4 Must-Read Books to Help You Prepare for 2021

First, let me confess to you that I no longer read that many books as I used to. I just read a bunch of articles here in Medium. I know I have to start again soon because I feel like I’m not learning as much anymore.

However, in my early 20s, I used to read lots of books about personal growth and they have helped me shape who I am today. By no means, I get my life together now or anything like that but I can imagine going through my twenties without reading them would be really tough.

If you are currently feeling stuck and somehow unmotivated, then try to grab one of this book or if you don’t like reading, there are tons of audiobooks and people who happily summarized it for you on Youtube.

1. Choose Yourself by James Altucher

This is the first ‘motivation’ book I read back in 2016. I was in a really bad place at the time. I remember I had this huge battle inside me whether I should follow my mother’s advice or choose what feels right to me. So what did I do?

I went to quora and bumped into somebody’s comment about this book and his podcast. I’ve never read any books that fast before and ended up digging all of James Altucher’s best works.

That decision to choose my own take on the situation ended up being one of the best things that ever happened in my early 20s. Although on the other hand, it made my communication with my mother stopped for a couple of months. I couldn’t imagine saying ‘yes’ to whatever other people say and being miserable.

Not that, that book actually taught me how to say ‘no’ to something that I’m not really into. It used to be my big problem and just throwing a ‘yes’ to whatever projects/events so that people can still like me.

I’m 100% you can relate to this. How many times in a month you’d want to say ‘no’ but because of certain reasons (which mostly because you are a people pleaser type of person), you ended up saying ‘yes’ and regretting it along the way.

In this book, James gives practical advice on how to keep prioritizing your life especially when it comes to take big decisions in life. It sounds easier when we heard people saying; ‘just choose yourself’ but it’s a lot harder in real life. That’s why I highly recommend reading this book at least once.

2. You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero

When you are in the low low, it doesn’t take much for you to lose your confidence. No seriously. Even more, your hopes that things are getting better will decrease fast enough. That’s why taking an action like picking up self-help books as this one would tremendously help you back in track.

Jen’s story was the main thing that hooked me. If Jen who was in her 40s still has the courage to make her life better; both financially and mentally, then I have no excuses not to. That’s what I kept saying to myself even ’til this day when I feel so down.

I love it that this book has so many powerful quotes too. So if you are like me who needs a constant reminder, you can write them down and put them in your wall room or make it as your wallpaper — whatever works for you.

3. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

How many times you feel like other people’s opinions stressed you out instead? Trust me it’s not worth it, unless if they helped you grow.

Mark in his book says a lot about how shifting your mindset around this will help you so much in the long run. His best tip so far that’s also my favorite is this; if it’s not a ‘Fuck YES’ then it’s a ‘NO’.

I used to give so many fucks about what other people think of me and that’s pretty messed me up because it affected me on how I decided something in life. And also the fact that I rarely took projects just because I’m so overly excited about it, but thought that if I didn’t they will think I’m somehow useless or something.

I remember one time where a friend of mine reached out proposing this idea to build a startup business with me in charge of the social media marketing side. Though I clearly wasn’t into it because the idea just doesn’t excite me and I didn’t have that ‘HELL YES!’ moment on that day, I still ended up saying ‘yes’ and you might guess what happened next… yup, it didn’t work out. From that experience, I make a conscious effort to listen to my gut more and not waste anyone’s time by saying ‘yes’ to something I’m not that into.

Obviously, it’s easier said than done. Just like any other journey in our lives, change is hard and takes time but in order to live your best life you need to have that ability to put yourself first otherwise, you’ll get drowned in other people’s expectations.

4. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

My partner introduced me to this book several years ago. I’m not sure it took me quite a while to grasp the messages from it.

Then one day I had the urge to re-read it again at my work and at the same time, I wasn’t in a really good place mentally. So something just clicked and I’ll remember the message ever since.

Isn’t that funny sometimes that one of the hardest things to do for us humans is to be present. It takes massive efforts every day to bring our mind back to the present time and realize that we could experience life better when are present, rather than focusing too much on the next goals and next goals and next goals…

This book also successfully changed my mindset that now every time I feel so overwhelmed (those random times where several problems show up at your door all at once), I remind myself that at the exact moment my life is all good. I’d sit down and repeat that in my head; to live your best life, you have to be present.

Trust me if you do that long enough, you’ll gain this confidence within you that things are just gonna be okay and it releases the stress and makes you less anxious.

Those are the main books that close to my heart because they indeed gave a huge impact on how I see my life today and bring back my confidence that one day I’ll be able to reach my goals.

I noticed it’s so easy to lose hope when things are difficult, let alone have the motivation to live your life to the fullest.

However, these books can be a great tool for you; to give you hopes again, to make you feel like you aren’t alone, to inspire you with their success story, and more importantly, to make you believe that there’s always a way out, no matter how complicated or hard your life seems.

This story originally appeared on Medium.