11 Books That Will Help You Define Your Personal Vision
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Readers know that we need to add new books to inspire personal vision and growth from time to time. I am always reading to learn and grow. This year I collected a few new favorite writers like, Jeff Goins, Brian Dixon and Jen Wilkin. I also added to my collections of leadership books by writers I have been following for years like; Jon Acuff, Ruth Soukup and my adopted (he doesn’t know it yet) grandfather, Bob Goff. It has been a good reading year. I have really expanded my vision in ways that challenge and scare me. I need all the encouragement I can gather.
It was not a record breaker in the numbers department for me. Typically, I read about eighty books a year. I had set my GoodReads goal for 120 and then failed to log back in all year, sorry friends! I started working away from home and reading took a backseat. Though it might have been the worst reading year by volume, the books contain some of the most useful and applicable content books to inspire personal vision and developing my leadership skills.
Business and Personal Growth
I’ll give you the basic categories so you can find your favorites. Even though the list is small, the growth was huge. I am amazed how much each of these visionary leaders has impacted me and how many times these separate authors intersected with one another in my personal-growth reading and podcast listening.
Wrecked – Jeff Goins
Jeff Goins is a writer, speaker and pod caster. I heard about him from the wise and industrious Seth Godin. The first book I read of Jeff’s was Wrecked. You can read his 2010 manifesto, Wrecked for the Ordinary, A Manifesto for Misfits. I was intrigued at his desire for purposeful living and the dissatisfaction with the status quo and I was hearing his name everywhere I turned. Wrecked would be a great book for every graduate you know this year. Goins writes passionately about living a life of purpose from right where you are.
You Are A Writer – Jeff Goins
Next, I picked up You are a Writer (so start acting like one) In it, Goins shares the most important thing that will propel you into your dream of becoming a writer. The first is knowing you are a writer and the second, getting back to the practical act of actually writing. Not reading about writing, not purging you emails, but writing. In it he gives clear ideas to help improve your writing and offers steps to build a strong platform. He wants his readers to get published and puts them in the drivers seat of their passion with his advice. He has more than proven his ability to do every one of these things he writes about.
The Art of Work – Jeff Goins
Not a writer? Then start with Goins 2015 offering The Art of Work (a proven path to discovering what you were meant to do). Jeff shares that sometimes pursuing your passion is really following the path that is left after everything else fails. In The Art of Work, Goins shares the stories of people who have taken the tough turns life has handed them and recreated them into the gifts that gave them the life they now love. Meaningful work is available to everyone, do you believe that? The question Jeff poses in the book is; could you challenge yourself to live it out, that is what Goins is doing right now.
Goins is a truly generous leader. He offers quite a few practical resources free from his beautiful and relevant website goinswriter.com You can sign up for his latest news and get his latest book Real Artists Don’t Starve for FREE.
Do It Scared – Ruth Soukup
This was a book I had on preorder back in 2018, long before it came out. A proven author with five New York Times best sellers, Ruth’s writing is thorough and well thought out. She is an amazing researcher, analyzer and she has a great way of explaining complex ideas in a way the reader can easily digest. She has been my go-to Guru for all things blog related since day one, but she has so much more to offer on her blog Living Well, Spending Less
Do It Scared digs into seven “Fear Archetypes.” Ruth discovered these seven core reasons people succumb to fear through her years of working with entrepreneurs and of course some very intense research. Knowing what fears drive you will help you to plan around them. If you liked Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before, this would be a great companion book. Ruth advocates for her readers to make the commitment to “Do It Scared.” Yes, identifying our fear type is valuable, but fear can not impede action. Do It Scared is a book for those who want to get their dreams and plans into action.
The Next Right Thing – Emily P. Freeman
When you are faced with two great options how do you choose. In The Next Right Thing Emily offers so much more than throwing a dart at the board or making a pro/con list. She walks through a series of exercises to help you invision with clarity, the next right thing to do. She helps readers define their focus and goals to give clarity and confidence. I appreciate Emily’s calm and methodical approach to needling out the best from the good.
You can learn more about living a life that puts you closer to your goals by listening to Emily’s podcast, The Next Right Thing where she shares more insight and tips for clarifying your focus and achieving more. Her calm and quiet manor is a beautiful change from many overly energetic or giggly podcasters I have sifted through. She is also a cofounder of Hope*Writers, an online community where writers can get real tools and teaching that will get them published. You can take the free assessment to see what stage of writer you are HERE.
Start With Your People – Brian J. Dixon
Once you have defined your goals and clarified your vision, Brian Dixon helps you lead by serving your people. If there is a common theme from EVERY great leadership book I have ever read it is you have to serve your audience. Brian gives practical steps for doing that. He shows how leaders start growing by finding the best ways to help others succeed. This book had me rethinking every post I write.
If you start with the authentic desire to help your readers, community, or team you will gain traction and become the leader your people need.
Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
I am curious about resilience. How can children endure trauma and yet, grow up to be well adjusted citizens while others continue the cycle of destruction. I’ve spent the last few years unraveling many different personality distinctions and types. Outliers, The Story of Success, is a different book altogether. It walks you through the case study of several game changers in history and breaks down how they came to the level of fame, accolades, or success that was unheard of until their time. From industrial revolution visionaries, to rock stars and silicon valley computer brats, Gladwell breaks down the factors common to those who reached breakthrough level in their field.
What propels some people into a place where they seem to be genius? Is it simply brain power alone?
Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point, sees more to these great success stories than high IQ or super powers. Position in time, birth year and season, resources at their disposal and the 10,000 hour rule are all leading factors in the case studies he highlights. As a parent, this helps me consider how I structure my kids learning choices and even their learning hours. If you are curious about what makes success possible, if you are interested in the story of unlocking human potential and expanding your own creative vision, then this book is one you should grab.
I just added Gladwell’s latest book to my audible library, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know. I’m looking forward to seeing how this fits in with my quest for understanding human behavior. I really do want to respond to individuals effectively by understanding what they need to hear from me. That is the one thing that I have noticed in the gospels, Jesus answered people with the exact answer that got to the meat of whatever they were saying to Him. If I had a super power it would be to always say exactly what I mean in the way that the hearer would receive it. So far, I hope a lifetime of reading helps.
Inspiration and Spiritual Growth
Everybody Always – Bob Goff
Everybody Always is about finding the path to living a liberated life; free from worry, fear and constraint. The key, Bob surmises, is to love, without distinction, and without limits. I have never fallen so instantly in love with an author as I have with Bob Goff. (Bob if you read this, please adopt me as your honorary granddaughter) With so many Christians ringing their hands wondering how to respond to a world that seem to oppose the core values, Goff’s answer is simple; Love.
Who do we love? Everybody, Always.
Even witch doctors! Bob’s story telling is unrivaled and he shares the extraordinary journey he has taken to show love in big, real, tangible ways. If you a podcast listener you will want to subscribe to his Dream Big podcast. Bob keeps the conversation going by talking with his friend and fellow visionaries, about how they live their big dreams.
If life feels small and dark you need to read the book from Bob Goff, the ballon guy, author of Love Does and Love Does for Kids.
Women of the Word – Jen Wilkin
If you are asking, “How do I study the Bible on my own?” Then I would hand you Women of the Word. The ‘Women’ part of the title is simply book publishing, market semantics. Jen is a well learned and high achieving Bible teacher and has earned the right to teach on the subject of Biblical literacy.
As I writer and storyteller, I can be drawn into creating Biblical story based narratives that may illustrate my point, but can possibly draw away from the intentional focus of the text. I desire a foundation of Biblical literacy for every article I write. Jen guides readers to begin to study with five P’s in mind.
Study with Purpose, Perspective, Patience, Process and Prayer
These are the skill she unpack for her small groups at her home church. The same tools she teaches at academic lectures and speaking engagements as well. I had the pleasure of having Jen Wilkin as the Key speaker at the One Conference, and was moved by the depth of her Bible knowledge and teaching. You can sit in on her teaching from the Flower Mound Women’s Bible Study on PodBean podcast player as well as on Knowing Faith, which has become one of my favorite podcasts for my drive times.
Inspired – Rachel Held Evans
I came across the book Inspired by way of the modern miracle of Amazon marketing. Inspired was in my recommendation list back in 2018. Probably because I bought The Very Worst Missionary, by Jamies Wright, the month before (which had me laughing to actual tears). I had reached peak cynical stage, in my recovery from a Fundamentalist/Evangelical ideology background and needed to hear some new, fearlessly-honest, fresh voices speak into my life. Inspired touched me because Rachel was so honest about there being parts of the Bible that caused her discomfort. Places where God’s character seems incongruent, places where she was unsure where to plant the flag. She was bothered by the need for certainty that is demanded of Christians, but at the same time contradicts what faith asks of us.
Inspired is a book about a journey of faith.
It began in religion; where every doctrinal question had a specific, correlating index card reference to answer it. The problem that Rachel, and many of us along our faith walk experience, is that the path gets messy when you throw in your life and real people with needs and troubling problems. In the discomfort, Rachel decided to allow the answer, “I don’t know.”
In confusing spaces of dessert treks, genocides and law driven stoning, Rachel redirects us to the bigger narrative; God came down and lived among His creation. He wrote a story, in the story of men, about Himself. If you follow the vein of scarlet you find a story of redemption and love that overshadows all of the questions you can throw at the text. Through allowing discomfort and questioning, Rachel fell back in love with the Kinsmen Redeemer revealed in the words of the Biblical narrative.
Rachel’s comfort in agitation was a healing balm.
I was raised to believe there is an answer for every faith question, but in the recent years I have learned to appreciate the lack of total clarity I have about God. I’m a believer, but I don’t know answers to questions that aren’t spelled out in scripture. God knows our tendency to get tunnel visioned. Rachel reminds us to pull up and get that beautiful, cinematic, sweeping landscape shot of the redemption story.
I began looking for more books by Rachel and was looking forward to following her writing journey. In May of 2019, Rachel died suddenly, after a brief and rapidly advancing infection. She was just 37, leaving behind her husband, Dan, and two young children. It is hard to be unaffected by the tragic loss of a beloved voice that reached so many by writing honestly from her own heart. She is well remembered for her work and for being a mighty Woman of Valor.
Send Recommendations for My 2020 Reading List
A quick scattering of a few more of my top favorite visionaries from 2019 are:
- Daring Greatly, Brené Brown
- Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin
- Outer Order Inner Calm, Gretchen Rubin
- The Road Back to You (enneagram), Cron & Stabile
- The Sacred Enneagram, Heuertz
- Girl Stop Apologizing, Rachel Hollis
- Imperfect Courage, Jessica Honegger
- Finish, by my favorite person on the internet; Jon Acuff
I would love to hear about the book you read that changed you this year. Friend me on GoodReads too. My plan is to do a better job on adding my books. I’ve begun using the scan option ands that helps me be more diligent about adding the books I am reading. I love seeing what my friends are reading. It is an effective way to get to know a person and find great reads.
