I love to read. I love to learn. So one of my goals for 2022 was to read 50 Success books. What is a success book? It can be a personal development, self-improvement, religious, or biography/autobiobraphy type book. Basically, anything that’s not fiction.
How did I do? Rather smashingly, actually. I thought this goal would be hard to hit, but with my daily habit of reading at least 10 pages a day from a Success book, plus reading during every flight I took last year, plus some extra reading over and above 10 pages a day, I not only nailed that goal, but I beat it by 12 books. When I was setting this goal for 2023—because it’s definitely on my 2023 goals list, I went back and forth: Reach higher? Or was exceeding that goal in 2022 just a fluke? I decided to reach higher and aim for 60 Success books in 2023. I looked back over my Goodreads yearly challenges for the past few years, and I’ve actually read more books each year than I’d planned. So, why not stretch myself a bit more in an area—continually learning new things—that is so important to me?
Back to the focus of this blog post…
I was originally going to share my top 3 books for 2022, but when I looked at my favorite books each month, I just could not narrow the list down to 3. I just couldn’t! I decided to up that number to 5.
So, what are my top 5 Success books of the year for 2022? It was SO hard to choose because I read so many amazing books last year.
Before I get to my top 5 list, I actually have another favorite book—The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Christ (a book of scripture)—that I read every year. My relationship with God is my #1, no questions asked top priority, so that favorite book gets top spot on every favorite books list every single time. But after The Book of Mormon, here are my favorites for 2022 in no particular order because I just couldn’t choose and I decided to not waste time and stress trying to figure it out.
#1. Essentialism (Greg McKeown)
I’ve read this book 3 times, twice in 2022. Why? Because it is seriously a life-changing book. It dives deep into helping you figuring out what is truly essential as well as how to prioritize the essentials in life. If you haven’t read it, please do. You won’t regret it! It’s totally worth every single dollar and much, much more.
I’ve got an honorable mention book here too: Effortless (also written by Greg McKeown), the perfect companion to Essentialism. Effortless dives more into how to make what’s essential more…well…effortless. As someone who is trying to simplify my life, this book was and is also life-changing for me.
Both books are on my annual to-read list because I want to continually be learning and growing in both concentrating on what’s essential and making those things more effortless. After all, each time I re-read a book, I’m in a different season in life, so things will hit differently.
#2. Choose Your Story, Change Your Life (Kindra Hall)
I loved this book because it dives into how powerful both the good and not so good stories we tell ourselves can be and how they can affect our lives. I understood how powerful our thoughts can be, but I hadn’t really thought as much about the stories I tell myself. I also love it when authors give actionable items for ways to apply what they’re teaching, and Kindra did a great job with this too. I can definitely see myself re-reading this book in the future. As of today, this book is on sale on amazon for $4.88. That’s a huge steal!
I must also give an honorable mention to her other book, Stories that Stick, which was a top contender for my top 5 too. I actually read this book twice in 2022, a second time to prepare for a project for one of my clients.
#3. Soundtracks (Jon Acuff)
This book is also on my annual to-read list because I can always use the reminders and action items it offers for helping with my overthinking and with turning any negative thoughts into positive ones to help me become who I want to become. I’ve also read this book 3 times, including twice in 2022. I just finished it a few weeks ago in preparation for a presentation I’m doing for a client in February.
#4. Killing Comparison (Nona Jones)
I read this book on a flight back in October, and it was pure gold! I love how Nona backs up what she’s teaching about comparison with biblical teachings, and it really gave me some amazing new insights on comparison. I’ll definitely be re-reading this book too!
#5. The Gap and the Gain (Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy)
This was one of the first books I read in 2022 after it was highly recommended to me by our oldest daughter, Kamala. Here’s a snippet from the description on amazon.com:
Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an “ideal,” a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we’re in “the GAP.” However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we’re in “the GAIN.”
I’ll definitely be referring back to all my highlights and tabs in this book too!
The rest of my monthly favorites were also so good, and there were others I read that almost made the monthly favorites list too.
So, there you have it…my top 5—actually top 8—Success books for 2022. I’m excited to dive into more Success books in 2023. First up? My annual re-read of Atomic Habits (James Clear). This book didn’t make my top 5 for 2022 because I read it in December 2021, but it’s a book I don’t think you can read and study enough.
What were some of you favorite books—fiction or nonfiction—for 2022? Please share!
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