It’s that time again! Time to share my top reading (or listening) suggestions for summer 2024. We do this every year in anticipation of summer vacations and your much-deserved downtime.
Whatever you do, wherever you go, remember that your vacation is about finding time to focus on Family (and friends), Fitness, and Fun—three of our 7 F’s of True Success. It’s also about prioritizing yourself—recharging your energy, imagination, and potential.
We believe you can—and should—combine education with entertainment, so Corsini’s Top Read (or Listen) List is curated to help you do what you do better and enjoy the process!
Suggestions here are listed by topic:
- Your life & legacy. Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. Reading this book changed how I felt about wealth accumulation. The idea here is to not sacrifice valuable life experiences for the sake of accumulating more and more money. Perkins cautions against over-saving and under-spending, encouraging readers to optimize their lives and enjoy what they’ve worked so long and hard for. After all, you really can’t take it with you.
- A sports-focused look at a life of success. The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life by Sally Jenkins. During her long career as an award-winning sports writer, Sally Jenkins picked up a few tips. She shares lessons learned from years of interviewing, observing, and analyzing elite coaches and players like Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and more. She says success in work and life comes down to seven principles: conditioning, practice, discipline, candor, culture, resilience, and intention. Learn how to apply them to your own day-to-day.
- Optimize performance. 10x Is Easier than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. When I became a business coach 30 years ago, Dan Sullivan was “the guy” I wanted to emulate. Thirty years later, he’s still providing great content about how to maximize your work and live life to the fullest. Specifically, he says to focus on the “four most important freedoms: time, money, relationship, and purpose.” It’s about quality vs quantity, and the quality of your freedoms determines the results you achieve. There’s also a companion workbook and journal available.
- Living better & longer. Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia MD. The author is a physician who challenges the advice of mainstream medicine, which he says focuses on treating diseases, instead of trying to circumvent getting them in the first place. His approach is to use a personalized proactive strategy to expand our “healthspan” for longevity while also improving our physical, emotional, and cognitive health. Aging and longevity, he says, are more flexible than we think.
- Emotional wellness. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer. As someone who is always in a hurry, it was past time for me to read this book. Too often, we treat the toxicity of our too-busy lives instead of trying to understand the causes of the problems we face. The solution starts with slowing down; this book is a guide to doing that.
- The value of “soft skills.” Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success by Gary Vaynerchuk. I can’t remember who recommended this book, but I’m sure glad they did! “Soft skills” like self-awareness, empathy, and curiosity have become more important and sought-after as leaders realize that these skills, while not quantifiable, can actually accelerate success in business. One of the biggest takeaways is the concept of using “kind candor” when giving people feedback. That meshes perfectly with my coaching program where we stress the power of authenticity in all that we do.
- Self-awareness. Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke. Most of us spend our time trying to figure out how to finish, stay in the game, and persevere until we accomplish something. We are poor quitters. We stay in jobs that we no longer enjoy and in relationships that no longer work for us. Turns out that “quitting is good,” and we need to become better at doing it. Read this book to learn how the paradox of quitting influences decision making, what forces work against good quitting (desire for certainty, status quo bias), and best practices like flexible goal setting and “quitting contracts.” Because sometimes quitting is your next best move.
- Better breathing. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. Perhaps you’re thinking, “You gotta be kidding, Corsini. We all know how to breathe!” This book will set you straight. In fact, most of us don’t breathe correctly at all, and that’s a problem. This book is a scientific, cultural, and spiritual look at how we should be breathing and how even the slightest adjustments can rejuvenate us, help us perform better, and make us healthier. Read it and you’ll breathe easier.
- Habits. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear. This book shares practical strategies for forming good habits and breaking bad ones, which can lead to great things in all parts of life. If you’ve struggled with this, the author says you are not the problem—your systems are. And he shows you how to change those systems and your environment with simple, science-based behaviors you can begin right now.
- A notable biography. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. No matter how you might feel about Elon Musk, this is a fascinating read—all 600 pages of it. I really had trouble putting it down. Isaacson, who also wrote Steve Jobs, shadowed the controversial innovator for two years. He spent hours interviewing Musk, his family, friends, co-workers, and enemies. The result is a book about triumph and turmoil and what exactly drives one of the richest—and most impulsive-—men on earth.
Bonus: Here’s a book on authenticity because that’s a huge part of what CCG is all about. The Change Agent: How a Former College QB Sentenced to Life in Prison Transformed His World by Damon West. This is about a man who had it all—opportunities, athleticism, a great family, a faith-filled life, wonderful support—and then lost it all because of addiction. Damon ended up sentenced to 65 years in prison. Then, after meeting with a seasoned convict, he had a spiritual awakening. That led to a program of recovery, renewed faith, and a second chance at life. It’s an amazing story of redemption.