Reading
I love to read. I read a lot in Junior High due to the Accelerated Reader program at school. In high school, some of the joy of reading was removed due to the curriculum of my AP English classes where we exclusively read British romance novels from the 1800s and a couple over-the-top tales about poor young orphans. They served a purpose, but surely you could have exposed us to more than that?
After getting married in 2010, my mom decided I was old enough to experience romance novels and gave me some Sandra Brown books for Christmas. I got really into those as an escape from my relationship. My ex-husband was incredibly bad in the bedroom, and I was in my twenties. I had neeeeeds. These books taught me that sex could be incredible and romantic and fun and so many other things. Lack of sex life (and the promise of a better sex life that imitated these books) helped me leave my husband.
In 2019, when I began my personal development journey, I began reading non-fiction, self-help books by starting with Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. She led me down a beautiful rabbit hole of self-developments works such as John Maxwell and Brendan Bruchard. I can say that High Performance Habits by Brendan Bruchard literally changed my life and set me on a courses of health, wealth, and success. Most notably, I started sleeping. His emphasis on sleep as an important driver of health and health as the key to using your brain at work motivated me to finally sleep. Previously, my outlook was “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Much of my success at work came from my ability to out-work all of my peers times ten, which takes a lot of time (and very little sleep). However, working smarter not harder requires brain power. My best brain power and decision making abilities are available to me when I sleep. Once I started sleeping at least 8 hours, going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time, I was amazed at how great I felt. I didn’t know how ill I was! My metabolism was better, I made better choices, I had more energy, and I had more joy. I had the space to laugh with friends, do volunteer work, and spend my weekends doing more than just laying down and recovering from work for 2 days. I had been tired for over 15 years.
Now I continue to read non-fiction and fiction. My non-fiction choices are mostly self-help and personal development, and I dabble in specific subjects I want to learn more about. Right now, I am in the middle of a fiction series by Laurie R. King about a female version of Sherlock Holmes, and it is delightful!
Reading has tremendously formed my personal growth journey, and brought much peace, joy, and relaxation to my life.
Here are my top book recommendations for personal development work
1. High Performance Habits by Brendan Bruchard – a comprehensive guide to all the key elements that high performing people do to achieve and maintain high performance.
2. Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis – a women’s perspective on all the hang-ups we face that sabotage our growth and pursuit of higher things.
3. Atomic Habits by James Clear – hack your brain and make it easy to do all things you are supposed to do to become a health person.
4. The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal – explains why we have or do not have willpower, and how to build more willpower.
5. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin – actively choose to find joy and do things that cultivate happiness with tangible examples.
Honorable Mention:
The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck – find your purpose & live your values by doing the deep work within yourself
You Happier, by Dr. Amen – review all the things that affect your brain health which determine your level of mood, anxiety, and depression
Isn’t it funny how the color schemes of these books are so similar? I listened to Girl, Wash Your Face & The Willpower Instinct as audiobooks