Gaining self-clarity is the best thing you can do. Knowing who you are and what you want is a sure fire way to live life on your terms. Reading will give you the tools to gain self-clarity but it is the action you take on what you read that creates that clarity. These 5 books will give you a start…

1 Surrounded by Idiots — Thomas Erikson

Two sentence summary:

Surrounded by idiots presents 4 personality types and matches them to colours — blue, red, green and yellow. Thomas Erikson shows you how each colour likes to interact, receive information and behave in certain situations, including the office Christmas party.

What the book will teach you:

For me, surrounded by idiots is about much more than figuring out your own personality. It is a delve into other people, how they like to operate and receive information. When reading you will likely think about people you know and match them to a colour. You will also will see traits you have that sit across multiple colours. Thomas Erikson explains that most people sit across two colours, with one being dominant. This book will help you unpack your own personality, including how it adapts in different circumstances. Surrounded by idiots is a great book to start getting to know yourself.

2 Insight — Tasha Eurich

Two sentence summary:

Being both internally and externally self-aware, that is clearly seeing ourselves and how others see us, is a crucial part of being your best self. Tasha Eurich goes through why people have differing levels of self-awareness, how it impacts your decisions, and how to develop more of it.

What the book will teach you:

Self-awareness is both truly knowing yourself and also how others see you. Most people have either external or internal self-awareness, some have neither and few have both. Insight provides a framework to understand how self-aware you are. Self-awareness is an important aspect of life for both doing things on your terms, and truly understanding how others see you. their perception is the reality, and this can be critical to your outcomes at work and in social situations. Tasha Eurich describes people in three categories in their willingness to change, and talks you through the options in how to approach changing behaviour in other people, as well as yourself.

3 Mindset — Carol Dweck

Two sentence summary:

We approach situations with either a fixed or a growth mindset — either seeing our abilities as set in stone, or acknowledging we can improve. Having a growth mindset improves our lives, and can improve your outlook on life to ultimately eliminate what you might consider ‘failure’.

What the book will teach you:

Do you have a growth or a fixed mindset? Chances are this changes depending on the situation you are in. Which mindset you have will influence your outcomes. The difference being whether you settle for what is easy or try and improve constantly knowing that you can affect your outcomes. Carol Dweck talks through the limitations of the fixed mindset on happiness, and how you can change your approach to have a mostly growth mindset. Where you see fixed mindset tendencies, the book will provide you with a set of strategies to improve your outlook, leading to better outcomes.

4 Principles — Ray Dalio

Two sentence summary:

Principles is a blueprint of how Ray Dalio, and his company Bridgewater, operate on a day to day basis. The principles shared are a clear guide to approaching almost every situation and decision in both work and life.

What the book will teach you:

Some of Dalio’s principles will resonate with you, and you might end up taking them on as your own. In terms of getting to know yourself, it can be a game changer to see your decision making process listed out in a way that makes your approach to life look so simple. This makes every aspect of life so simple, especially if you create your own principles after reading. Principles will teach you how to live your life in a way that is driven by what you believe in. It will help you figure out how you like to operate by providing clarity to your thought process.

5 Find Your Why — Simon Sinek

Two sentence summary:

Successful leaders communicate in the same way, and it is the exact opposite of everyone else; they start with why. Simon Sinek shares the process of how to find your why, in order to be able to easily communicate your purpose in one sentence.

What the book will teach you:

As Simon Sinek states in his TED talk, ‘People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.’ To be able to communicate you why, you need to know what it is. Find your why is the roadmap to follow to figure out what drives you — the reason you get out of bed in the morning. In addition to being able to communicate your why, it will help you get better at introspection and taking learnings from your experiences as you go back and find patterns from the defining experiences of your life.