3 Books In October 2015

I have been reading so many books of late, that I almost forgot to do this monthly feature that I initiated in July 2015.

The three books that I’d like to showcase in October are all inspiring and empowering. These books are apart from the other inspiring ones I’ve reviewed through October.

 

Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence

Are you just hanging in there? Have life’s curveballs thrown you off balance? Do you feel as if your life is going sideways?

Best-selling author, leadership coach, and former Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders knows how you feel. His father’s unexpected death put him in a downward spiral for fifteen years—what he calls his “sideways years.” A photo of a dusty water tower in Texas finally woke him up in 1996. That’s when he realized he needed to go home to his rock—his grandmother Billye, who had taken him in as a child to raise as her own.

Rediscovering the lessons she taught him as a child turned his life around and, in less than four years, catapulted him to financial security and an officer-level role at an S&P 500 company at the center of the Internet revolution. Today, his promise to himself is, “I will never forget those lessons. The price is too high.” Join Tim as he rediscovers the classic principles of confident living that some of the most successful and joyful people you know live by:

1 – Feed Your Mind Good Stuff
2 – Move the Conversation Forward
3 – Exercise Your Gratitude Muscle
4 – Give to Be Rich
5 – Prepare Yourself
6 – Balance Your Confidence
7 – Promise Made, Promise Kept

In Today We Are Rich, Sanders updates Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale to tackle a new world, where social media and transparency present unique challenges to our sense of confidence, sanity, and faith.

“Of all the values Billye holds, integrity is tops. “That’s all you’ve got in the end,” she told me once. She’s right, too. If you don’t respect yourself, you cannot maintain your confidence, regardless of how well you follow all the other principles in this book. Nothing will inform you as a person more than your actions, specifically your promise-keeping ratio during your life. It defines you as either a truth teller or a liar.”

Enough Already: The Power of Radical Contentment

In a world where fear, crisis, and insufficiency dominate the media and many personal lives, the notion of claiming contentment may seem fantastic or even heretical.

Yet finding sufficiency right where you stand may be the answer to a world obsessed with lack. In his warm, down-to-earth, and believable style, Alan Cohen offers fresh, unique, and uplifting angles on coming to peace with what is before you and turning mundane situations into opportunities to gain wisdom, power, and happiness that does not depend on other people or conditions.

Peppered with many true-life anecdotes and inspiring examples, Enough Already embraces the desire for change and improvement as part of the journey. Sometimes getting fed up with situations that are not working delivers the impetus to create better ones. You will be moved, illuminated, and tickled to find that what you seek may already be within your grasp and surely within your potential. If contentment is radical, then this book may well spur a revolution of well-being!

“Try this experiment: For one day imagine what you have and what you are is enough. When you look in the mirror, decide to like what you see. When you connect with your friend, date, spouse, or boss, notice what you like about that person rather than what bugs you. When you go over your credit-card bill, instead of complaining about the high price of gas and groceries, thank all the people who brought your fuel to you and your food from seed to your table. When you go to work, celebrate the customers and accounts you have rather than wringing your hands over those you are missing.

If you do this experiment sincerely and continuously for even one day, your life will change. You will feel better, and things will start to work more in your favor. You will recognize that you have far more riches at your disposal than you realized. You will realize that you have not just enough, but plenty.”
– Alan Cohen

Louder than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice

There has never been a better time to build an audience for your idea or product. But with so many people clamoring for attention online and offline, it’s also more challenging than ever to do work that deeply resonates and creates true and lasting effect.

How do you set yourself apart in such a noisy, crowded world? How do you do work that is truly remarkable?
The key is to develop your authentic voice. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a writer, a designer, or a manager building a brand, the more clear and compelling your voice, the more your message will connect with your audience. The result will be more impact, and greater personal satisfaction with your work.

Louder Than Words offers a strategy for uncovering, developing, and bravely using your authentic voice to create a body of work you are proud of, that resonates deeply with others, and that ultimately impacts the world.

“If you examine the most contributive, impactful, and ultimately influential people throughout history, the one thing that clearly sets them apart is their unique voice. They had developed a personal expression that distanced them from their peers and put them in a field of their own. Their body of work speaks loudly about who they are and what they value. Louder, even, than their words.

Whether you are a writer, a consultant, an entrepreneur, an engineer, a manager, or a artist, developing your authentic voice should be a top priority if you are serious about crafting a body of work that will stand the test of time. Work, then, becomes about more than checking off tasks and pushing through projects. Instead, it is a means to carve a place in the world and create value that lasts. It becomes a means of genuine expression and a standing testament to your efforts.”
– Todd Henry

Have you read any of these books? What is the book you read in October that you would recommend to other readers here?