Time to Take the Steps to Soar!
Setting goals is one way to give your life direction. Bill Gates uses the OKR method for goal setting. First set Objectives: identify what you want to accomplish; they should be significant, action oriented and aspirational. Then Identify Key Results: they should be specific, measurable and verifiable. Cleary this method worked for him as he became one of the most successful self made billionaires in history.
It may be that time in your life where you need to make some changes and there is plenty of guidance available. Whether you ready to actively pursue personal happiness, reinvent yourself, run a successful business or just take control of your life, here are some books that can help. A combination of direct steps, stories and science just may do the trick to assist you on your journey to achieve personal and professional betterment.
Maybe You Should Give Up by Byron Morrison (June 27) is a step by step guide to giving up on “anything that is getting in the way of you living the life that you want.” Within this easy framework, Byron Morrison provides new ways to think about things and straight forward tasks to do, allowing us to make little changes over a period of time. Giving up on playing it safe, being afraid of failure, worrying about what others think, trying to be perfect, making excuses and putting off happiness may just be the answer!
Goodreads Summary
After years of being his own worst enemy, Byron Morrison knows exactly how frustrating the never-ending cycle of hard work, expectation, and minimal results can be. Maybe You Should Give Up is Morrison’s answer to the how can anyone achieve their dreams if hard work isn’t enough?
It seems like every self-help book and personal development program is the same these days, preaching that if someone just does more and pushes harder, they can achieve the life of their dreams. This expectation doesn’t often work with long-term results, which leaves many people to face the unfortunate reality of never reaching their goals.
Why? Because despite their good intentions, they get in their own way, sabotaging themselves and becoming the biggest stumbling block in the way of their success.
Tired of going ‘round in circles, Byron Morrison realized he needed to do something different. He gave up—not on his goals and dreams, accepting a life of mediocrity lying on the couch—but on being controlled by fear. He gave up living in the past. He gave up comparing himself to others. He gave up on being so hard on himself. And he gave up putting off his happiness.
And it worked. He was able to get out of his own way and finally take control of his life.
Maybe You Should Give Up explains how to throw out the rule book, break the mold and do something different. Byron Morrison’s approach helps readers identify 7 areas of their life that cause them to get in their own way and keep them stuck in a self-destructive cycle; he models how to give up on what holds a person back—to finally take control of the life they want and deserve.
Next by Joanne Lipman is about personal transformation and includes many stories and scientific studies. Kicking it off with the story of James Patterson’s reinvention from advertising executive to best selling author, Joanne Lipman takes us through steps for out own reinvention that include Search, Struggle, Stop, Solution. Her extensive research as seen through the many real-life stories she shares translates to practical advice and is inspiring.
Goodreads Summary
From the bestselling author of That’s What She Said, a timely and essential book on the art and science of reinvention and an inspiring guide to personal and professional transitions.
The disruptions of recent years have sparked a collective reckoning, forever changing the way we think about life and work. We reprioritized our lives, reordered how we envisioned the future. The pandemic changed society in many ways, but among the most powerful was a collective rethinking of our relationship to our jobs. Millions quit the workforce in 2021 and 2022, and stunningly almost a third had no new job lined up to go to. We reevaluated how much time we wanted to spend at work, where and how we wanted to spend it, our motivations, and our ideas about what constitutes a “good job” in the first place.
Whatever the catalyst, it prompts in us the urgent need to pivot, to ask the What’s next—and how do we get there?
In Next!, bestselling author and journalist Joanne Lipman draws on hundreds of personal interviews and academic research papers to answer just this question. Lipman seeks out people who have been successful in reimagining their work or life, speaks with scientists and researchers who study transformation, and provides case studies and a toolkit of practical steps showing how companies and individuals can change. The result is a more holistic view not just of how transitions work, but of how to make them more successfully in our own lives.
Workforce Ecosystems by Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron, Jeff Schwartz and Robin Jones is a framework for leading a workforce that, today more than ever, is comprised of full time, part time and freelance employees, along with other outside businesses working together toward collective goals. If you run a workforce or are a part of one, this book will be impactful.
Goodreads Summary
A pioneering guide to understanding and leading workforce ecosystems, which include not only traditional employees, contractors, and gig workers, but also partner and complementor organizations that work with companies to accomplish enterprise and individual goals.
Who is your workforce? This was a simple question when most organizations focused on hiring full- and part-time employees, but now organizations engage with both internal and external collaborators including subcontractors, freelancers, app developers, marketplace sellers, and others. As technology enables new, more efficient forms of working, and roles become more project- and outcomes-based, workforces are evolving into workforce ecosystems requiring updated strategies, leadership, and management practices.
Workforce Ecosystems by Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron, Jeff Schwartz, and Robin Jones is an essential research-driven framework for leading these complex, interconnected workforces. Drawing on case studies, worldwide surveys, and extensive interviews with C-suite executives and senior leaders from Amazon, IBM, Mayo Clinic, NASA, Nike, Roche, Unilever, the US Army, Walmart, and others, the authors explore what workforce ecosystems are and how to navigate their unique challenges and opportunities.
Practical and field-tested, Workforce Ecosystems will prepare leaders to identify distinguishing characteristics of workforce ecosystems; take advantage of their increasing relevance as the world becomes more interconnected and technology-enabled; refine business strategies to incorporate them; focus leadership, management practices, and technologies to leverage them; and traverse the ethical, societal, and public policy considerations of workforce ecosystems.
Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey was an author, businessman, educator and influential public speaker. He believed “all of our actions are the result of past conditioning and that we must change our habits, and who we are, in order to succeed with making large changes in our lives.” Some of his most recognized books are below:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
