Seven Books That Are All About Improving Yourself
There are myriad ways in which we seek to improve ourselves; be it productivity, social interactions, or managing the pressures and responsibilities of life. While self improvement must begin with the desire to achieve it, here are seven books that may help you along the way.
The Quiet Burn: The Ambitious Woman's Guide to Recognizing and Preventing Burnout – Lynn Blades
Having spent decades advising a diverse group of clients, primarily women, who are fatigued from being undervalued, unheard, and burdened with excessive stress – Lynn Blades offers her expertise to help women recognise and prevent burnout, and empower them to reclaim their lives. Including practical tools and insights, the book contains advice on how to live a fulfilling life, practice self-respect, effectively communicate needs, and recognise the peril of ignoring personal well-being. If you strive to employ self-care in a healthy, sustainable, guilt-free way, and silence your self-doubt, this book may be the one you need.
Atomic Habits – James Clear
James Clear outlines how the adoption of 'atomic habits' – small, but consistent changes – can reap large and lasting rewards. The book encourages us to create more identity-focused habits, rather than overemphasising results-based ones. Through Clear's 'Four Laws of Behaviour Change,' he addresses the creation of good habits, and ridding yourself of bad ones.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert
Using her own experience and creative processes, Elizabeth Gilbert explores the nature of inspiration, and how letting go of our fears, and embracing our curiosity can enable us to live our most creative lives. The book combines elements of spirituality, and mindful pragmatism in order to direct the reader towards a more fulfilling creative process in whatever discipline, pastime, or general outlook that we are seeking.
The Gifts of Imperfection – Brené Brown
Brené Brown brings us a guide to embracing our true selves, unencumbered by societal expectations. Using personal insights and research, Brené speaks about "wholehearted living," a way of experiencing and engaging with life from a foundation of self-worth; cultivating courage, compassion, and connection.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma – Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
With reference to years of clinical research, this book discusses the physical and mental impact that trauma can have on us, and how it can reshape our thought processes, and sense of control. The book speaks of the impact of trauma, and how it manifests physically, cognitively, and effects our relationships, then offers various methods of healing, and emphasises that recovery is possible once we can fully process the trauma.
How We Learn: The New Science of Education and the Brain – Stanislas Dehaene
This science-based dive into the process of learning, and how the brain is wired to naturally do so is a fascinating and eye-opening study of how we intake, engage with, and retain new information. Dehaene outlines four key pillars of learning: attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation; and argues that in order to maximise the efficacy of education, it should be designed around how our brains are wired to learn.
The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
Pillared on four agreements with one's self, this book provides a practical guide for personal growth and freedom by identifying the source of the beliefs and practices that limit us. The principles themselves seem somewhat simple: be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best. Yet, the application of them in everyday life, as explained by Don Miguel Ruiz, can be more complex, and have real life affirming benefits.
What books for self-improvement would you recommend? Let us know in the comments below!
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Harvard Business Review
2 days ago
- Harvard Business Review
Is Your Flexible Schedule Burning You Out?
On paper, Sean was doing well. Early on in his career, he had put in an immense amount of effort into his work and advanced to the level of firm partner. Now as one of the top leaders in his organization, he had more freedom to set his hours and had chosen to use that flexibility for his wife and children. For Sean that meant dropping off the kids at daycare in the morning, trying to be done by 4 PM to have time with them before dinner, and starting work a few hours late one morning a week so that he could watch them attend their swim class. But leveraging that flexibility for his family while also striving for excel in his career meant that he was logging back onto his computer after everyone else went to sleep and trying to finish up work at midnight. Then he set his alarm for 4:30 AM in an attempt to exercise before the kids woke up. (The workout rarely won out over the snooze button.) Sean wanted to be an amazing husband and father, and a successful partner at the firm, all while not ruining his health in the process through sleep deprivation and lack of exercise. But even though Sean spent a lot of time with his family, he rarely felt fully present because he always felt behind at work. What did this lead to? Burnout. Can you relate? Sometimes the blessing of a flexible schedule can turn into what feels like a curse when you don't have enough time during normal work hours to get your job done. You're left trying to do it all at odd hours, making you feel maxed out. But not using flex time feels like a missed opportunity, especially as leaders are often told to model using the benefits that employees are offered. So what to do? As a time management coach for over 16 years, I've found that a fully flexible schedule can be a recipe for burnout where you feel like you're not measuring up anywhere. It can also lead to feeling constantly distracted because you're never quite sure if you're doing the right thing at the right time. And it can cause you to feel guilty for taking time to relax because you always feel like you should be putting in more hours somewhere. But there are ways to be more strategic with your time and make flexibility work for you. Here are the steps you can take to restore your work and life and show up fully present in both areas. Define What's Enough Not having clear, realistic standards for what's 'enough' in the different areas of your life can set you up to feel like a failure. After we objectively evaluated his schedule and goals, Sean realized that he needed to modify his perception of what was enough in terms of time with his family. That meant giving himself permission to work until 5 pm and to skip the morning swim classes, so that he could start work at 7:30 AM instead of 9:30 AM those mornings. If he traveled and was away from his family, he did want to use his flexibility to end early on a Friday. But most days, Sean realized that giving himself more time to work during the day served him and his family best. Also, between giving himself permission to work more during standard office hours and finding ways for him to be more strategic with that time, Sean decided that he was not working past 10 pm unless it was an absolute emergency. This gave him the ability to sleep and consistently get up for his early morning workout. To define what's enough in your life, set more standard work hours for yourself or have a target number of hours that you work per week. Then determine what the most important personal time investments are for you, such as dinner with your significant other or going to your kids' games or shows, as well as those commitments you're OK skipping, like standard practices or lessons. Clarify Where You Add the Most Value Tim came to me as an executive, husband, and father of a large, blended family. He was always feeling guilty—guilty when he was working and not with his family, and guilty when he was with his family and not working. I worked with Tim on defining what was enough in different parts of his schedule, as I did with Sean—but we took it a step further. To actually compress his work hours to a less flexible timeframe, he needed to radically clarify where he added the most value. As a senior leader, he had to ensure that he was producing results for his corporation. Although he had flexibility with his work hours, Tim found that almost all of his scheduled workday was spent in back-to-back meetings, which forced him to work on nights and weekends to get his work done as an independent contributor. To free up time, we did a meeting audit, where we took a look at the meetings he was accepting to determine which were really necessary to attend. After this assessment, he started to reduce how many meetings he went to by declining them, delegating them to other team members, emailing his thoughts, or attending only the decision-making part of the meetings and leaving once the execution part began. This allowed Tim to open up hours during the day to focus on strategic initiatives, like a roadmap for an organization-wide effort, as well as meeting with other executive stakeholders to get alignment on that plan. Tim performed at a higher level and received a promotion by ensuring that when he did work, he was doing so on the most valuable use of his time. Best of all—he stopped feeling guilty and had time back in the evening and on weekends to spend with his family. As a senior leader, there will always be more tasks that people want you to do than you can get done. To succeed, decide on where you provide the highest value in terms of the organization's goals. Focus on those areas and then eliminate as many of the activities as possible that fall outside that scope. Make People Unhappy in the Short Term When Sarah came to me as a director in an international organization, she had the flexibility to work from home, to take her kids to school, and to touch base with friends and family during the day. But that flexibility made her feel obligated to accept calls with international colleagues late at night when she really just wanted to spend time relaxing with her husband after her kids had gone to bed. Sarah realized that by trying to make everyone happy in the short term she was making herself really unhappy. Like Sean and Tim, Sarah started by defining what was enough in terms of work hours and where she added the most value. Then she realized that she needed to take another step: Set boundaries. That meant not touching base with friends and family during the day unless it was absolutely necessary. It also meant having international colleagues schedule meetings at a time that worked better for her. If a time did fall in a less convenient time (and it was non-urgent), she requested those meetings to be scheduled up to a month in advance. Sarah no longer gave everyone immediate gratification in terms of having access to her time. But by being less flexible, she showed up as present, happy, clear-minded, and helpful versus distracted, stressed, and sometimes even annoyed in her interactions. This benefited those around her and massively decreased feelings of burnout. Be Really On; Be Really Off Henry had a very successful career as the senior partner in a 400-person law firm and had senior leadership responsibilities in two other enterprises. He also had a family he cherished with a wife and two young children. On the surface, he had it all, taking extra time to be with his wife and children in the morning and being home most nights and weekends. But he always had one eye on his mobile phone so he could be available—just in case. Making himself always on call meant that he never felt fully at rest. Through our work, Henry realized that he wanted to be more present at work—fully in that space and not as engaged with personal items in that time, even when he was working from home. But he also wanted to be much more present with his family. He made it a rule that when it was time to be with his wife and kids that he needed to leave his mobile phone in a basket on silent. He wasn't allowed to look at it until after his kids were in bed. This shift from full availability and flexibility in communication to a more defined line of 'on' and 'off' helped Henry to feel happier and more refreshed on a daily and weekly basis. He also gave himself permission to go on vacation and not check in on work at all, which was a first for him in years. If you find yourself tethered to your phone or smart watch, create rules about when you can officially turn off. It could be that from when you log off before dinner until your kids go down to bed that you're disconnected with work. Or you have 'no email' weekends, where you don't check your work inbox and only emergencies can reach you via text. The exact times and rules can vary, but the important point is that you create a space where you and the people around you know that they have your full attention. . . . As a leader, there will be times when a truly urgent situation calls for being available to work after hours. There will also be times when you can and want to flex for your personal priorities. But by being more strategic and proactive with your schedule, you can increase your confidence that you're investing your time in alignment with your priorities and reduce your probability of burnout.
Medscape
03-06-2025
- Medscape
The Art of Sharing: Telling Stories With Your Patients
How much of yourself do you share with your patients and their parents? Your colleagues? Your partners? I'm not talking about time and energy. I'm asking about the stories you tell. I recently read an interview with the two physician authors who have just published a book titled Becoming a Better Physician . The subtitle of the book is 'Insightful and Inspirational Stories from Attending Physicians, Residents and Medical Students.' In the interview in Harvard Medicine, the authors, Mark Goldstein, MD, and Kathy May Tran, MD, say that 'openness was one of the primary goals when working on the book.' They observe that showing one's vulnerability is often interpreted as a sign of weakness, particularly among members of the medical profession. William Wilkoff, MD Prompted by the general increase in burnout, the authors are hoping that by sharing their stories and the stories of other health professionals, more physicians will feel comfortable telling their stories and benefiting from the catharsis that often follows the telling. Tran says she sees one of our roles as physicians as being storytellers. We elicit and listen to the stories of our patients, and then in turn take what we have learned about the patient using our knowledge and other diagnostic tools to construct a story which we then tell — but we are very reluctant to tell our own stories. I completely agree with the authors about the cathartic benefits of storytelling, and I hope their book will encourage more physicians to tell their stories at every stage of their professional trajectories. However, the barriers to sharing are real and in some cases self-imposed. I'm told that before my time, in many communities, physicians traditionally took Wednesday afternoons off and played golf. I'm not sure if this is true, but I suspect that there were more opportunities back then for physicians to rub elbows and swap stories than there are now in the fast-paced, time-limited world of 21st century medicine. Although there is currently a strong emphasis on care delivery by 'the team,' and some of it is out of necessity, the practice of primary care pediatrics is still a stream of one-on-one encounters between the patient and the physician. Ironically, in an environment populated with scores of assistants and care seekers, the physician can often feel lonely. Reading the stories of others who have walked the same walk can be enlightening and soothing, but it is really the process of sharing one's own story that can be the most therapeutic. Not everyone has the time, skill, or contacts that allow them to share their stories with a broader audience. Historically, keeping a diary provided a vehicle for expression; it can still have its benefits, but merely expressing yourself pales in comparison to the cathartic value of sharing your experience with a fellow traveler. I was fortunate to have found someone to share my stories with while I was in medical school. That good fortune continues to be a reminder to me that we should be putting more emphasis on the topic of relationship-building as we prepare students for the challenges they may face on the path to a rewarding career in medicine.
Medscape
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ED Work Environment Discord Affects Patient Outcomes
In a recent study, emergency nurses and physicians in approximately half of the study hospitals disagreed on the quality of the work environment. An environment rated "unfavorable" by both groups was significantly associated with worse clinician and patient outcomes. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional analysis included emergency department (ED) clinicians (1190 nurses and 414 physicians) from 47 Magnet hospitals who completed the 2021 US Clinician Wellbeing Study. Researchers classified hospitals into profiles according to the level of agreement between nurses and physicians regarding the hospital work environment. Researchers assessed clinician job outcomes (burnout, job dissatisfaction, and intent to leave), patient safety, and quality-of-care metrics. TAKEAWAY: Hospital profiles revealed three distinct patterns: "Agree, Unfavorable Environment" (10 hospitals); "Agree, Favorable Environment" (15 hospitals); and "Disagree, Less Favorable Environment Among Nurses" (22 hospitals). Compared with hospitals where clinicians agreed on a favorable environment, hospitals where clinicians agreed on an unfavorable environment had significantly higher rates of burnout (β, 25.8), job dissatisfaction (β, 32.5), intent to leave (β, 31.7), and unfavorable patient safety grades (β, 29.1), after adjustment for hospital characteristics ( P < .001 for all). < .001 for all). Hospitals where nurses rated the environment less favorably than physicians demonstrated increased burnout (β, 15.4; P < .001) and poorer patient safety grades (β, 11.9; P < .01), after adjustment for hospital characteristics. < .001) and poorer patient safety grades (β, 11.9; < .01), after adjustment for hospital characteristics. Compared with physicians in hospitals with an "Agree, Favorable" profile, those in hospitals rated as having an "Unfavorable" work environment showed significantly higher rates for all outcomes except burnout and patient-care quality. Similarly, nurses in hospitals with a "Disagree, Less Favorable Among Nurses" profile experienced higher rates across all job-related and patient-care outcomes. IN PRACTICE: "This cross-sectional study found that ED nurses and physicians in close to half of study hospitals disagreed on the quality of their work environment. Clinician job and patient outcomes were worse when both clinicians rated their work environment unfavorably and when nurses only reported their work environments as unfavorable," the authors wrote. "The implication of these findings is that, if two essential partners in emergency care within the same institution do not agree on the deficiencies in ED work environments, significant interdisciplinary research is needed to bridge these gaps and disparate experiences," they added. SOURCE: The study was led by Jane Muir, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. It was published online on May 16, 2025, in BMC Health Services Research . LIMITATIONS: The study included only Magnet hospitals, which are known for favorable work environments and good physician-nurse collaboration, suggesting the findings may have underestimated the variation in clinician work environment agreement across all hospitals. The cross-sectional design prevented causal inference, and the sample had more nurses than physicians. DISCLOSURES: The research was funded by the Clinician Well-being Study Consortium and the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, it was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Clinician Scholars Program, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation/Emergency Nurses Association Foundation. The authors reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.
