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You know what they say – New Year, New You!
But let’s face it – the current you is already the BEST you, and there’s absolutely no reason that you should recreate yourself. Can you improve on perfection? No.
However, we all love books – and the New Year is a great time to bust out some inspiration and to seek out reminders as to how great we already are.
Whether you’re dreaming of launching a side hustle, unlocking untapped creativity, or levelling up your mindset, the right book can be the ultimate catalyst for change.
In this post we check out 11 non-fiction gems to inspire, guide, and motivate you to tackle your goals head-on. From expert insights to practical strategies, these reads are here to help you make 2025 the year of unstoppable progress!
We encourage you to always source books from your local independent bookshop. However, we understand this is sometimes not practical based on location or budget.
Therefore, this post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means, if you click on the link and purchase the book from that link, I get a few dollars at no extra cost to you! This way we can both stock up on New Year Non-Fiction! 😀
Happy New Year, Friends!
"Anything You Want" Book Blurb:Entrepreneurs often lose sight of what matters. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough? Derek Sivers accidentally started a business by helping musicians sell their music. It became the largest online seller of independent music with over 150,000 musicians and $100M in sales. After ten years, he sold the company for $22 million and gave all the money to charity. In “Anything You Want” he shares 40 powerful lessons, in a book you can read in about an hour. Points include: When you make a company, you make your utopia — your perfect world. Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself. Starting with no money is an advantage. You don’t need money to start helping people. Your business plan is moot. You don’t know what people really want until you launch. Don’t pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help. By focusing entirely on thrilling your customers – even at an occasional loss – you ultimately profit more, because of the loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing that comes only when you place your customer’s needs over your own. The book’s most memorable stories are from his horrible mistakes, like why saving ten minutes cost him $3.3 million dollars, and how he was attacked by Steve Jobs.
Grab yourself a copy:
"How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy" Book Blurb:Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our data productivity, doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to slowing down. Odell sees our attention as the most precious – and overdrawn – resource we have. Once we start paying a new kind of attention, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humanity’s role in the environment, and arrive at a more meaningful understanding of happiness and fulfilment. Far from a simple anti-technology screed, How to Do Nothing is an action plan for thinking beyond capitalist narratives of efficiency and value. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, it shows us how to preserve our inner lives and bring about change in a world that needs this more than ever.
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"Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day" Book Blurb:Most of our time is spent by default. We all wish for more hours in the day. We all struggle to make time for what matters. Help is here. Productivity experts Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky have created a four-step framework that anyone can use, packed with more than 80 tactics to help you design your day around the things that matter. Tactics such as- Choose a daily highlight; Be the boss of your phone; Stay out of social media infinity pools; Slow your inbox; Make TV a ‘sometimes treat’; Exercise every day (but don’t be a hero); Eat without screens; Go off grid; Spend time with your tribe; Make your bedroom a bed room. With tips and tricks to help you change your life, it’s time to stop daydreaming about projects and activities that you’ll get to ‘someday’, and start that someday today.
Grab yourself a copy:
‘Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day’ by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
"Million Dollar Weekend" Book Blurb:More people than ever want to be their own boss, but venturing forward with your own business can be hugely intimidating. Are you investing effort in ideas that have no basis in customer demand? Are you shying away from even considering starting your own business? Noah Kagan knew this feeling all too well, but has since discovered how to banish the one simple thing holding aspiring entrepreneurs back, to become a 7-figure founder. MILLION DOLLAR WEEKEND offers an into-the-deep-end process for overcoming fear and perfectionism and making the business of your dreams a reality. Step-by-step, Noah shows what it takes to oust fear and build the “ask muscle”, and shares practical advice that every entrepreneur needs to master. By demystifying what it takes to start a business, turning risk into realistic action and fear into fun, this is the beginning of your journey to successful entrepreneurship.
Grab yourself a copy:
"Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First" Book Blurb:
Openness and vulnerability are the foundation for human growth and healthy relationships, and it all starts when we share our stuff, the nitty-gritty daily details about ourselves with others. Laura has led the way in her personal life with her popular blog and podcast, and now with lighthearted self-awareness, a sensitivity to the important things in life, and compelling storytelling, Laura gives you the tools to build and deepen the conversations happening in your life. Laura’s stories about her childhood, her complicated shifts in faith and friendships, and her marriage to a Hollywood movie director will prompt you to identify the beautiful narrative and pivotal milestones of your own life. Each chapter offers intriguing and reflective questions that will reveal unique details and stories you’ve never thought to tell and will guide you into cultivating the authentic connection with others that only comes from sharing yourself.
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"Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered" Book Blurb:Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery―let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive. In chapters such as You Don’t Have to Be a Genius; Share Something Small Every Day; and Stick Around, Kleon creates a user’s manual for embracing the communal nature of creativity― what he calls the “ecology of talent.” From broader life lessons about work (you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it) to the etiquette of sharing―and the dangers of oversharing―to the practicalities of Internet life (build a good domain name; give credit when credit is due), it’s an inspiring manifesto for succeeding as any kind of artist or entrepreneur in the digital age.
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"The Art and Business of Online Writing" Book Blurb:What are the secrets to writing online? Why do some writers accumulate hundreds of thousands, even millions of views on their content—and others write and write, only to go unnoticed? Nicolas Cole, one of the most viral columnists on the internet with more than 100 million views on his writing, is pulling back the curtain. After becoming the #1 most-read writer on all of Quora in 2015, a Top 10 contributing writer for Inc Magazine from 2016 to 2018, and one of the most popular writers on Medium in more than 15 different categories, Cole went on to build a multi-million-dollar ghostwriting company publishing thousands of articles on the internet for more than 300 different Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, C-level executives, New York Times best-selling authors, Olympic athletes, Grammy-winning producers, and renowned industry leaders. How? By using his own personal toolkit of writing strategies, headline structures, formats, and proven styles, all of which were mastered over a 10-year period.
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"The Creative Act: A Way of Being" Book Blurb:Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output; it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.
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"The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster" Book Blurb:You will learn the best strategies Darren has ever collected from the most successful people on the planet, covering the four essential skills necessary for entrepreneurial success: sales, recruiting, leadership, and productivity. This essential guidebook will prepare you for the wild ride of entrepreneurship. It will warn you (of forthcoming fears, doubts, and the self-defeating conditioning of your upbringing and past), inoculate you (from the naysayers, dream-stealers, and pains of rejection and failure), and guide you (as you build those underdeveloped skills of independence, self-motivation, and self-accountability) safely past the landmines that blow up and cause the failure of 66 percent of all new businesses.
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"The Let Them Theory" Book Blurb:
What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words? If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn’t you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words-Let Them-will set you free. Free from the opinions, drama, and judgments of others. Free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you. The Let Them Theory puts the power to create a life you love back in your hands-and this book will show you exactly how to do it. Using the same no-nonsense, science-backed approach that’s made The Mel Robbins Podcast a global sensation, Robbins explains why The Let Them Theory is already loved by millions and how you can apply it in eight key areas of your life to make the biggest impact. Within a few pages, you’ll realise how much energy and time you’ve been wasting trying to control the wrong things-at work, in relationships, and in pursuing your goals-and how this is keeping you from the happiness and success you deserve.
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Series or Standalone? :
This is part of the ‘You are a Badass’ series.
"You are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life" Book Blurb:
In this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide, bestselling author and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice, easy exercises, and the occasional swear word, helping you to: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviours that stop you from getting what you want. Create a life you totally love. And create it NOW. Make some damn money already. The kind you’ve never made before. By the end of YOU ARE A BADASS, you’ll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can’t change, how to change what you don’t love, and how to use The Force to kick some serious ass.
Grab yourself a copy:
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