Reading is another passion of mine. Great Books help me to continually pursue my own voice and map my own thoughts. Yes, I'm a man with many many passions. Men today just don’t read enough, but there couldn’t be a "manlier" (is there such a word?) hobby. Theodore Roosevelt was a voracious reader and so were most of the great men of history. Reading allows you to connect with the great thinkers and writers of history and exposes you to new ideas, consequently making you a more intelligent and well-rounded man (I'm a very conceptual and "yellow" kind of guy). If you have access to a library card (you should...it's your NRIC!), reading can actually be a completely free hobby. Our National Library is world class and we are very lucky here in Singapore. However, I like to purchase my books because I like to underline, pen down my thoughts and ideas onto my books as I read (yes, my books are really messed up after going thru my hands!). My collection at home is rather amazing and my wife is complaining all the time that my study is too messy! I had to re-locate some of my books to my office just to make space for new books. Imagine!
If you need some ideas on what to read, look no further, I will try to share with you some of the wonderful books I've enjoyed over the past years here....
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Marilee G. Adams found that she could generate positive changes in her behavior and productivity by changing the defensive questions that she previously asked in the face of adversity. Analysing those protective questions showed her that she took setbacks and criticism too personally. Asking different questions enabled her to reframe each moment and create growth opportunities. Adams illustrates the problem-solving power of honest curiosity. Her "QuestionThinking" method generates practical ways to change your mind, literally. These are great ideas; however, their repetition within a fictional storyline may annoy some readers, while others may like this allegorical approach to telling the tale. The self-questioning techniques are easy to employ, and will help you examine situations from different points of view, which can come in quite handy. Click here for an Excerpt of this book.
Confucius tells us how to live the happy life our hearts need, or so says Yu Dan. It is a message many in China want to hear. People there are confused and angered; great gains have come but there is also corruption and vulgar displays of money everywhere. No wonder this book has sold 10m copies, though I cannot see the real Confucius in much of what she writes. The essence of his teaching was about how the individual should relate to his family, to his friends, to society and, ultimately, to the emperor. It was about people knowing their place. This book started as a series of lectures on Chinese central television. In this rather flat translation, and deprived of the body language that made Yu Dan such a lively broadcaster (she was called the "beauty scholar"), she comes across as an agony aunt, not the transmitter of a great tradition. And her prose can be breathtakingly banal.
You can't turn back the clock on your life. Change happens in the now. What I know for sure is that the discovery of all you were meant to be is continual, if you're open to seeing it.There's an insight I love that comes from a little book called As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen: We do not attract that which we want but that which we are. Not in love with your life? Create something new. Change yourself, then notice everything change." - Oprah Winfrey
Some books are so good and meaningful that you read them again and again. Primarily because you know the substance and content is so important that you need to be reminded of what it has to say. As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen is just such a book.” - Book Review, Michigan Chronicle
This book was a publishing phenomenon in the early 1990s, and it deserved to be. Stephen R. Covey managed to repackage an ethical and moral tradition thousands of years in development and make it meaningful to a late twentieth century, secular audience. Most of what you find in this book you will find in Aristotle, Cicero, Benedict, Tillotson and their heirs. Covey adds a few references to psychology, a twentieth century science, and many to Viktor Frankl, a sage of the Holocaust. Covey wraps the mix in a distinctively American can-do program of easy-looking steps calling, mostly, for self-discipline. The result is a quite worthwhile, useful manual for self-improvement.
Click here for a summary of this wonderful book.
In 6 Questions That Can Change Your Life, Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D., has designed a clear, easy-to-follow program based on six deceptively simple questions, carefully formulated to bring what he calls a vision, a coherent, energizing blueprint for your future that strips away years of people-pleasing and conditioning to get to the heart of the life you were really meant to live. By weaving dramatic stories about the transformative visions of world luminaries and clients from his private practice together with 40 self-tests, exercises, and charts, Dr. Nowinski demonstrates the humble might of these six questions and their power to spark a complete revolution--a quantum change--in the way you think about and approach your own life, your relationships, and your sense of purpose and place in the world. Feel for yourself the experiences Dr. Nowinski's clients cite after undergoing quantum change:
-- Put your past behind you
-- Stop conforming to the limiting expectations and opinions of others
-- Experience freedom from fear and self-doubt
-- Gain clarity and an invigorating sense of purpose
-- Seize the moment with a potent new combination of spontaneity and solid planning
Time and again, people who use the six questions to realize their quantum change are amazed at how little willpower they need to change the things they don't like about their lives. Instead of forcing themselves to "buckle down" or "get some willpower," Dr. Nowinski's clients describe the sense of being naturally pulled by the momentum and might of their own insights. In this state of effortless energy, you will make huge leaps forward without the strain and frustrating slowness of step-by-step approaches. Let 6 Questions That Can Change Your Life give you the focus, power, and vision to enact your own quantum change.
The Ownership Spirit by Dennis R Deaton has impacted the lives of thousands of people worldwide by altering their thinking about thinking itself. It awakens them to the genuine power unleashed when they assume full responsibility for their attitudes and actions. It imparts specific tools and skills in identifying ineffective mental habits that thwart growth and progress. It educates people to recognize Victim-thinking and convert it to constructive Owner-thinking. Overall, this rare learning experience equips and energizes people with the principles they need to deal successfully with the adversity, change, and challenge that modern life presents.LEADERSHIP/ MANAGEMENT
In his nearly thirty years of teaching leadership, John Maxwell has encountered this question again and again: How do I apply leadership principles if I'm not the boss? It's a valid question that Maxwell answers in The 360 Degree Leader. You don't have to be the main leader, asserts Maxwell, to make significant impact in your organization. Good leaders are not only capable of leading their followers but are also adept at leading their superiors and their peers. Debunking myths and shedding light on the challenges, John Maxwell offers specific principles for Leading Down, Leading Up, and Leading Across. 360-Degree Leaders can lead effectively, regardless of their position in an organization. By applying Maxwell's principles, you will expand your influence and ultimately be a more valuable team member.
Stephen M.R. Covey's book provides a framework for understanding trust, and a set of guidelines for building and restoring trust. Abundant anecdotes illustrate its lessons. An impressive array of business leaders, gurus and authorities lent their names to blurbs for this book, most of them endorsing the proposition that trust is good for the bottom line of any business. It would be hard to argue with that. If the book's style reminds you of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, there's a reason. The author is the son of 7 Habits' guru Stephen R. Covey, and the same writer, Rebecca R. Merrill, was involved in both books. While this solid book may not be quite as intensely focused as 7 Habits (but then, what is?), getAbstract recommends it to readers seeking confirmation of perennial truths about the importance of trust and its application in business.
Click here for a summary of this book.
Creativity is so essential a part of management equipment that it can no longer be left to chance or to the gifted amateur. Pioneer in the use of lateral thinking, Edward de Bono shows here how he sees creativity and lateral thinking working together in the process of management to develop new products and new ideas; and to generate new approaches to problem solving, organisation and future alternatives in planning. By removing the mystique of creativity and learning to treat it as a definite process which can be learnt, practised and used with the aid of specific techniques, he demonstrates how traditional education and management methods (which focus on logical sequential methods) can be brought together to achieve astonishing results.
Jim Collins states in his book Good to Great that “almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the framework of ideas found and used by Good to Great companies.” The book touches on the following themes, which were found throughout companies that have gone from good to great: Good is the Enemy of Great. This idea is similar to the “good is never enough” concept from Built to Last. In this section of the book, Collins urges companies to focus equally on what to do, what not to do, and what to stop doing. He believes that most companies focus too much on what to do and ignore what not to do or what they should stop doing. What are you doing based on tradition or industry standards? What assumptions or processes have you rested on because they were “good enough?” Good should be viewed as horrible because neither “great”.Click here for a summary of this book.
In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge details his model of a “learning organization,” which he defines as “an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future.” A learning organization excels at both adaptive learning–also known as survival learning–and generative learning.
Click here for a summary of this wonderful book.
More recommendations coming...come back again.
