1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (Charles Duhigg) In a sense, this book was my gateway drug into the world of personal development and pop psychology reading. (See: my review in 2012.) It also helped me understand my own personal psychological makeup in a way that would best allow me to establish some important habits (reading, exercise, healthy eating) and remove others (nail-biting, stress-eating). An important concept that was embedded into my life through read The Power of Habit was that of keystone habits, a concept that has stuck with me in the years since and has cross-pollinated as I have read other books where an intersection with the topic of habit(s) occurred. 2. The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun I first read this book around the same time I read The Power of Habit. And while you might not suspect it from the title, Rubin’s The Happiness Project (and later writings) discusses habits a great deal. This book was an important one in self-awareness and being able to understand the best approaches to make personal change in my life. 3. The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) In recent years, Daniel and I have changed on just about every level. We have our reading to thank for much of that, but we also frequently find ourselves coming up against a wall. For the most part, it’s a wall that’s in our heads. In other words, our big struggle in forward momentum and overcoming fear continues to be a psychological one. The Big Leap pretty much blew our minds in pulling back some of the layers of the psychological barriers that were preventing us from moving forward. 4. Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges (Amy Cuddy) Fear is a big challenge for many of us, particularly as it plays out in self-confidence. Presence addresses this in a big way, and you might just find yourself doing some power posing by the end. 5. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Elizabeth Gilbert) Some people hate this book; others are borderline obsessed. I don’t think I fall into either category, but definitely not the middle, either. Nonetheless, I did find this book to hold some very powerful concepts. As a person whose…