The Inspiring Reading
I read a lot. Here's what I am reading right now.
I am reading between 30-50 books per year. Here's my latest recommendation:
‘Effortless’ by Greg McKeown
“As high-achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough.”
For those who know me, this is not the first McKeown's book that I recommend. Check out ‘Essentialism’ - another amazing read. On my (sometimes) long car travels, I’ve been listening to the Essentialism audiobook. It has fascinated me and it has helped me to continue to rethink everything I do and reduce it to its essentialism-state.
My 2 biggest takeaways!
1. Burnout is not a badge of honor
In the Introduction McKeown points out, “Burnout is not a badge of honor.” This is exactly what I see so many fellow consultants struggle with. They work themselves to the point where they stop enjoying their work, they are unable to relax and disconnect because the pressures of work always remain in the back of their heads.
And that’s why I loved this book by Greg McKeon. He breaks through the social norm that states that in order to achieve success or overcome challenges, we have to exhaust ourselves. Having suffered from a burnout many years ago myself, I’ve transformed from ‘working harder’ to ‘working smarter’’. It’s what McKeown teaches.
2. There is an easier way
I loved McKeown's first book ‘Essentialism’, he helped me to continue to reprogram my restless brain. But the book wasn’t always easy to adopt. That’s what he does in his second book. “There’s an easier way”, McKeown explains. He helps us to make ‘becoming an essentialist’ more doable, more actionable. The most essential activities can be turned into the easiest ones with the right strategy and mindset. It’s not about being lazy, but about finding the smart way to accomplish things.
In fact, not rocket science but extremely helpful to get it ‘served’ on our plate by the author. By the way, there is a summary of McKeown effortless concepts at the end of each section. If you don’t have much time to read, you could just start there (and go back there as much as you can!).
What I like about Greg is that his book is not an abstract list of things he wrote down in a design-thinking session with a few other people. That’s at least not the perception I got. I really got the feeling - also in the previous book - McKeown has struggled and still struggles with everything he writes about. Just like I am doing with my content, he talks/writes about his own learnings and this makes the book even more attractive.
