Reading Lists
Ten lists of books worth your time, one for each of the principles in the book. Honest write-ups, including the ones I would hand you before mine.
Every one of these started as a question somebody actually asked me, usually some version of what should I read about this. So rather than answering it one conversation at a time, here are the answers written down.
A few things worth saying up front. My own book appears on all ten of these lists, and I have marked it clearly every time, because you should know that when you are reading my description of it. It is never first, and on most of these there is a book I would genuinely hand you before mine. Where that is true I have said so.
A recommendation is only worth anything if the person giving it would tell you when something else is better.
Taking Ownership of Your Life
Seven books on responsibility, excuses, and why the true reasons are the hardest ones to let go of. Start with QBQ!
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Making Time for What Matters
Seven books on where your hours actually go. Almost nobody is out of time, most people have just never looked.
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Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
Seven books for the hardest version of stuck, the one where nothing is going wrong and nothing is changing either.
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Self-Doubt and the Voice in Your Head
Seven books on the inner voice, plus the survey finding that self-doubt is the single most common thing holding people back.
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Getting a Little Better Every Day
Seven books on small daily improvement, and on surviving the long stretch where none of it looks like it is working.
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Getting and Giving Honest Feedback
Seven books on hearing the truth. The honest information reaching you shrinks quietly, and nothing about it feels wrong at the time.
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Reaching Your Potential
Seven books on the gap between what you are doing and what you could do, plus the data on how common that gap is.
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Leading Without a Title
Seven books on influence rather than authority, and why the behavior always shows up before the promotion does.
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Finishing What You Start
Seven books on follow-through. Nobody quits at the hard part, they quit at the boring part, and that is a different problem.
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Leaving People Better
Seven books on generosity and impact, and the difference between what you accumulate and what you leave behind.
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If you liked a particular book
The other way people ask this question is by naming something they already finished and liked, so these lists start there instead. Same approach, honest write-ups, and I will tell you when the better answer is someone else’s book.
Books Like Grit
Seven books for readers who finished Duckworth and want to know what to actually do with what she showed them.
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Books Like Soundtracks
Seven books on overthinking and the voice in your head, for readers who liked Acuff and want the next one.
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Books Like Finish
Seven books on why we abandon things we care about, and how to tell a hard stretch worth pushing through from a dead end.
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Books Like Hidden Potential
Seven books for readers who liked Grant on why talent is a much worse predictor than everyone assumes.
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Books Like The Slight Edge
Seven books on the small things that are easy to do and just as easy to skip, and surviving the stretch where none of it shows.
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Books Like QBQ!
Seven books on personal accountability, for readers who liked Miller on the questions we ask when things go wrong.
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Books Like The Comfort Crisis
Seven books on what modern comfort has quietly cost us, and what to do once you go looking for difficulty.
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Books Like Give and Take
Seven books on generosity, and why the same trait puts some people at the bottom and others at the top.
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Books Like Do Hard Things
Seven books on what toughness actually is, once you take the shouting out of it, and where real limits sit.
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Books Like The Compound Effect
Seven books on small choices adding up, including the one that does it considerably better than Hardy does.
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If you are buying it for someone else
The hardest part of giving a book is guessing where the person actually is, because the wrong book for the right person reads as a lecture. These lists sort by situation rather than by subject.
The research
A survey of more than 200 working adults on the gap between what people are doing and what they believe they could do. Free to cite with attribution.
What Percentage Feel Capable of More?
92 percent, and most of them think they are the only one. The survey behind the number.
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What Actually Holds People Back
Self-doubt at 40 percent, fear of failure at 37. Neither time nor opportunity topped the list.
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Do Leaders Doubt Themselves More?
They felt the gap more sharply than everyone else, and hesitated almost as often.
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Self-Doubt at Work
Every figure from the survey in one place, with the methodology and the limits stated.
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If you do not know which list you need, take the quiz. It points at whichever gap is widest right now, and each of the ten principles has a list waiting behind it.
Take the Quiz
A short assessment showing where the gap between what you are doing and what you are capable of is widest right now.
You Are Capable of More
Ten principles and a no-excuses playbook for becoming the person you know you’re capable of being. Available now in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle.