My PersonalBook Recommendations
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so if you buy from me, I get some wine money - not enough for a winery, though)
The Little Book About Living A Life You Love (Dieter Langenecker)
Isn’t there more to life?
Not more to do — but more to be.
More quiet. More depth. More meaning.
This gentle and grounding book arose from a personal search for clarity, peace, and purpose.
It invites readers — especially those navigating midlife, life transitions, or emotional exhaustion — to pause and reconnect with their inner wisdom.
You won’t find productivity hacks or self-improvement goals here.
Instead, you’ll find:
– Quiet reflections for the second half of life
– Soulful prompts and short exercises
– Insights drawn from non-duality, spirituality, and meaning-centered living
– A calm voice that guides without pushing
Whether you’re questioning your direction, facing burnout, or simply longing for more presence — this little book is a companion for returning to what truly matters.
Perfect for people in their prime — those seeking peace, purpose, and a slower, wiser rhythm of life.
Let it rest beside your tea. Open it when the noise gets loud.
Because the journey is the goal —
and the path is made by walking it.
Tao Te Ching (Lao Tsu)
A cornerstone of Chinese philosophy, the Tao Te Ching the "Book of the Way and Its Power", speaks to anyone who seeks harmony, wholeness, and integrity in a rapidly changing world.
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.
Born in Vienna in 1905 Viktor E. Frankl earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He published more than thirty books on theoretical and clinical psychology and served as a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, and elsewhere.
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Morrie visited Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live. This is a chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.
You Can Heal Your Heart (Louise Hay)
In
You Can Heal Your Heart, self-help luminary Louise Hay and renowned grief and loss expert David Kessler, the protégé of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, have come together to start a conversation on healing grief. This remarkable book discusses the emotions that occur when a relationship leaves you brokenhearted, a marriage ends in divorce, or a loved one dies.
It will also foster awareness and compassion, providing you with the courage to face many other types of losses and challenges, such as saying good-bye to a beloved pet, losing your job, coming to terms with a life-threatening illness or disease, and much more. With a perfect blend of Louise’s teachings and affirmations on personal growth and transformation and David’s many years of working with those in grief, this empowering book will inspire an extraordinary new way of thinking, bringing hope and fresh insights into your life and even your current and future relationships. You will not only learn how to help heal your grief, but you will also discover that, yes,
you can heal your heart.
The I Ching Workbook (RL Wing)
An important, new interpretation of the I Ching, the 5,000-year-old Chinese book of wisdom, in a unique workbook format designed to help truth-seekers find new meaning and enlightenment in its ancient lore.
Designed for those actively exploring this ancient system in order to better understand their lives, The I Ching Workbook serves as a simple guide to the study and interpretation of the I Ching's advice. It provides a format for each of the 64 hexagrams that allows one to record the various responses of the I Ching.
Insights regarding health, relationships, business, politics, travel, career, social events, and inner development have been sought of the I Ching, or Book of Change, for thousands of years. With contiinued consultation of the I Ching concerning all apsects of your life, you will begin to preceive patterns to the I Ching's responses—and therefore, certain patterns to the changes in your life. R.L. Wing's new interpretation incorporates cultural and linguistic changes that will greatly enhance your understanding of our world's most ancient book. You can now begin to use this valuable tool to bring new meaning and insight into your life.
The Tao of Physics brought the mystical implications of subatomic physics to popular consciousness for the very first time. Many books have been written in the ensuing years about the connections between quantum theory and the ideas of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, but Fritjof Capra’s text serves as the foundation on which the others have been built—and its wisdom has stood the test of time. Its publication in more than twenty-three languages stands as testimony to its universal applicability and its enduring significance.
This special edition celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of this early Shambhala best seller that has gone on to become a true classic. It includes a fresh cover design and a new preface by the author reflecting on further discoveries and developments in the years since the book’s original publication.
“Physicists do not need mysticism,” Dr. Capra says, “and mystics do not need physics, but humanity needs both.” It is a message of timeless importance.
The key book in our quest for understanding of ourselves and our lives.
What differences are there in Eastern and Western thought regarding the nature of the human mind and our role in the cosmos? How can Zen and psychoanalysis help us in our struggle to realise our full potential as human beings and members of society?
Erich Fromm's seminal work among contemporary efforts to resolve our spiritual crisis results here in the great achievement of a language to reveal the contributions of Zen and psychoanalysis to our 'struggle to be fully born'. He shows how both can teach us in their different ways to live our lives rather than be 'lived by them'.
The book includes material from D.T. Suzuki, who explains with profound and gentle wisdom how Western materialism and intellectualism contrast with the Eastern concept of acceptance as the basis of well-being for the 'whole man'. His illuminating discussion of the unconscious and the self shed fresh light on our understanding of our own nature.
Combined with Richard De Martino's clear account of the psychology of Zen, these writings make up a work of brilliance and value that has much to help us in our quest for understanding.
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?
Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.
Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?
The ancient Stoics were deeply concerned with the virtue of equanimity. Equanimity or ‘inner peace’ is a prerequisite for being a happy and flourishing person according to Stoic philosophy. Therefore, it’s no surprise that ancient Stoic texts contain invaluable wisdom on how to calm the mind. The challenge, however, is to find and translate this wisdom in a way that’s simple and comprehensible in our modern context, while still maintaining its profundity. Einzelgänger studied the ancient Stoic texts and has been creating a (growing) collection of essays on applying Stoic philosophy in everyday life.Most of these essays have been published on YouTube in video format. Due to their popularity, Einzelgänger decided to revise a selection of these essays on Stoicism and inner peace, and release them in book format. Not only have all the texts been re-edited and improved, many of them have been extended, and two unreleased pieces about ‘loneliness’ and ‘guilt’ have been added to the collection. A focus on inner peace is more than relevant in these challenging and unpredictable times. Stoic philosophy can help us put things into perspective, let go of past events, worry less about the future, and improve our overall experience of life.
In The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author Ryan Holiday made ancient wisdom wildly popular with a new generation of leaders in sports, politics, and technology. In his new book, Stillness Is the Key, Holiday draws on timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy to show why slowing down is the secret weapon for those charging ahead.
All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness--to be steady while the world spins around you.
In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living. Drawing on a wide range of history's greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Seneca, Marcus Aurelius to Thich Nhat Hanh, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, he argues that stillness is not mere inactivity, but the doorway to self-mastery, discipline, and focus.
The world moves fast, but that doesn't mean we have to. In this timely guide to mindfulness, Haemin Sunim, a Buddhist monk born in Korea and educated in the United States, offers advice on everything from handling setbacks to dealing with relationships and loved ones, in a beautiful book combining his teachings with calming full-colour illustrations. Even as we speed toward what comes next, Haemin Sunim's messages of encouragement speak directly to the anxieties that have become part of modern life and remind us of the strength and joy that come from slowing down.
Overwhelmingly popular in his native Korea, Haemin Sunim is a spiritual leader whose teachings transcend religions and borders and resonate with people of all ages. With insight and compassion drawn from a life full of change, he shows, as millions have seen, he succeeds at encouraging all of us to notice that when you slow down, the world slows down with you.
Profound wisdom that will make you startlingly successful if you apply it
Do you feel that time is rushing by while you have accomplished only a fraction of what you are capable of? Is there an undercurrent of anxiety in your life that will not go away?
It is possible for you to reach orbits of achievement you never dreamed of and without any stress. It does not require hard work. It requires you to change your thinking. When you alter the dysfunctional models you hold, your experience of life improves immediately. Both success and tranquility can be yours.
In Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots, unconventional and highly successful coach Dr. Srikumar Rao distills and condenses valuable life lessons, from ancient masters, sacred writings, and his own experience, into quick-to-read, easily digestible chapters.
Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a God-realized being named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses, which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of our existence. The classic text of these 81 verses, called the Tao Te Ching or the Great Way, offers advice and guidance that is balanced, moral, spiritual, and always concerned with working for the good.
This is a work to be read slowly, one essay a day. As Wayne says, “This is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life, and the result will be that you’ll live in a new world aligned with nature. Writing this book changed me forever, too. I now live in accord with the natural world and feel the greatest sense of peace I’ve ever experienced. I’m so proud to present this interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and offer the same opportunity for change that it has brought me.”
Eckhart Tolle's message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment. And while this message may not seem stunningly original or fresh, Tolle's clear writing, supportive voice, and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever wondered what exactly "living in the now" means. Foremost, Tolle is a world-class teacher, able to explain complicated concepts in concrete language. More importantly, within a chapter of reading this book, readers are already holding the world in a different container--more conscious of how thoughts and emotions get in the way of their ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.
Tolle packs a lot of information and inspirational ideas into The Power of Now. (Topics include the source of Chi, enlightened relationships, creative use of the mind, impermanence, and the cycle of life.) Thankfully, he's added markers that symbolize "break time." This is when readers should close the book and mull over what they just read.
The book you need right now is finally here! From beloved spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer—author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Untethered Soul—this transformative and highly anticipated guide will be your compass on an exciting new journey toward self-realization and unconditional happiness. Now more than ever, we’re all looking to feel more joy, happiness, and deeper meaning in our lives. But are we looking in all the wrong places? When our sense of wholeness depends on things or people outside ourselves—whether it’s a coveted job, a new house, a lavish vacation, or even a new relationship—sooner or later we’re bound to feel unsatisfied. That’s why we must look inside for real freedom, love, and inspiration. But how do we embark on this inner journey?
Living Untethered is the book to reach for. At once profoundly transcendent and powerfully practical, it provides clear guidance for moving beyond the thoughts, feelings, and habits that keep you stuck—so you can heal the pain of the past and let your spirit soar. On each page, you’ll discover a deeper understanding of where your thoughts and emotions come from, and how they affect your natural energy flow. Finally, you’ll find freedom from the psychological scars, or samskaras, that block you and keep you from reaching your highest potential. It’s time to stop struggling and start experiencing. This miraculous book will show you how to put the spiritual teachings of Michael A. Singer into practice every day, and propel you toward a life of liberation, serenity, openness, and self-knowledge.
Isn’t it time you started Living Untethered?
Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture?
Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.
(Conversations on the Essence of Non-Duality, 1)
In this book, Rupert Spira distils the message of all the great religious and spiritual traditions into two essential truths: happiness is the very nature of our self or being, and we share our being with everyone and everything.
Drawing on numerous examples from his own experience, Spira demonstrates that to seek lasting happiness through objects, situations and relationships is destined for failure and disappointment, and skilfully guides the reader to recognise that we are already the happiness we seek.
This book is for anyone who yearns for lasting happiness and is open to the possibility that it is continuously available within ourselves, irrespective of our circumstances.
Could there be any greater discovery in life than to know that we are already that for which we long?
n this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk in the Vedic tradition to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Drawing on ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, Think Like a Monk reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. The lessons monks learn are profound but often abstract. Shetty transforms them into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve focus, improve relationships, identify our hidden abilities, increase self-discipline and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can - and should - think like a monk.
In The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra distills the essence of his teachings into seven simple, yet powerful principles that can easily be applied to create success in all areas of your life. Based on natural laws that govern all of creation, this book shatters the myth that success is the result of hard work, exacting plans, or driving ambition.
Instead, Chopra offers a life-altering perspective on the attainment of success: Once we understand our true nature and learn to live in harmony with natural law, a sense of well-being, good health, fulfilling relationships, energy and enthusiasm for life, and material abundance will spring forth easily and effortlessly.
Filled with timeless wisdom and practical steps you can apply right away, this is a book you will cherish for a lifetime, for within its pages are the secrets to making all your dreams come true.
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.
“Google engineer, Chade-Meng Tan’s book shows that to avoid certain kinds of results, you need to change the conditions that give rise to them. If you change the habitual patterns of your mind, you can change their resulting attitudes and emotions and find peace and inner happiness.” (—His Holiness the Dalai Lama)
“This is a book offering much good advice. I most appreciate Meng’s insight that expressing compassion for others brings happiness to oneself as well.” (—Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States)
“I applaud Chade-Meng for daring to undertake the writing of a book on “Emotional Intelligence,” within which lies the essence of knowing oneself. The practices he offers will help improve our lives and in the process lead to a world where greater peace and happiness is possible.” (—S.R. Nathan, Former President of Singapore)
“Combining timeless wisdom with modern science, Chade-Meng Tan has created an entertaining and practical guide to success and happiness.” (—Deepak Chopra)
Desiderata: Words for Life
Ehrmann's well-known inspirational work, written in 1927, offers cogent advice on how to live at peace with oneself. This edition is distinguished by Tauss's striking photographs, most of which show children and adults of different cultures. Each of the images captures the essence of the passage it accompanies. For instance, the opening sentence ("Go placidly/amid the noise and haste,/and remember what peace/there may be in silence") is matched with a scene of a deserted city street that brilliantly creates a sense of stillness. Lines on the timelessness of love ("Especially do not feign affection./Neither be cynical/about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment/it is as perennial as the grass") are accompanied by one photo that shows parents and children nestled in bed, and another of them engaged in a pillow fight. Perhaps the most memorable illustration shows a boy and a girl set against a galaxy of stars. This complements the life-affirming statement, "You/are/a child/of the/universe,/no less than the trees and the stars;/you have a right to be here." All of the photos are well composed and have a dreamy quality, suffused with a soft light. However, while the pictures have intergenerational appeal, the vocabulary employed and the philosophy expressed in the text are adult in nature.
One of the world's most influential living management thinkers, Charles Handy has year-after-year been listed alongside business gurus including Peter Drucker and Tom Peters in the prestigious Thinkers 50 list. His views on management -- and life -- have inspired and enlightened others for decades. Now, in Myself and Other More Important Matters, the bestselling author of books including The Age of Unreason shares his special brand of wisdom, giving readers uncommon insight into business and careers...as well as the choices we all have to make in our lives.
Handy draws on the lessons of his own experience to help readers move beyond the facts they learned in business school and reflect on their own individual management style. With the "philosophical elegance and eloquence" Warren Bennis has described as his trademark, Handy discusses how one should develop one’s career goals in line with personal values and sense of ethics. Handy entertainingly recounts what he’s discovered along his own international journey: from lessons his father taught him growing up in Ireland…to what he learned in Borneo in his days working for Royal Dutch Shell… to Italy, where he bought and fixed up an old house in Tuscany…all the way to America, where recent corporate scandals have shaken our understanding of what is ethical and acceptable.
Throughout the book, Handy asks us to look at the role of work in our life, and what we truly find fulfilling. It is hard to imagine a better or wiser guide to work -- and life’s -- big questions.
As an author, therapist and artist, Isa L Levy, shares an honest, detailed and thought provoking self-assessment of her life journey. The book is reflective in so many ways which invite the reader to engage more consciously with their own personal journey. Using clear and apt word painting, the words are poetic in that they evoke a reaction of all our senses. The book includes vibrant colour images of Isa's paintings as she comes into her own light, transforming the grey inner world of entrapment into colour. We hear the music Isa has created, we feel the gentle opening up within the lover's garden, and we can even taste the mother's force feeding!
This is a remarkable achievement which leads us to a deeper level of engagement with the text..., says a previewer of the book, Frances Sutherland.Isa wants to reveal how in identifying with the inner world of our critical, harsh and judgemental voices, our soul “dies but not quite". She unravels in this creative memoir the evolution of the lost soul, restored back to life. She takes us through her many evolutions of change and transformation: from actor, to artist then onto arts psychotherapist, while facing her own negative demons and feelings of unworthiness. In doing so she retrieves her “lost soul” and polishes the jewel in her crown, which lay hidden in the unplumbed depths of low self-confidence and poor self-esteem, submerged beneath a world of depression and anxiety.
Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing
After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story.
Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind.
In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Hector Garcia )
“Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” —Japanese proverb
According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world’s longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai—the place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect—means that each day is infused with meaning. It’s the reason we get up in the morning. It’s also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there’s no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they’ve found a real purpose in life—the happiness of always being busy.
In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds—one of the world’s Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and—their best-kept secret—how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn’t want to find happiness in every day?
Kaizen: One Small Step Can Change Your Life
A guide to incorporating the ancient Japanese practice of Kaizen into everyday life demonstrates how small changes can have great consequences, and how gradual, gentle steps can eventually lead to worthwhile goals.
It is not, as Smullyan himself notes, a book about Chinese philosophy, so don't buy it as an introduction to Taoism. Smullyan is not giving an exposition of Eastern religion or philosophy here, although he does include a helpful bibliography for anyone who wants to follow up on that topic. (In fact some of his best essays have at least marginally to do with Western religion.)
This book is a series of essays and reflections inspired by Chinese philosophy -- in particular, inspired by an American mathematical logician's reading of Chinese philosophy. And Smullyan is a delightfully witty and graceful writer, with a vivid sense of (for example) the foolishness of much modern "education," the meaning of "discipline," and the limits of abstract formal logic (which, incidentally, is not identical with "reason").
Not only that, but he is one of few recent writers to explore the "dialogue" as a form of philosophical exposition. One of his finest is in this volume: "Is God a Taoist?" (This one is guaranteed to annoy all the right people.)
The Tao may be silent, but Smullyan, thank goodness, is not. His deft logic, his light touch, and his genial humor will endear him to pretty much any reader, of any religious or philosophical orientation, who approaches the book with an active mind.
(And I do mean "any." I have known the occasional reader who takes Smullyan to be an enemy of religious "orthodoxy," but I frankly see nothing here that justifies that view. More likely somebody is just misunderstanding what "orthodoxy" really is.)
Very highly recommended.
The essentials of Theory U: Creating a Better Future
This book offers a concise, accessible guide to the key concepts and applications in Otto Scharmer's classic Theory U. Scharmer argues that our capacity to pay attention coshapes the world.
What prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is that we aren't fully aware of that interior condition from which our attention and actions originate. Scharmer calls this lack of awareness our blind spot. He illuminates the blind spot in leadership today and offers hands-on methods to help change makers overcome it through the process, principles, and practices of Theory U.
And he outlines a framework for updating the "operating systems" of our educational institutions, our economies, and our democracies. This book enables leaders and organizations in all industries and sectors to shift awareness, connect with the highest future possibilities, and strengthen the capacity to co-shape the future.
With a nod to Abraham Maslow and his theory of self-actualization, the Wilsons challenge readers to "thrive instead of survive," grow up emotionally and spiritually, and think in new ways. For them winning is not beating out others but avoiding the mindset of simply "playing not to lose." Presented effectively in low-key, straightforward fashion, this book is based on techniques Wilson's firm has developed and utilized in work with more than 500,000 persons.
Very highly recommended.
Srikumar Rao teaches a hugely popular course at both London and Columbia Business Schools. He helps his students define their personal ethics and goals, and how to reach them, and starts them on a journey that will last them a lifetime. Now, in this extraordinary book, Dr Rao's unique approach is available to a far wider audience. Using his own unconventional methods, including exercises and lessons adapted from many traditions, he explains how to: work out who you are, and where you are going; find out how you really view the world; discover the joy of effortless action; sharpen your ability to focus; and, discover true freedom and happiness. "Are You Ready to Succeed?" is in a different league altogether from most business books already on offer. If you too would like to be in another league, this fresh, accessible and groundbreaking guide to a meaningful and successful life is the one for you.
Though this authoritative examination of today's static corporate management systems reads like a business school treatise, it isn't the same-old thing. Hamel, a well-known business thinker and author (Leading the Revolution), advocates that dogma be rooted out and a new future be imagined and invented. To aid managers and leaders on this mission, Hamel offers case studies and measured analysis of management innovators like Google and W.L. Gore (makers of Gore-Tex), then lists lessons that can be drawn from them. He doesn't gloss over how difficult it will be to reinvent management, comparing the new and needed shift in thinking to Darwin's abandoning creationist traditions and physicists who had to look beyond Newton's clockwork laws to discover quantum mechanics. But the steps needed to make such a profound shift aren't clearly outlined here either. The book serves primarily as an invitation to shed age-old systems and processes and think differently. There's little humor and few punchy catchphrases—the book has less sparkle than Jeffrey Pfeffer's What Were They Thinking?—but its content will likely appeal to managers accustomed to b-school textbooks and tired of gimmicky business evangelism.
Anyone who has sat through a psychology course has seen Abraham H. Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a pyramid capped by the highest human need of all, the need for, what Maslow famously termed, self-actualization. Since his death in 1970, Maslow's voluminous writings have made him one of the most influential thinkers in counseling psychology. He is a revered father figure to the human potential movement. But few know him as a brilliantly insightful analyst of how to lead people and make organizations more productive. Maslow on Management should change that.
In 1962, Maslow spent the summer at an electronics factory that was one of the first to try giving workers a say in organizing production. He watched and kept a journal, later published under the intimidating title Eupsychian Management. The book, which had been long out of print, has been republished with extensive commentaries as Maslow on Management.
Some of Maslow on Management is, as Warren Bennis writes in the foreword, "hilariously innocent." Reflecting on the power of well-managed workplaces to unleash creativity, Maslow suggests that the U.S. economy would benefit "if we kept all the factories running at full blast and simply gave things away." Yet his deeper point--that good management leads to good psychological health--is startlingly advanced for 1962, when the business world was still widely thought of as nurturing nothing more than soulless conformity. He was surprisingly prescient, too, in warning that participatory management taken to excess becomes sloppy and weak. While encouraging open communication, an effective leader "should have the power and the ability to keep his mouth shut," Maslow writes. He advises that gentle, permissive management is fine if workers share democratic values, but if not, "break their backs immediately."
Full of rambling, half-finished thoughts and provocative speculations, Maslow on Management is no nine-step plan for building winning work teams. But anyone seriously interested in understanding management will find the book useful as a fascinating reflection of a brilliant mind thinking deeply about the nature and purpose of work
The Limits to Growth (LTG) is a 1972 report on the exponential economic and population growth with a finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the earth and human systems. The model was based on the work of Jay Forrester of MIT, as described in his book World Dynamics.
Commissioned by the Club of Rome, the findings of the study were first presented at international gatherings in Moscow and Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 1971.  The report's authors are Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III, representing a team of 17 researchers.
The report concludes that, without substantial changes in resource consumption, "the most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity". Although its methods and premises were heavily challenged on its publication, subsequent work to validate its forecasts continue to confirm that insufficient changes have been made since 1972 to significantly alter their nature.
Since its publication, some 30 million copies of the book in 30 languages have been purchased. It continues to generate debate and has been the subject of several subsequent publications.
Oxford economist E. F. Schumacher provides an enlightening study of our economic system and its purpose, challenging the current state of excessive consumption in our society. Offering a crucial message for the modern world struggling to balance economic growth with the human costs of globalisation, Small Is Beautiful puts forward the revolutionary yet viable case for building our economies around the needs of communities, not corporations.
‘One of the 100 most influential books published since World War II’ The Times Literary Supplement
Many managers understand that cultural differences affect the process of doing business, but many underestimate by just how much. This book aims to dispel the idea that there is only one way to manager and encourages readers to get to know their own culture before doing business with others. The author explores the cultural extremes and the incomprehension that can arise when doing business across cultures - even when people are working for the same company. The book explains that there are five key factors or orientations that affect how people all deal with each other, do business and manage. The goal is the "transnational organization" - one in which the company can take from each country what is best, and for those who are sensitive to these differences, the opportunities are enormous. With many practical examples and case studies, this book brings insights to the dilemma of reconciling corporate consistency with local conditions as business life rapidly internationalizes. In 1991 Fons Trompenaars was awarded the International Professional Practice Area Research Award by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).
Egal wie erwachsen oder erfolgreich wir sind – wir alle tragen versteckte, kindliche Anteile in uns. Oft bricht die Vergangenheit in unsere Gegenwart ein und beeinflusst unser Denken und Handeln stärker als vermutet: So verbirgt sich hinter der ständigen Suche nach Anerkennung oft das unsichere, hinter aufbrausender Ungeduld das wütende und hinter schwermütigen Gedanken das traurige Kind. In diesem GU-Ratgeber des erfahrenen Psychotherapeuten Dr. Matthias Hammer können Sie zunächst mit einem Selbsttest Ihre verborgenen Kind-Anteile entdecken. Sie erfahren, warum es Ihnen schadet, diese zu verleugnen oder zu verdrängen. Anschließend erkennen Sie mit einer gelungenen Mischung aus psychologischem Fachwissen, vielen Fallgeschichten aus dem Praxisalltag und zahlreichen Übungen, wie Sie sich mit Ihrem inneren Kind aussöhnen, es akzeptieren und die dahinter verborgenen Bedürfnisse verstehen können. Lösen Sie Ihre innere Blockaden auf und nehmen Sie den Schlüssel für mehr Selbstbewusstsein, Lebensfreude und harmonische Beziehungen selbst in die Hand.