Catalysts for change: 5 books to help inspire you in 2024

Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes

Let’s face it, the past few years have offered a sharp reminder that none of us can ever really predict the future and change is inevitable. But does that mean that we can’t plan ahead? Not necessarily, proposes bestselling author Morgan Housel in his latest book, Same as Ever, which explores some of the things that don’t change over time.

Offering a confident stream of personal anecdotes, examples from history, and snippets from his own research and interviews, Housel’s book is a straightforward read that nonetheless contains plenty of thought-provoking observations that you can extract and examine in the context of your own life. We’re not just talking ‘death and taxes’ here, but broader observations on how fundamental human behaviours (and a few other things) are actually remarkably consistent, and how understanding that can help to ground us and face change from a position of greater stability.

In our ever-connected world, we’re constantly prompted to focus on things that put us into crisis mode when it’s often those very same things that we have little control over. Not exactly helpful.

On the other hand, focusing on the things that don’t change so much can provide better opportunities to think, plan and act in ways that will benefit us in the future.

As you look ahead to 2024, Same as Ever is a great book to start your winter reading with, to remind you that not everything is as chaotic as it seems so you can mentally put yourself back in the driving seat of your life before deciding where to go next.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

I can’t think of a single personal development book that’s been more highly recommended to me or appeared on more lists of recommendations than this classic by Stephen R Covey. And with good reason.

Covey is a gifted and principled communicator. His book contains some great thoughts about how to be an effective human being, not just at work, but in your habits and interactions with others – be they colleagues or family members, friends, business partners or romantic partners.

The book’s core lessons are about improving your ability to be proactive in all areas of your life, rather than being reactive to external circumstances. Covey’s work also stands out because it not only emphasises the development of skills and leadership qualities, but advocates strategies to help you better integrate ethics and character development into your daily life – which are all-too-often overlooked as fundamental levers for lasting change.

We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere

While this book by Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel is primarily written for women, its core premise is about working with others to improve the world around you, instead of trying to change everything by yourself. In some ways, it’s a natural complement to the journey from dependence, to independence, to interdependence that is among the valuable lessons highlighted in Covey’s book.

The We manifesto begins with four essential practices that underpin Anderson and Nadel’s approach (gratitude, gentleness, responsibility and meditation) before transitioning into an exploration of their nine core principles (honesty, acceptance, courage, trust, humility, peace, love, joy and kindness). Designed to be practical, there are integration exercises and affirmations at the end of each chapter to help you synthesise, absorb and apply the content to your own life. They’ve even put together a revision sheet at the end for you to have to hand whenever you need a quick refresher (but don’t cheat!).

As each chapter unfolds, the authors candidly share their own struggles and experiences, articulating not just their advice, but their own vulnerabilities and how or why a particular approach worked to help address them. Far from presenting a lofty voice of infallible wisdom, their suggestions come from a very real place of having tried and tested many techniques that they’ve distilled into honest recommendations to help women lead better lives.

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

While many personal development books focus on lessons from the business world, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander instead draw on their combined expertise in music, the arts and psychology to invite you to reframe some of the challenges you face in life, unblocking some of the obstacles that prevent you from solving them. The Zanders encourage open-mindedness, overcoming assumptions so that you can more effectively work with others to create a positive outcome, even – and sometimes especially – if that means taking an unconventional approach.

Their guidance blends anecdotes, principles and discussions to prompt you to think deeply about how you can act with greater agency in situations which might otherwise seem hopeless, use your creativity to broaden the number of possibilities you see in front of you, learn to negotiate difficulties with ease, and strengthen relationships for a more fulfilling life.

The Art of Possibility is a gem of a book that deftly weaves together observations on creativity, leadership, and how to unlock potential in yourself and others across different aspects of life.

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

Part memoir, part guide, Josh Waitzkin’s book explores the role that our approach to learning plays in achieving our goals. Drawing on his experiences as both a world-class chess player and Tai Chi Chuan competitor, Waitzkin deconstructs lessons from these and other disciplines to share commonalities that are essential to learning and mastery.

His insights are delivered through a combination of autobiographical narrative and observations on how to develop a mindset of continuous improvement. Waitzkin particularly emphasises adaptability, resilience and focusing on the learning process instead of its outcomes as cornerstones to acquiring new skills and improving your performance.

This is a great read for anyone seeking to better understand some of the mental and emotional processes that lie behind mastering skills and achieving excellence in many domains. What particularly sets it apart are Waitzkin’s reflections on some of the incentives and experiences that motivated him to learn as a child – his exposure to conventional and unconventional mentors, as well as other things that inspired his lifelong commitment to learning. This may be of particular interest to parents, guardians and teachers seeking to support younger people as they navigate their own learning journeys along both traditional and non-traditional paths.