My 5 Favorite Non-Business Books that Can Make a Significant Difference for Your Business and Life

January 22, 2019
Category: Be a Highly Effective Owner,Business Tips,Live a Happy, Balanced Life

As a business coach, I have a lot of business books on my bookshelf and I’m always buying more that have good reviews or that my clients recommend. I have a special shelf within grabbing distance for my “go to” books – the ones that I refer to regularly and recommend to my clients.

And on that “go to” bookshelf there are a handful of non-business books that I often recommend because, even though they aren’t written for business owners like you, they have important lessons that can make a significant difference in your business and your life.

Here are my five favorites:

Parent Effectiveness Training by Tom Gordon

I first read Parent Effectiveness Training a while ago when my kids were young. It revolutionized my parenting and, I think, set me on the road to being a coach. Through Parent Effectiveness Training, I learned how to help my kids take personal responsibility for solving their own problems (and accepting the consequences of their decisions) instead of me taking them over. Don’t you want to learn that too? I also learned other great skills like active listening and how to ask useful questions to get to someone’s real needs. Great skills for a parent, coach or owner! Sound like something that you could use?

What I learned from Parent Effectiveness Training works with grownups as well as it works with kids. I re-read this book again in 2017 and I had forgotten how great it is! I continually use it as the basis for coaching my clients on how to help their teams take responsibility for their actions. There is also a business version of this book called Leader Effectiveness Training, but I don’t think that it is quite as good.

8-Minute Meditation by Victor Davich

I’m not ADD, but I do have trouble focusing and staying on task. My brain just jumps from thing to thing and my focus and attention follows. Do you struggle with this too? Most owners that I talk to do, so don’t feel bad!

I used to think that it was just the way that I’m wired and that there was nothing I could do about it. But I was wrong. Through the 8-Minute Meditation book I learned how let random thoughts go so I can keep focused in this world full of distractions and bright-shiny objects. There are 8 techniques in all. If you’re interested in trying meditation, this book makes it easy by giving one new technique a week you do for 8 minutes each day. If you want to learn to focus and get more done, this book is for you. Your brain and attention span will be grateful to you for giving it a try!

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

The Big Leap is a book about how to take our lives to the next level of happiness and fulfillment. I want that, don’t you?

The main idea in the book is that we all have an unconscious “happiness thermostat” that is set at a certain level based on learning from when we were young. Each time our happiness rises above our unconscious happiness thermostat setting, we do things to knock ourselves down. They call this “the upper limit problem” You’ve probably experienced situations where you’re feeling happy as you’ve ever felt, then either your guilt or something bad happens that knocks you down a peg. I know that I have!

The reason that I like The Big Leap so much is that it clearly uncovers the many unconscious ways that people “upper limit” themselves, so that I could easily identify which ones I do to myself. The book also shows how to raise your happiness thermostat, by eliminating the unconscious blocks to happiness and by doing more of the things that you’re great at and love to do. It has made a big difference for me!

Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes by David Straker.

It’s no secret among people who know me that I have a fetish for Post-it notes. I do so many things with them!

The Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes book is where I first learned how to use Post-it Notes as a tool to help me think! It’s a short, 12-chapter, 149-page paperback filled with pictures and examples of how to use these sticky wonders to organize your thoughts, solve problems and make better decisions. I use the techniques in this book all the time at home, and in my work and with my clients. Powerful stuff!

Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson

Improv Wisdom was written by a retired professor at Stanford University who, for years, taught a class on the life lessons of improve comedy to Stanford students. It was one of the favorite courses there.

Improv Wisdom shows how to apply the rules of improvisational theater and improv comedy to your life. Let’s face it, we’re constantly improvising from the moment we get up and decide what we want for breakfast and throughout our day at work and at home. The wisdom in how improvers approach their craft that is distilled down in this book (such as “say yes, start anywhere and make mistakes) will make you a better parent, spouse, owner, boss, and will help you enjoy your life more every day.

Really short, with great food for thought. One of my absolute favorites!
Pick up one (or all) of these books! You’ll be glad you did! I guarantee that they’ll help you stretch your mind, improve your business and improve your life! Not a bad investment of a few bucks and a few hours of your time!

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