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Five Books That Will Help You Make Better Things In 2018

Input creates output. The things we choose to let fill up our brain space is important. Especially for people who make things for a living. Think of it as being as important as the diet changes you’re making for your health. What diet changes are you making for your creative health? What things are you going to choose to consume and what things are you going to choose NOT to consume?

It’s important. Your work, your mindset, your life, will become what you think about and what you continually consume.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s a few things I recommend. Some of these books are older, and some are new but this is what I’m reading to start this year. I hope you enjoy:

The Nature Fix by Florence Williams

I cannot even begin to describe how much I loved this book. The subtitle of this book is what drew me in: Why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative. It’s fascinating. Things like:
-How to include nature in your busy schedule.
-Scientifically, how much nature is enough to have an effect?
-How looking at the very design of nature seems to help us create more interesting things.
-Studies on how nature helps halt trauma-related symptoms. And offer REAL healing.

It’s amazing you should just read it for yourself 🙂

The Virgin Way by Richard Branson

Started listening to this one about 4 weeks ago (I don’t usually read books straight through. I like to bounce around and get different ideas from different people.) and it’s awesome. There are some stories about success and failures they’ve had at Virgin. There’s some great leadership lessons. FANTASTIC points about customer experience. Read it. I think you’ll like it.

Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller

I’ve been listening to the StoryBrand podcast for quite sometime and was a fan of Donald Miller’s work before. (read A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. I re-read it every year.) This book and the philosophy behind StoryBrand in general just makes sense to me. And there’s a reason for that. A psychological reason that we’re all drawn to stories and always have been. The book is about clarifying your message. Who doesn’t need more of that?

Tribe Of Mentors by Tim Ferriss

Jen got me this book for Christmas. I had been jonesing for it ever since he announced it. The basic idea of this book is that Tim reached out to everyone who he wanted mentoring from or who he thought had some great logical life advice, and he asked them a series of questions. The book is full of all the answers he received. To questions like: “When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?” or “In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?” Simple questions, but imagine getting to ask those questions of people like Larry King, Neil Gaiman, Jimmy Fallon, Brene Brown, Gretchen Rubin, Tony Hawk. And more than 100 more. It’s over 500 pages of solid gold.

The Power Of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

I heard of this one from the StoryBrand Podcast. There’s a fantastic interview with Chip that is all about using the power of moments to create memorable client interactions. Basically to create a remarkable, unforgettable, stand-out moments to give people a memory. It takes very little effort but moments are how we remember things. We don’t remember all the aspects of our life and story, we remember moments. This book is about that and how you can create moments to significantly impact your life and work. I’m excited about this book.

 

 

That should get us started with some healthy input this year! What are you reading? 

 

Make Great Things,

Chris

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