Grit - Angela Duckworth

Growing up, I found myself switching from activity to activity, because my interest died out really quickly. In Chinese, my father called it 五分钟热度, which literally means "five-minute heat". Although exploration is important, I didn't stick to something long-term, and this book truly opened my eyes. 

Content: Through this book, Dr Duckworth spoke of her journey to seek answers on the importance of grit, how grit can be nurtured, and how one can develop grit from within. While hard work and intelligence are important, grit is a measure of how much discomfort or pain one can go through before choosing to give up. This measure also provides insights into our future success in our careers.

Estimated reading time needed: 12-15h but I recommend taking your time to do so. Relate the info to your experiences if you can and reflect, it will help greatly.

Key takeaways: 

1) Before hard work comes play, to gain the initial spark of interest by having fun

2) A key part of developing grit is after the initial phase of discovery - a period of proactive interest development

3) High-level goals should be written in ink once you've got that figured out, and low-level goals should be written in pencil that can be adjusted or removed

4) Simply telling others they can overcome adversity is insufficient. To grow grit, we need to experience adversity, have a growth mindset and tell ourselves we can overcome it, and persevere to overcome it

5) The people around you are important - so are their support and encouragement

6) A team's culture has an effect on the individual - becoming great may be a result of joining a great team

7) Aside from grit, there is also character. Character is plural

Recommendation: This is one of the books that reached the peak of my "Maslow's hierarchy" for reading. Not only does it have a well-thought-out structure with great arguments and evidence, it is also relatable to me as I think about my own experiences and how I've developed (and can develop) grit. If you'd like to do well in something but aren't sure how, read this.

Rise Above You - Dr Candice Goh

This book was short and sweet. If you enjoy reading straightforward books, amalgamated with tips on how to live better, this is the book for you. 

Content: The book was structured into the 7 alphabets (chapters) from A to G, each letter representing an acronym. For example, C was care for your body, which emphasised on the importance of your health. These 7 tips were easy to follow and had short stories to accompany them, to help you remember the tips better. At the end of each chapter, there are also call-to-action guides and a space to write our thoughts and action plans. I highly recommend penning your thoughts to crystallise your ideas and move forward.

Estimated reading time needed: 1h

Key takeaways: 

1) Care for your body/health. This is something I hold close to myself. My belief is that without health, nothing else matters - I can't spend time with my loved ones, can't spend the money I've made, can't live out my best life and travel the world. 

2) We need to have direction in life. It's okay if we don't really know where yet, but we must start moving somewhere. We cannot be stagnant and stay where we were before, which also leads to the habit of continuous growth. I think this is a general guide, and we should not move in the opposite direction. For example, if we want to work in the science field, we should be taking some science and math courses. Even if we didn't know where to go, we can develop other transferrable skills.

3) The only person we should compare to is who we were yesterday. We live in a time when people spend hours on social media each day, and where social media is a platform to depict our best selves. Social media leads to comparison of the lives others lead and ours, which is unhealthy. When we use ourselves as a gauge, life becomes much more straightforward because you constantly know your own baseline. This, I think, can perpetuate into a growth mindset like in point 2.

4) Friends and loved ones are important, be there for them.

Recommendation: I truly believe in each and every one of these tips. Dr Goh wrapped up several of life's most important aspects in a short book (in my opinion), which serves as a quick reminder of what I should be doing to live a better life. Although it doesn't cover every corner of each pillar of our lives, like how everyone has their own timelines, I highly recommend this book to everyone. It's short, sweet, and full of nuggets. 

Happiness Becomes You - Tina Turner

Some of you may know Tina Turner, the musician, singer, dancer, who won multiple awards. I personally am not familiar with her works, but I was reading some articles about good positivity books, and they said if I had to choose one from the list, it would be this. I heeded and started reading. I am not a religious or spiritual person, so I couldn't really relate to some aspects of this book. However, I understood her messages on positivity, overcoming challenges, and ultimately making this world a better place for all humanity.

Content: Tina Turner covers many areas in this book, on spirituality and religion. It is astounding how she could retain so much positivity in life, not just for the future, but even her past. Her past was not something people would want to go through, from being unwanted by her mother, to an abusive marriage. At that time, she was in a deep, dark place, and ended up taking 50 sleeping pills, hoping to end her life. She survived, and believed that there was something else in store for her. Her perspective of life took many years to develop and grow, as she became a more positive, resilient person. There were many things that she wanted to do, and she slowly envisioned what she wanted, and achieved them. 

Estimated reading time needed: 5-8h

Key takeaways: 
1) Everybody goes through difficult times in life, and we need to understand that everything happens for a reason, but that reason sometimes eludes us. This way, we are able to frame our difficulties into opportunities for us to get out of the dark place and grow from it. This is the concept of "changing poison into medicine".

2) Tina believes that as long as we can change ourselves, our circumstances and situations around us will change accordingly. As long as we're constantly improving ourselves, we're on the best path in life and things will start to fall in to place. Sometimes, making such choices could be simply to think of a more positive thought.

3) Because everything happens for a reason, we are who we are today because of what happened in our past. As long as we love who we are now, we can come to terms with what happened. Our perception determines the way events affect us. We can thus change our past by changing how the past events affect us.

Recommendation: It was a really good book, and doesn't take too much time to read. If you're going through a difficult situation, this book will be useful. If you're not going through a difficult situation, it is still a good book to remind us of the good around us, and to contribute to the good of humanity. Overall, it was too spiritual and religious for me, but I appreciate the teachings in this book, especially the "Ten Worlds" concept which is similar to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I have greater respect for Tina now that I've learned about her past and how she came to terms with it after decades of struggle. For only a few hours of reading, I believe it is worth the investment of your time to read this book, to have a more open mind.