Spring Into Action With These 11 Books About Reinvention Itching for change? These books will help you make the jump.
By Rose Leadem
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Whether you're switching your major in college or changing your career path altogether, change can be daunting. But if you want to be happier, you've got to take the chance and make the jump. Just remember: You're not alone.
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From Adam Markel's Pivot, which will help anyone in transition create a new roadmap for success, to Jon Acuff's Do Over, a helpful guide in dissecting relationships, skills, character and work and preparing them for change, there's no shortage of helpful books that will make your reinvention smoother.
What are you waiting for? Spring into action with these 11 books about reinvention.
1. Pivot, by Adam Markel
Whether you're unemployed, in transition or looking to completely change the direction of your career, inspirational speaker and author Adam Markel will help you do just that through his book, Pivot: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life. In the book, Markel asks readers: "What would you do in your life if you knew you could not fail?" Then, Markel helps lay out a roadmap to help you achieve your dreams without putting your finances or future at risk.
2. Do Over, by Jon Acuff
In Jon Acuff's Do Over: Make Today the First Day of Your New Career, Acuff seeks to help his readers develop four important areas of their lives: relationships, skills, character and hustle. The book helps people amplify these areas of their lives in order to prepare for major transitions, become unstuck, reinvent themselves in the workplace or get the job they've always wanted. According to Acuff, you should look forward to going to work on Mondays. If you don't, this book can help you fix that.
3. The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss' bestselling book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich is a blueprint for success and reinvention. In it, Ferriss shares how to ditch your current 9-to-5 job in order to make an incredible living, working less. He shares his own story of going from a 40-hour-a-week $40,000 annual salaried job to making $40,000 a month working four hours a week. He shares his tips and tricks for reinventing your work life and living a life of luxury with the nouveau riche.
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4. Your Self Sabotage Survival Guide, by Karen Berg
Sometimes it feels like the people around you are getting ahead and you're still stuck in the same spot. However, there's a way to change this. Author, inspirational speaker and spiritual director Karen Berg's Your Self Sabotage Survival Guide: How to Go From Why Me? To Why Not? will help you do just that. Her book provides a "tough love" approach to developing the right mindset in order to achieve your dreams and get ahead. The book helps you identify how exactly you're self-sabotaging and how to eliminate this mindset in order to reinvent yourself.
5. Mindshift, by Dr. Barbara Oakley
Professor and author Dr. Barbara Oakley helps readers learn to retrain and reinvent themselves during a time of rapid technological change with her book, Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential. It can be hard to follow your passions, especially when you don't know exactly what they are. Oakley shows that instead of following your passions, broaden them. Backed by research, Oakley aims to help you discover talents and develop new skills in order to reinvent yourself in an ever-changing world.
6. The New Old Me, by Meredith Maran
Post-divorce, with little in her savings account and the loss of her best friend, Meredith Maran went on a journey to reinvent herself. In her memoir, The New Old Me: My Late-Life Reinvention, Maran describes her personal journey as she moves from her old life as a freelance writer in San Francisco to securing a 9-to-5 job in Los Angeles. Her story shows that no matter what age you are or circumstances you're under, change and success are always doable.
7. Third Calling, by Dr. Richard Bergstrom and Leona Bergstrom
It's not easy figuring out what to do with your life and what will make you happy down the line. Every life stage comes with its own set of opportunities and challenges. In Dr. Richard Bergstrom and Leona Bergstrom's Third Calling: What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?, the authors go through the typical "first calling," including growing up, going to school and for some, getting married, then the "second calling," developing careers, raising children and caring for elders. But what happens at the "third calling"? The Bergstroms explain how it is actually a time of opportunity, growth and pursuing passions.
8. Repacking Your Bags, by Richard Leider and David Shapiro
Everyone's looking for that "good life," and in Richard Leider and David Shapiro's Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Good Life, they'll help you find it. The book provides a practical guide for how to understand what's weighing you down and how to rearrange and let certain things go in order to live your best life. Leider and Shapiro address four areas of baggage, including place, relationship, work and purpose and how you can reshuffle and reinvent yourself no matter what age you are or where you are in life.
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9. What's Next?, by Kerry Hannon
Kerry Hannon's What's Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job brings in a collection of real-world stories -- including a mortgage banker turned classroom teacher and a cop turned Nashville music agent -- that will inspire anyone looking to reinvent themselves. Aimed at mid-career professionals, the book outlines a roadmap for anyone feeling stuck and looking to chase their dreams and find the life they always imagined.
10. Writing for Bliss, by Diana Raab
Sometimes we know we have to change, but we're not exactly sure how. Diana Raab's Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life provides one method for figuring that out: writing. Through writing guides and exercises, Raab helps you pause, reflect and reexamine. The book explains how writing can help you discover new things about yourself and ultimately change.
11. Thank You for Being Late, by Thomas L. Friedman
For many, it can take years, even decades, to understand what your true passions are. Thomas L. Friedman's book, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, will show you there's nothing wrong with that. The book reveals that in an ever-changing, technology-driven world, there is a way to keep up, change and thrive. To help readers better understand and acclimate to today's world, Friedman connects technology, globalization and nature to personal areas including work, politics, geopolitics, ethics and community. By understanding the relationships between each of these things, a person can easily achieve success.
