This is not a “here’s how to become a leader, you young would-be Machiavelli”; it’s more a “so you’re in a leadership role; now what?” book. The book’s subtitle describes well its contents: “25 Ingredients For Creating Value & Empowering Others”

The book is written with the voice of experience, but without the ego-driven padding that accompanies many such books. Especially: any anecdotal illustrations are short and to-the-point, no chapter-long diversions here.

Which we love!

Equally helpful is where the author does spend a little more time and energy: on the “down to brass tacks” of how exactly to do various things.

In short: if instead of a lofty-minded book of vague idealized notions selling a pipedream, you’d rather have a manual of how to actually be a good leader when it comes down to it, this is the book for you.

Pick Up The Recipe For Empowered Leadership On Amazon Today!

Mindfulness is one of the few practices to make its way from religion (in this case, Buddhism) into hard science. We’ve written before about its many evidence-based benefits, and many national health information outlets recommend it. So, what does this book have to add?

Thích Nhất Hạnh spent most of his 95 years devoted to the practice and teaching of mindfulness and compassion. In this book, the focus is on bringing mindfulness off the meditation mat and into general life.

After all, what if we could extend that “unflappability” into situations that pressure and antagonize us? That would be some superpower!

The author offers techniques to do just that, simple exercises to transform negative emotions, and to make us more likely to remember to do so.

After all, “in the heat of the moment” is rarely when many of us are at our best, this book gives way to allow those moments themselves to serve as immediate triggers to be our best.

The title “Peace Is Every Step” is not a random collection of words; the goal of this book is to enable to reader to indeed carry peace with us as we go.

Not just “peace is always available to us”, but if we do it right: “we have now arranged for our own peace to automatically step in and help us when we need it most”.

Bottom line: if you’d like to practice mindfulness, or practice it more consistently, this book offers some powerful tools.

Click here to check out Peace Is Every Step, and carry yours with you!

We all know that a pessimistic outlook is self-defeating… And yet, toxic positivity can also be a set-up for failure! At some point, reckless faith in the kindly nature of the universe will get crushed, badly. Sometimes that point is a low point in life… sometimes it’s six times a day. But one thing’s for sure: we can’t “just decide everything will go great!” because the world just doesn’t work that way.

That’s where Trevor Moawad comes in. “Getting to neutral” is not a popular selling point. Everyone wants joy, abundance, and high after high. And neutrality itself is often associated with boredom and soullessness. But, Moawad argues, it doesn’t have to be that way.

This book’s goal—which it accomplishes well—is to provide a framework for being a genuine realist. What does that mean?

“I’m not a pessimist; I’m a realist” – every pessimist ever.

^Not that. That’s not what it means. What it means instead is:

1. Hope for the best
2. Prepare for the worst
3. Adapt as you go

…taking care to use past experiences to inform future decisions, but without falling into the trap of thinking that because something happened a certain way before, it always will in the future.

To be rational, in short. Consciously and actively rational.

Feel the highs! Feel the lows! But keep your baseline when actually making decisions.

Bottom line: this book is as much an antidote to pessimism and self-defeat, as it is to reckless optimism and resultant fragility. Highly recommendable.

Click here to check out “Getting to Neutral” and start creating your best, most reason-based life!

PS: in this book, Moawad draws heavily from his own experiences of battling adversity in the form of cancer—of which he died, before this book’s publication. A poignant reminder that he was right: we won’t always get the most positive outcome of any given situation, so what matters the most is making the best use of the time we have.