Here are a few of my favorite Books
The Path of Least Resistance
By: Robert Fritz
Profound book that shaped my view on how I approach work-life situations. Viewing the situations we find ourselves in as structural versus personal has shifted my approach and therefore the creative solutions I can bring to the table. I now have a powerful set of self-reflection questions I review in order to bring me back to center.
Is this oscillating or creative tension?
Am I clear on what I truly want (regardless of whether or not I think it’s possible)
Am I seeing current reality as it really is or as I wish it to be?
From this place, I’m usually able to find an insight or a shift that brings momentum, even if it’s just within my own energy and wherewithal to find a path forward.
With clients, I use this to test if they’re in an unsolvable situation - toxic boss with no incentive to change, company strategy misaligned to personal values - and whether or not they’re clear on what they actually want - do they really want the boss to change or do they want a boss they don’t have to change?
The Courage to be Disliked
By: Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
Aligned with helping us see our current situation clearly, The Courage to be Disliked dials in on our goals and tasks. It encourages a deep introspection into what is ours and what is not ours when it comes to our life tasks. It basically says, mind your business and keep about your own tasks! For clients, I translate this to help them understand their motivations. Is it your goal to be liked or to accomplish your goals? That is not to say our interpersonal relationships aren’t important, quite the opposite! One of the central premises is around our responsibilities to others as a critical life task for all! However, how people respond to us and ultimately the outcome of our work often remains outside the realm of our control. This is where we need to have the courage to be disliked and stay true to the work we know needs to be done.
Designing Your Life / Designing Your Work
By: Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
There is so much goodness packed into both of these books and I love the premise that a life well lived is designed (or created) intentionally through experimentation and iterative evolution. My biggest takeaway from these authors is about energy alignment. One of the exercises I assign clients is to keep an energy journal for a week - what tasks drain you, what do you dread and therefore procrastinate on, and what energizes you and you complete effortless? These are key indicators to ensure we’re aligning your vision with your skills and incentives in order to align your next chapter to what you truly love and excel at. Too often interchange proficiency for enjoyment and they’re not the same energetically. With clients, I want them to be clear about tasks that drain their energy and ones that light them up, in order to ensure that their next role has less of the former and more of the latter.
Smart Change
Dr. Art Markman
Dr. Art Markman has written several books on the psychology of work and personal behavioral optimization. I appreciate his practical approaches to harnessing our biology to work in our favor. My takeaway from Smart Change is simply that we have a STOP and a GO system and we need to ensure they’re working in tandem. Unfortunately the STOP system is much less effective than the GO system and therefore we have to bring conscious awareness and willpower in order to establish new behaviors. We all probably know this in theory, but seeing how it shows up in our daily lives - chronically late to meetings, running behind, never feeling like we get ahead - it helps to understand why we have a hard time stopping behaviors that we know are self-sabotaging.
