Meditations – Marcus Aurelias

If practical advice is your thing it’s really hard to beat Stoicism. I’ve taken to reading a page of Meditations every morning because it is so logical and direct. Each line is an incredibly simple recipe for solving some type of problem, and it’s so easy to understand it motivates me to want to try his advice each day. After all, even our biggest dreams are made of days like today.

The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday

How motivating would it be if everything that happened to you furthered your goal? What if every challenge or setback just made you stronger? This book teaches you how to see life that way. It is extremely empowering, and when those setbacks feel like growth instead of failure you realize that your goal progress bar is always filling up.

Eat that Frog – Brian Tracy

It’s not common that I can recommend a book to my mom and my best friend and they both love it. This one is full of psychological tricks to knock out scary things on our to-do list and it’s really helped me stop procrastinating. Sometimes a task is scary, but it’s okay to do it scared. By the way – the title makes sense, I promise!

7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

This is the book that started my self improvement journey. It’s fantastic because it teaches you the core ideas that help successful people get so much done. Covey helps you make a plan to attack all of your goals, and it really motivated me to want to use all the tools he shares. It’s also helps you understand your past better, and you can use that to make better decisions in the future.

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Let’s throw a novel in the mix. This is the story of a shepherd seeking treasure and has inspired many thousands of people to pursue their dreams. I think it is very useful to remind ourselves what is really important to us, because if our life is on autopilot it probably isn’t what we really need right now. And living someone else’s life is a recipe for disaster.