Books like Mind Over Money

This isn’t a book about addiction, but it had a massive impact on the way I approached recovery.

James Clear believes changing your life doesn’t happen with one huge decision, but through the small choices you make every day. Getting sober was one big decision for me, but staying sober meant completely changing my routines and building habits that supported the person I wanted to become.

Working with my life coach, journalling, surfing, training, and taking time to sit with my thoughts might seem like small things on their own, but together they helped me rebuild my life. This book taught me to stop relying on motivation and start creating a routine that made it easier to keep moving forward even on days when I didn’t feel like it.

This book helped me understand more about the causes of bad decisions and how to overcome them, which was important for the work I was doing on structured team problem-solving.

I especially liked the focus on framing problems well, which contributed to the recent Harvard Business Review article I wrote with a colleague on approaches to reframing problems. I also gained more insight into common decision traps and how to avoid them, which was helpful in my work with leaders taking on challenging new roles. 

I love John Leland’s book because he shares his own experiences of personal change during the year he spent interviewing 6 Elders in New York City. I also enjoyed learning how people managed to survive and flourish in the midst of hardship, emotional and physical struggle, and external events they could not control.

The book is so well written that I felt as if I were in the room with Leland, listening to hard-won wisdom wrought from the elders’ lifetimes of experience. And I appreciated how Leland learned by comparing his own mid-life perspective with the late-life perspective of the New Yorkers he interviewed.

I came away feeling chastened by how hard life can be, but also feeling uplifted by these exemplars of human resilience and the power of love.        

I was a professional couch-potato. I grew up with a clear choice: Use my head or use my feet. I ignored activity in my pursuit of more cerebral choices.

Despite the urgings of my loving family, the advice of others, and by-pass surgery, I continued my sedentary ways. It was only when I held my new grandson that I began to assess who I wanted to be as a role model.

Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge got me up off the couch and into activity. I have a better life because of their encouragement and detailed plans. 

You don’t have to be sedentary like me to appreciate this book. Turns out that you should do more as you run pel-mell into your senior years. Chris and Henry show you how you can step up your game.

At first, reading this book felt like Jen Sincero was reading me! I had the pleasure of interviewing her a few years ago, and she was just as funny and bold in person as she is in the book. Her no-nonsense approach to financial abundance is delightfully triggering.

This book helped me tackle my own financial blocks and embrace a mindset of wealth and prosperity. Jen Sincero doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Her tough-love advice felt like a much-needed wake-up reminder of what I already knew but hadn’t fully acted on.

My favorite thing is her relatable stories and in-your-face guidance. Her writing cuts through the fluff and makes complex money mindset concepts feel totally doable.

Many years ago, Kristin helped me to name that next gen can be “paralyzed by predecessor, privilege, and possibilities.” First-world problems that most people don’t get to experience. 

However, if you are the child of a successful entrepreneur or have inherited wealth and philanthropic interests to allocate, there can be real challenges with finding your purpose.

She’s now dedicated a whole book to finding your way through growing up with wealth to find a life full of meaning alongside the ability to make an impact.

I loved this book because it is not only Inspiring in how it makes you understand your current money beliefs, but the exercises are easy to do and I found profound in what they reveal. Kyle explains spot-on how you can shift yourself from your current viewpoint into one that allows abundance and your true potential to shine through. And the book’s wonderful nuggets translate into all areas of your life! 

Dondi Dahlin’s book was a total surprise to me! I thought I knew a lot about the 5 Element theory, and wondered what she might add to the conversation. This was another book I could not put down. Her storytelling chops are amazing, and even if I wasn’t interested in the subject, she had me at hello. I was thrilled with the journey she brought me on. And I learned so much about myself, and about how people act the way they do. But more than that, I also learned valuable tools on how to interact better with people, how to extend compassion to myself and others, and how to see the world through a different lens. I adore this book!

There's a theory in psychology that alongside our basic traits, our personalities are also defined in part by the stories we tell about our lives – what's known as your narrative identity. In this inspirational book, Hardy shows how you can change who you are by reinterpreting your own past and, in effect, retelling your own story. As part of this process, you can think of past events as happening 'for you' instead of 'to you'. What's especially compelling about this book is that Hardy has made these changes in his own life and personality. You get to hear how he left behind his difficult youth, transformed into a dramatically more conscientious person, built a successful career as a psychologist, and became a loving husband and father.

Why do women feel like we need to invite everyone to every party, throw weddings that are closer to our parents’ style than our own, and show up to networking nights that we know we won’t get anything out of?

I know this book is meant to be about hosting gatherings, but I’ve applied the principles to nearly everything I do in work and hobbies to add more intention, impact, and fulfillment. I’ve changed the way I sit at restaurants to encourage deeper conversations with friends. I’ve started to purposefully not invite certain people to certain parties since I know it would change the dynamic negatively for others. I’ve embraced the idea of “pop-up rules” at every event I host and expect guests to follow them so that the event is transformative and not boring.

Since reading Priya’s incredible framework, I’ve led extremely successful monthly events for my community, started… show more.