As most countries are on lockdown due to the increasing number of patients affected by Covid-19, more and more people are not allowed to go out and most shops, restaurants, and other venues are temporarily closed until further notice. Hence, most people have to work from home and spend our days or even weeks at home. Even now #workfromhome (also known as #wfh ) and #stayathome are the trending hashtags on Instagram LOL. It's not easy for those who like going out or doing outdoor activities to be stuck at home for weeks. There are many things we can actually do at home and the most important thing to avoid brain freeze is Reading.
Below is my personal reading list to refresh your brain during this situation:
1. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
I personally feel this books is very easy to relate to and understand. The author, Gretchen Rubin, believes that "The days are long, but the years are short," and “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project by doing scientific research about how to be happier.
While explaining about the research, she also advised twelve commandments that we can do to be happier, as below:
1. Let it go
2. Do it now
3. Act the way I want to feel
4. Enjoy the process
5. Identify the problem
6. Lighten up
7. Be polite and be fair
8. There is only love
9. Do what ought to be done
10. Spend out
11. No calculation
12. Be you
Each is explained in each chapter and they are things that can be easily done in our daily life.
2. Grit by Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth teaches us that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.” In this book, she teaches us how to make the right goals that are achievable which she calls "Goals in a hierarchy". She explains step by step to reach the goals and how we have to set some realistic goals.
Among Grit's most valuable insights:
"Mega successful people - I love what I do, I'm so lucky, I get up every morning looking forward to work, I can't wait to get into the studio, I can't wait to get on with the next project".
Also,
"It's a persistent desire to do better. it's not looking backward with dissatisfaction. It's looking forward and wanting to grow"
3. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
In this book, Malcolm Gladwell asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
"Those three things: autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy. Doing creative work. Work that fulfils those three criteria is meaningful."
4. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
If you ever wonder what habit we should build to make our days more fulfilling, this book will guide us step by step.
In this book, Charles Duhigg takes us to the scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed.
We will discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.
At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.
5. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
This book is the perfect book to build entrepreneurial mindset and teach us the real value of money. In this book, we can learn that most people work for money, but the rich make money work for them; and that it's not how much money you make, it's how much you keep.
We can also learn that rich people acquire assets, but others acquire liabilities they only think are assets; and that financial struggle often comes from a lifetime of working for someone else.
And I consider below is the most valuable insights from this book:
"Seek work for what they will learn, more than what they will earn. Look down the road at what; skills they want to acquire before choosing a specific profession and before getting trapped in the 'Rat Race'."