Motivational Books to read in 2017

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Every year I  promise myself I’ll get back to my love of reading and it never happens. Sure I read everyday. That normally consists of a combination of social media posts, blog posts, online articles and kids books. I want to get back to reading adult fiction books and into reading books in my field of interest. I also want to find a good database of journal articles to catch up on the current research in the areas of psychology I love, but that last one might have to wait awhile.

A big mistake I’ve made in the past is making my goals too lofty. For example, in 2015 I created a list of 100 books to read that year. Prior to that I started going through the list of 1001 books to read before you die and only made it a few books in. Based on my past efforts it’s obvious this is another area of my life I need to apply my New Year’s resolution: Less is More.

I’ll start out with a few books on motivation I’ve been wanting to read.

Motivational Books

The Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell has been on my reading list for a few years. I even have this book on my iPad just waiting for me to read it. The topic of statistical outliers relating to the topic of success is an academic interest of mine. An outlier is a data point that is an abnormal distance from the majority of the data sample. It’s often excluded from a data set which is something I’ve never been happy about. Studying these data points rather than excluding them is an excellent idea for research, and I’m excited to see what the author has to say on this topic. 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey is another book on the must read list for awhile now. When it was originally published Judy Blume books were still on my shelf. After all these years it’s time to give it a chance. Good and bad reviews are available for this book, but there must be value in this book with as long as it’s been promoted and utilized. I’ve even contemplated picking up the workbook that goes along with this book.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman wasn’t even on my radar until recently. An article about research done on intuition started everything. It led me to the actual research article where I ended up with my own research questions. A list of books President Obama recommended was my next clue to what I should read. Thinking, Fast and Slow was on the list. I took note, but didn’t look into it further. Yesterday while researching motivational books this book showed up several times. I finally read the description and some of the reviews. A multitude of awards and topics of personal interest covered meant this book earned a spot on the list.

Three books is more than enough to start with. The mantra of less is more keeps repeating in my head. The plan of action is to read these books, take notes, and apply what I learn. End of 2017 is my goal to have these finished, though hopefully sooner.

I’d love to hear your opinion of any of these books if you’ve read them. Any other motivational book recommendations is also welcome. Share your thoughts in the comments below.