My 12 Books of Christmas ?? (2020)

Each year I make an effort to read more books than the last and this year was no exception. EXCEPT… this year everything came to a crashing halt when a virus known as COVID-19 appeared on the scene and had us all questioning everything that used to be our normal. What can I say? I didn't get to read as many books as I would have liked to this year but then, many of us didn't get around to doing some of the things we would have liked to.

This year’s list speaks to the long pause and to our ability to create change whenever we feel called to it. I hope you enjoy this year’s list. Perhaps you’ve read some of them, maybe you’ve read them all, but if there’s one book here that you haven’t explored yet, I invite you to give it a go. They also make great gift ideas for some of those difficult to buy for friends, family or clients. I’ll include affiliate links for Amazon in case you’re inclined to pick them up in time for Christmas or want to add them to your reading list in the New Year. ??

Without further ado, here are my 12 Books of Christmas (2020) in no particular order:

12 – 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote For Chaos, Jordan B. Peterson

What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.

Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers.

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/36aeEOJ  Amazon USA https://amzn.to/3fDyO6z

11 – Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How To Lose Your Mind and Create a New One, Dr. Joe Dispenza

You are not doomed by your genes and hardwired to be a certain way for the rest of your life. A new science is emerging that empowers all human beings to create the reality they choose.

In Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, renowned author, speaker, researcher, and chiropractor Dr. Joe Dispenza combines the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to show you what is truly possible.

Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life.

Dr. Joe demystifies ancient understandings and bridges the gap between science and spirituality. Through his powerful workshops and lectures, thousands of people in 24 different countries have used these principles to change from the inside out. Once you break the habit of being yourself and truly change your mind, your life will never be the same! 

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/33dD0VG Amazon USA https://amzn.to/33f1G0c

10 – The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever, Michael Bungay Stanier

In Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less hard and have more impact.

Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples' potential. He unpacks seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how--by saying less and asking more--you can develop coaching methods that produce great results.

• Get straight to the point in any conversation with The Kickstart Question
• Stay on track during any interaction with The Awe Question
• Save hours of time for yourself with The Lazy Question, and hours of time for others with The Strategic Question
• Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with The Focus Question and The Foundation Question
• Finally ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with The Learning Question

A fresh innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, together with interactive training tools to turn practical advice into practiced habits. Witty and conversational, The Coaching Habit takes your work--and your workplace--from good to great. 

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/33d06vJ Amazon USA https://amzn.to/2Jc7VdQ

9 – The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business, Charles Duhigg

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. This instant classic explores how we can change our lives by changing our habits.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal ? Financial Times

In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the #NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives. 

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3m78ZOQ Amazon USA https://amzn.to/39eap6m

8 – The Miracle Equation: The Two Decisions That Move Your Biggest Goals from Possible, to Probable, to Inevitable, Hal Elrod

The bestselling author of The Miracle Morning shares the secret to unlocking your full potential—all day, every day.

“A simple, proven formula for creating extraordinary results in your life.”—Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author of The School of Greatness

Even after the incredible success of his book The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod realized that he still had more to share with the world. What he had discovered was a timeless but overlooked formula for success. The world’s top achievers have used it for centuries. He used it to thrive against seemingly insurmountable odds, from overcoming life-threatening health challenges to near financial collapse.

That formula is The Miracle Equation, and it couldn’t be any simpler:

Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort = Miracles

By establishing and maintaining Unwavering Faith that you can achieve anything you desire, and then putting forth Extraordinary Effort until you do, you’ll create results beyond what you believe to be possible. In The Miracle Equation, you’ll learn how to

• Replace fear with faith
• Move from resistance to acceptance
• Let go of negative emotions
• Turn off your stress response
• Overcome your limitations to unlock your limitless potential
• Develop emotional invincibility
• Grow from happiness, which is fleeting, to inner peace, which is lasting

And with the Miracle Equation 30-Day Challenge to guide your way, you’ll create a step-by-step plan to actualize your miracles and become the person you need to be in order to succeed. No goal is out of reach! 

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3nVJ1hF Amazon USA https://amzn.to/3l2jZf7

7 – Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS, Shirzad Chamine

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!  In his popular Stanford University lectures, Shirzad Chamine reveals how to achieve one's true potential for both professional success and personal fulfillment. His ground-breaking research exposes ten well-disguised mental Saboteurs. Nearly 95 percent of the executives in his #Stanford lectures conclude that these Saboteurs cause "significant harm" to achieving their full potential. With Positive Intelligence, you can learn the secret to defeating these internal foes.

Positive Intelligence (PQ) measures the percentage of time your mind is serving you as opposed to sabotaging you. While your IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence) contribute to your maximum potential, it is your PQ that determines how much of that potential you actually achieve.  

The great news is that you can improve your PQ significantly in as little as 21 days. With higher PQ, teams and professionals ranging from leaders to salespeople perform 30-35 percent better on average. Importantly, they also report being far happier and less stressed.  

The breakthrough tools and techniques in this book have been refined over years of coaching hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. Shirzad tells many of their remarkable stories, showing you how you too can take concrete steps to unleash the vast, untapped powers of your mind.

DISCOVER HOW TO:

• Identify and conquer your top mental Saboteurs. Common Saboteurs include the Judge, Controller, Victim, Avoider, and Pleaser.  
• Measure the Positive Intelligence score (PQ) for yourself or your team--see how close you come to the critical tipping point required for peak performance.
• Increase PQ dramatically in as little as 21 days.
• Develop new brain "muscles," and access 5 untapped powers with energizing mental "power games."
• Apply PQ tools and techniques to increase both performance and fulfillment. Applications include team building, mastering workload, working with "difficult" people, improving work/life balance, reducing stress, and selling and persuading. 

Contact me if you'd like to take the test! Just send me an InMessage.

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3nWDpnw Amazon USA https://amzn.to/3o1fTWt

6 – Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, Mary L. Trump

Love him or not... In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.

Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.

A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.

Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. #Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families. 

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/2V1xRLR Amazon USA https://amzn.to/33gkKLx

5 – Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century, Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich has been called the "Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature." It was the first book to boldly ask, "What makes a winner?" The man who asked and listened for the answer, Napoleon Hill, is now counted in the top ranks of the world's winners himself.

The most famous of all teachers of #success spent "a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort" to produce the "Law of Success" philosophy that forms the basis of his books and that is so powerfully summarized in this one.

In the original Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937, Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate his principles. In the updated version, Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D., a nationally known author, lecturer, and consultant in human resources management and an expert in applying Hill's thought, deftly interweaves anecdotes of how contemporary millionaires and billionaires, such as Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Dave Thomas, and Sir John Templeton, achieved their wealth. Outmoded or arcane terminology and examples are faithfully refreshed to preclude any stumbling blocks to a new generation of readers.

Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3fwwiiA Amazon USA https://amzn.to/3q4bnbl

4 – Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live, Martha Beck

New York Times bestselling author and Life Designs, Inc. creator Martha Beck shares her step-by-step program that will guide you to fulfill your own potential and create a joyful life.

In this book, you'll start by learning how to read the internal compasses already built into your brain and body--and why you may have spent your life ignoring their signals. As you become reacquainted with your own deepest desires, you'll identify and repair any unconscious beliefs or unhealed emotional wounds that may be blocking your progress.

This will change your life, but don't worry--although every life is unique, major #transformations have common elements, and Beck provides a map that will guide you through your own life changes. You'll learn how to navigate every stage, from the first flickering appearance of a new dream to the planning and implementation of your own ideal life.

Based on Dr. Beck's work as a Harvard-trained sociologist, research associate at #Harvard Business School, instructor at Thunderbird Business School, and especially on her experiences with her clients over the last six years, Finding Your Own North Star offers thoroughly tested case studies, questionnaires, and exercises to help you articulate your core desires and act on them to build a more satisfying life.

“Explorers depend on the North Star when there are no other landmarks in sight. The same relationship exists between you and your right life, the ultimate realization of your potential for happiness. I believe that a knowledge of that perfect life sits inside you just as the North Star sits in its unaltering spot.” -- Martha Beck 

Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/363vxu6 Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/2Je2FX2

3 – The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer

Yes… this one is a repeat. I actually read it again! #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

What would it be like to free yourself from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to discover inner peace and serenity? The Untethered Soul offers simple yet profound answers to these questions.

Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you've devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will #transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. You'll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness. By tapping into traditions of #meditation and #mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.

Co-published with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being. 

Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/33j1UmW Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/373cwr6

2 – The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

For over a decade, Brené Brown has found a special place in our hearts as a gifted mapmaker and a fellow traveler. She is both a social scientist and a kitchen-table friend whom you can always count on to tell the truth, make you laugh, and, on occasion, cry with you. And what’s now become a movement all started with The Gifts of Imperfection, which has sold more than two million copies in thirty-five different languages across the globe.

What #transforms this book from words on a page to effective daily practices are the ten guideposts to wholehearted living. The guideposts not only help us understand the practices that will allow us to change our lives and families, they also walk us through the unattainable and sabotaging expectations that get in the way.

Brené writes, “This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution. A small, quiet, grassroots movement that starts with each of us saying, ‘My story matters because I matter.’ Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance.” 

Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/37c420G Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/376nnR7

1 – 101 Ways to Transform Your Life, Dr. Wayne Dyer

On this inspirational audiobook, best-selling author Dr. Wayne W. Dyer offers you 101 ways to make your life more fulfilling and enjoyable. You'll love listening to Dr. Dyer's #transformational thoughts, including these:

• Forgive yourself for your transgressions. See that mistakes are lessons for you to transcend. Release yourself from the tyranny of self-recrimination. Make the decision to be free.
• Become aware that there are no accidents in our intelligent universe. Realize that everything that shows up in your life has something to teach you. Appreciate everyone and everything in your life.

Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/39g64jl Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/39aQN3c

Well, there it is… my 12 Books of Christmas for 2020. You may have noticed a strong theme about: understanding, breaking and forming #habits (whether by title or in the content of many of these books). I’m sure that some of them come as no surprise to you as they are time-honoured classics with years of best-selling under their belts and I also suspect that there may be a few surprises tucked away in there for you too.

Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays! May your 2021 be filled with dreams coming true, joy, prosperity and good health!

Sincerely, Jonathan (JC)

P.S. I'd love to hear what books you loved reading (or listening to) this past year! Share yours in the comments below!!

P.P.S. If you'd like to have a look at last year's list, here's the link: 12 Books of Christmas (2019)