible, but so is saying no to Polly. And on an
unforgettable journey that will force her to open herself to
new experiences-
-and perhaps even new love with the
unlikeliest of men-Annie will slowly begin to realize that
maybe, just maybe, there’s still joy to be found in the world.
But then it becomes clear that Polly’s about to need her new
friend more than ever.and Annie will have to decide once
and for all whether letting others in is a risk worth taking.
Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brené Brown offers a
powerful new vision that encourages us to dare greatly: to
embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live
wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could
have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood; who strives valiantly;..
. who at best knows in the
end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional
exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable, or to
dare greatly. Whether the arena is a new relationship, an
important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family
conversation, we must find the courage to walk into
vulnerability and engage with our whole hearts. In Daring
Greatly, Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know
about vulnerability. Based on twelve years of research, she
argues that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our
clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful
connection. The book that Dr. Brown’s many fans have been
waiting for, Daring Greatly will spark a new spirit of truth-and
trust in our organizations, families, schools, and
communities.
The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People, the book became an instant rage
because people suddenly got up and took notice that their
lives were headed off in the wrong direction; and more than
that, they realized that there were so many simple things they
could do in order to navigate their life correctly. This book
was wonderful education for people, education in how to live
life effectively and get closer to the ideal of being a ‘success’
in life.
A lot of professors give talks titled ‘The Last Lecture’.
Professors are asked to consider their demise and to
ruminate on what matters most to them: What wisdom would
we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If
we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our
legacy? When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor
at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he
didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently
been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he
gave,
‘Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams’, wasn’t about
dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles,
of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment
(because time is all you have and you may find one day that
you have less than you think). It was a summation of
everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In
this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humour,
inspiration, and intelligence that made his lecture such a
phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that
will be shared for generations to come.
Let me know how you like them!
