by Damla
Happy new year!
The start of the year always has exciting (if not a bit daunting) connotations. It is an opportunity to evaluate the past year, rethink priorities, refresh some goals, or even set up a few new ones in light of the new year to come. And the hardest part of it all can be to keep up the enthusiasm and motivation to keep working at those resolutions for the rest of the year (or even longer than that, if possible!)
So, whatever your goals are this year, whether it is to build good habits or avoid harmful ones, here are our top 5 recommendations to help you on your way to conquer them:
1. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones – James Clear
“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
This book is an ABC Favorite and a #1 New York Times best seller with good reason.
With a great balance between the author’s personal experiences, anecdotes from well-known figures, scientific studies, and useful tips, Atomic Habits highlights the power of the small changes you can make in your life that can improve consistency and your quality of life in the long run. There is no need to overhaul everything all at once, and there is no need to set intimidatingly big goals. Start small, find what works for you, fine-tune the smaller things, and be patient.
“Failure isn’t fatal — quite the contrary. It’s downright fabulous.”
Have you ever decided to pick up a new habit or hobby, and dropped it at your first obstacle or mistake? If you, like me, get frustrated by not excelling at some new skill you have just started, this book might also be for you.
The idea of achieving perfection and the pressure of not wanting to make mistakes can be big mental blocks that prevent us from even beginning in the first place. Failed It looks at how your failures can not only push you further, but also can become a source of inspiration for new ideas. Kessels approaches the subject from a creative light mostly focused in art and photography, but it can be applied to many many areas in life with great potential.
3. Grit: Why passion and resilience are the secrets to success – Angela Duckworth
“Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it…it’s doing what you love, but not just falling in love―staying in love.”
There is something truly empowering about the thought that we might hold the power to shape our future to some extent through dedication and resolve. To be able to change “I hope tomorrow will be better” to “I will make tomorrow better.”
In Grit, Duckworth argues that there is no need for extraordinary talent or superhuman focus to succeed. All it takes is passion, long-term perseverance, and the ability to rebound from your failures. Nothing like a bit of tough love to light a fire under you.
4. Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You – Ali Abdaal
“When we can’t take ownership of the situation, we can still take ownership of the process.”
Yes, building a new habit is hard work. Yes, it is a pain to start something new, or to keep showing up everyday, or to tackle the big things off the old procrastination list. But according to Feel-Good Productivity, the hard work that you put in doesn’t have to be a slog in order to get the results you want. In this book, Abdaal shows opportunities to enjoy the process and approach new tasks with curiosity and openness to turn a chore into (dare I say it?) fun.
5. Good Habits, Bad Habits: How to Make Positive Changes That Stick – Wendy Wood
“Goals can orient you to build a habit, but your desires don’t make habits work. Actually, your habit self would benefit if “you” just got out of the way.”
And finally, if you are looking into a bit more scientific approach into how our brains are wired, how they form habits, and how this can be used to our advantage, this is the book for you. Full of scientific studies, Good Habits, Bad Habits lays out the cold hard facts about the extent of habit-forming in our daily lives and lets you be the judge of how to tackle your own path.
Time to go out and conquer.
Best of luck!
