I need to be more organized.

I need to go to bed earlier.

I need to be better at following up with clients.

Sound familiar?

Identifying the bad habits we need to change is easy for most people. Give them a pen, paper, and a minute or so, and they’ll give you a list of 5-10 things that they wish they could change. And many of us try our best to make improvements on our own -- whether it’s starting every January with a fresh batch of resolutions or simply making another “diet starts Monday” epiphany. 

If you’re looking for a book that will give you a step-by-step plan for eliminating those bad habits and instilling good habits into your life, “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg isn’t the book for you.

“To win in the future, companies must stop competing with each other. The only way to beat the competition is to stop TRYING to beat the competition.” 

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim describes its contents as “how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant”. The entire point of the book is to not only describe why it’s so important to change your mindset from focusing on competitors to focusing on alternatives (aka not converting customers, but finding a way to serve non-customers), but it also shows you how to do it.

Anyone who has been following along for a while now (or knows me in person!), understands that I have an ardent love for reading. Whether it’s historical, mystery, biography, essay, short story, business (the list LITERALLY goes on), you bet I’m down to read it.

So this holiday season, consider getting your favorite entrepreneur (or yourself!) one of these must-read business books:

Guess what? A large percentage of the thoughts that run through our brains are lies. Thoughts about ourselves (I'm not good enough, I need to lose weight, I'm clumsy/lazy/etc.), thoughts about other people (she's judging me, he is angry at me, they didn't invite me because they don't like me), and thoughts about the world overall (it's hard to make money, good grades are how you tell if you're smart).