Getting through winter as a student can’t be easy! You’re not only dealing with looming deadlines, post-Christmas blues and annoying cold weather, but it can also be difficult to find motivation to work towards your bigger goals and make positive change. There are many ways to help yourself keep those New Year’s resolutions, but chances are by the time you get to February all your good intentions gone out of the window…
So what can you actually do to stay motivated long-term and continue growing and working on your big goals? Many ideas, techniques and philosophies exist, and what’s important is to find the methods that work for you. To help you get started, we put together a list of our favourite motivational books you should read this winter to get inspired. Check them out below!
If you haven’t heard about this book yet, where have you been? Released in 2015, ‘Big Magic’ fast became a staple in self-help and empowerment communities. In this book, Elizabeth Gilbert takes on old notions of ‘creativity’ and offers great insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration and how it works. If you feel you need more creativity in your life, this book is a great tool to discover new attitudes, approaches and habits to help you live your most creative life.
What if someone told you that the secret to living a better and happier life is actually caring less? This is a counterintuitive approach that Mark Manson puts forward in another classic motivational book. Mark argues that while society wants you to care about more things, want more things, what actually makes us happy is choosing one or two goals and caring less about all the other noise around us. Check out this book to learn how to live based on your personal values!
Now this book is exactly what it says on the tin! Easy read, loved by so many around the world, this book offers a much more light-hearted approach to motivation. Jen Sincero put together this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide to not only help you identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviours that stop you from getting what you want, but also create the life you want and actually make some money doing it! That sounds like a recipe for success – check it out.
Whether you consider yourself to be an introvert or not, this book may be a good place to start rethinking some old-fashioned ideas of what type of people become successful. In this book Susan Cain introduces us to a number of successful introverts, puts forward an idea that as a society we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose by doing that. And if you ARE an introvert, this may help you to find a way to answer that common job interview question “Why should we choose you for this role, over all other candidates?”
If what you need in your life right now is to get that old clutter sorted, make sure you check out this book by Marie Kondo! Absolute best-seller, this book teaches you the famous KonMari Method to help you keep your student room or flat as clean, bacteria-free and clutter-free as possible. This step-by-step guide is a practical way to get yourself motivated. And studies show that if your personal space is clear, then your mind will be more productive!
A different kind of motivational book, this is one you shouldn’t miss out! ‘Beautiful Trouble’ is an invaluable resource for new and upcoming activists who want to be part of making the world more just and equal for all. This book offers a practical toolkit of resources on an extensive amount of different activist and change-making techniques, and strategies to take creative action. Want to get fired up to change the world? This is the one you should read this winter!
If you know and love Jay Shetty, this book won’t be new for you, but it’s definitely worth reading when you’re looking for motivation. Drawing on the things he learned during his time as a monk in the Vedic tradition, a social media superstar offers you practical steps that anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more self-disciplined, and overall happier life. This is a particularly good read if you’re looking for ways to cope with stress, and Jay Shetty tells his stories in a very accessible, friendly matter. You’ll never want to put this one down!
Last but not least, ‘The Untethered Soul’ should definitely be on your reading list this winter! Many of us are looking for ways to free ourselves from daily limitations and find that inner peace and serenity. Doing that can be so hard, especially as a busy student constantly juggling so many responsibilities and demands. This New York Time’s Best-Seller offers simple yet profound answers to these life-long questions, and invites you to take a journey within, to explore what matters to your soul. If developing higher consciousness is something you are interested in, this is an inspiring starting point.
