If I Could Only Read A Few Books In 2024, I’d Pick These

I’ll never get tired of reading them.

When it comes to setting goals, most people have lost the plot. They overcomplicate things, become overly ambitious, and lose motivation when things don’t go as planned.

99% of people give up.

So, how can you be part of the 1%?

The answer is reading books. Many contain wisdom from the world’s smartest people. They can help you to find meaning, understand yourself, and make the next 12 months a period of remarkable growth.

Here are four fascinating books that everyone should read in 2024. All of them improved my life and made me question everything I thought I knew. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for you, too.

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Julie Smith

I struggled with grief earlier this year. My grandfather, who was an influential figure throughout my life, passed away, and I didn’t know how to deal with life’s challenges without his guidance.

It didn’t take long for me to spiral into an abyss of negative thoughts that felt impossible to escape. I spontaneously collapsed into tears several times, wishing I could dial heaven on the phone and speak to my grandfather one more time.

But Julie’s book helped me to realize that my feelings were normal in such a heartbreaking situation. Her advice also allowed me to be patient, go through the five stages of grief, and not feel guilty for being unproductive.

If you want to improve your mental health in 2024, Julie’s book should be at the top of your reading list!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• “Thoughts are not facts. They are a mix of opinions, judgements, stories, memories, theories, interpretations, and predictions about the future.”
• “The more work we do on building self-awareness and resilience when all is well, the better able we are to face life’s challenges when they come our way.”
• “When we feel anxious about something, the most natural human response is to avoid it. We know that if we stay away, we’ll feel safe. But avoidance not only maintains anxiety, it makes it worse over time.”
• “If we don’t do the work to develop self-acceptance, we set ourselves up to live a life in which we may need constant reassurance, get trapped in jobs we hate or relationships that cause us harm, or find ourselves living with resentment.”
• “You might notice that you feel the need for more reassurance from others when your mood is low. If you don’t get that extra reassurance you might automatically assume they are thinking negatively about you. But that is a bias, and it is quite possible that you are your worst critic.”

12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson

12 Rules For Life is the literary equivalent of a kick up the ass. After all, each chapter combines practical advice from ancient traditions with stunning revelations from cutting-edge scientific research.

Jordan Peterson’s wisdom helped me realize that I can achieve a lot more than I previously thought. I’m not perfect right now, but that’s okay; I shouldn’t dwell on it. Instead, I should concentrate on what I can do each day to make a small amount of progress.

A lot of people think Jordan Peterson is controversial. However, 12 Rules For Life is where you must put aside pre-existing biases and separate the art from the artist.

As long as you go into the book with an open mind, you’ll enjoy it and learn something new!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• “When you have something to say, silence is a lie.”
• “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.”
• “It took untold generations to get you where you are. A little gratitude might be in order. If you’re going to insist on bending the world to your way, you better have your reasons.”
• “Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces that transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. Strengthen the individual. Start with yourself. Take care with yourself. Define who you are. Refine your personality. Choose your destination and articulate your Being.”
• “To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood, where finitude and mortality are only dimly comprehended. It means willingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality.”

Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth — And How You Can Too by Dave Ramsey

Baby Steps Millionaires is (by far) one of the best books about personal finance I’ve ever read.

Dave Ramsey’s book contains useful statistics and analysis about America’s largest study of millionaires. Then, he explains how you can build a million-dollar net worth if you save, invest, and spend wisely.

Dave Ramsey also debunks common myths about debt, credit cards, and car payments. Your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income, according to Dave. As a result, getting out of debt to eliminate recurring monthly payments should be a top priority.

Everyone should read Baby Steps Millionaires (at least once)!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• “The shortest way to get from where you are now to success is by submitting yourself to the best practices of the thing you want to learn and do well.”
• “Outside forces are all around us trying to take us down left and right, but they don’t stand a chance against someone who is filled with belief, desire, and hope.”
• “If someone believes that the game is rigged, that the systems of our culture will simply not allow them to build wealth and become a Baby Steps Millionaire, then they would be insane to sacrifice to win.”
• “No government program has the power to truly change your financial situation for the better. It’s up to you. And with enough hard work and discipline, anyone can take control of their financial future and become a millionaire.”
• “There are a lot of broken things in our culture and our systems — A lot of systemic problems. Sexism is real. Racism is real. Education access is unequal. Broken, dysfunctional families are the norm. But the starting line is not the question. The only question is: Are the problems big enough to hold you back? Are they big enough to keep you from winning? If you believe ‘the system’ or ‘the man’ is holding all the cards and there’s no possible way you can win, then you won’t engage in the sacrificial behaviors required to win.”

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

This book has a simple message for entrepreneurs: there are no shortcuts. Instead, success in business is always the byproduct of sweat, tears, and decades of hard work.

Ben Horowitz helped me to realize that patience is a virtue. Sure, it would be nice if I get thousands of sales each day and build a multi-million dollar business empire. But that’s not going to happen overnight.

A much better strategy is to build systems that create long-term success. To have a support network of brutally honest people in your corner. And perhaps, most importantly, to show up every day for work and never give up.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is a fantastic book every entrepreneur should read ASAP!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• “Sometimes an organization doesn’t need a solution; it just needs clarity.”
• “Build a culture that rewards — not punishes — people for getting problems into the open where they can be solved.”
• “Hard things are hard because there are no easy answers or recipes. They are hard because your emotions are at odds with your logic. They are hard because you don’t know the answer and you cannot ask for help without showing weakness.”
• “Great CEOs face the pain. They deal with the sleepless nights, the cold sweats, and what my friend Alfred Chuang (legendary cofounder and CEO of BEA Systems) calls “the torture.” Whenever I meet a successful CEO, I ask them how they did it. Mediocre CEOs point to their brilliant strategic moves, intuitive business sense, or various other self-congratulatory explanations. The great CEOs tend to be remarkably consistent in their answers. They all say, “I didn’t quit.”
• “No matter who you are, you need two kinds of friends in your life. The first kind is one you can call when something good happens, and you need someone who will be excited for you. Not a fake excitement veiling envy, but a real excitement. You need someone who will actually be more excited for you than he would be if it had happened to him. The second kind of friend is somebody you can call when things go horribly wrong — when your life is on the line and you only have one phone call.”

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