Janet shares Just 3 books in the "Personal Development" category to help improve yourself and your life. She also announces "Recommendations," a brand-new feature on Nonfiction4Life podcasts. 

00:20   Another episode of “Editor’s Picks” from the “Personal Development” category

00:25   Two other EP episodes (#20-Home & Family; #47-Biographies & Memoirs)

00:40   N4L adding “Recommendations” to the podcast; stay tuned to the end!

01:10   Just 3 Personal Development books

01:40   1st book: How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon

01:50   Impressive resume includes being named “the world’s most influential thinker

02:50   Health fails; he’s a Harvard Business School professor, but he can’t write or speak

03:20   Relearning is demanding, slow, and discouraging

03:35   Arrives at a “fork in the road” where he decides his true purpose in life

03:50   1. Encourages his students to use time at school to figure out their lives’ direction

04:30   2. Gives smart people permission to make family and home life top priority

06:00   HBS class reunions full of extremely successful, very unhappy people

06:55   3. Helps students use theories to predict the trajectory of their lives

07:30   Bottom line: he helps people choose happiness and joy over everything else

07:50   2nd book: Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

08:10   Authors teach popular design course at Stanford University

08:15   Apply design principles and processes to help people design their own lives

08:45   1. Visual dashboards: how you’re spending time; “Odyssey Planning 101” (5-year plans)

09:30   2. Emphasizes the positive (look back at “peak experiences"; focus on offers, not jobs)

10:00   3. Being, Doing, and Becoming cycle emphasizes growth

10:55   3rd book: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

11:05   Good news for non-geniuses working hard: grit can be learned!

11:15   Duckworth supports ideas with research

11:25   1. Found grittiest adults in their late 6os, and the least gritty in their 20s

12:15   2. Finding your true passion takes time, sometimes years

12:40   3. How to grow grit from the inside out

12:50   “Grit Grid” charts commitment to outside activities and attached recognition

13:45   Follow-through & commitment to extra-curricular requires selection and cultivation

14:35   Discover your own level of grit using Duckworth's 10-Question Grit Scale.

14:50   Intro to N4L’s first-ever Recommendation

14:55   Janet’s mother, Mrs. Tanner, just turned 98 years old and has dementia        

15:10   Story of her forgetting how many children she has

15:30   Janet chooses to laugh; takes comfort knowing part of her brain works really well

15:45   Mom knows all the lyrics to hundreds of songs

16:10   Other older people suffering from memory loss can also be amazing, but changed

16:20   Teddy from the UK got Alzheimer’s and became aggressive and ill-tempered

16:30   His son Simon wanted to remember his father’s better side and his strong tenor voice

16:45   Simon takes Teddy for drives, plays music familiar to his father

16:50   Simon records father-son duets of Teddy’s signature songs; posts on YouTube

17:00   Teddy named “The Songaminute Man”

17:10   Videos go viral

17:15   Janet recommends "The Songaminute Man" YouTube video "Cuando, Cuando, Cuando"

17:25   Simon crowdsources to fund professional recordings; proceeds help Alzheimer’s research

BUY How Will You Measure Your Life?

BUY Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

BUY Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

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