In My Hands Today…

The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behaviour is hard to teach, even to brilliant people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world, people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

In My Hands Today…

When Things Don’t Go Your Way: Zen Wisdom for Difficult Times – Haemin Sunim, translated by Charles La Shure

Have you ever felt like life has thrown you a curveball? Are you struggling to overcome unexpected challenges and setbacks?

While loss, heartbreak, and loneliness are all part of the human experience, in this warm guide, internationally bestselling author Haemin Sunim shows us that these moments can actually be rare opportunities for self-discovery, serving as stepping stones to greater things in life.

Drawing on Zen Buddhist philosophy and Sunim’s own experiences, When Things Don’t Go Your Way helps you navigate life’s challenges with resilience and grace. Whether you’re dealing with rejection, uncertainty, loneliness, conflicts in relationships, or burnout–or simply seeking to improve your mental and emotional well-being–Sunim offers a new spiritual perspective, one that helps us face life’s challenges with greater ease and understanding, and offers solace and courage when we need it the most.

In My Hands Today…

The Emotionally Intelligent Office: 20 Key Emotional Skills for the Workplace – The School of Life

Work-related stress currently costs the United States economy $300 billion a year. Modern businesses prioritize technical training, yet the true success of a business has little to do with the hard skills taught at business school and much more to do with the emotional intelligence of its employees.

This book examines the roots of our problematic behavioral patterns in the workplace and addresses how we can overcome them. The skills discussed range from giving honest feedback to accepting that it’s OK to fail, to addressing jealousies and insecurities within teams. We learn about how our childhoods impact on how we deal with colleagues, and how to speak so that others will listen.

In My Hands Today…

Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control – Ryan Holiday

To master anything, one must first master themselves–one’s emotions, one’s thoughts, one’s actions. Eisenhower famously said that freedom is really the opportunity to practice self-discipline. Cicero called the virtue of temperance the polish of life. Without boundaries and restraint, we risk not only failing to meet our full potential and jeopardizing what we have achieved, but we ensure misery and shame. In a world of temptation and excess, this ancient idea is more urgent than ever.

In Discipline is Destiny, Holiday draws on the stories of historical figures we can emulate as pillars of self-discipline, including Lou Gehrig, Queen Elizabeth II, boxer Floyd Patterson, Marcus Aurelius and writer Toni Morrison, as well as the cautionary tales of Napoleon, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Babe Ruth. Through these engaging examples, Holiday teaches readers the power of self-discipline and balance, and cautions against the perils of extravagance and hedonism.

At the heart of Stoicism are four simple virtues: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Everything else, the Stoics believed, flows from them. Discipline is Destiny will guide readers down the path to self-mastery, upon which all the other virtues depend. Discipline is predictive. You cannot succeed without it. And if you lose it, you cannot help but bring yourself failure and unhappiness.

In My Hands Today…

The Art of Being Alone – Renuka Gavrani

Taylor Swift said once, “The scary news is, you are on your own now. But the cool news is, you are on your own now

The fear of loneliness was injected into our minds since we were kids. We have learned that the kid who eats, sits, and has no friends is pathetic. In every book or movie, the kid who eats alone and has no friends is always featured as a weak character who needs to be saved. Pick any book or movie, and you will observe a common pattern around loneliness. These people were shown as easy targets or an object of your sympathy.

No one wants to be seen as a ‘weirdo’ hence, our dread of being alone. We don’t want people to think of us as someone who needs to be saved or mocked. Someone who is unwanted or doesn’t fit in with the cool kids. We don’t want people to think that no one chose us. So what do we do? We start becoming like an ideal version of whom everyone loves. And in the race of achieving people’s acceptance and love, you end up losing yourself.

The Art of Being Alone is not just another book. It’s a story of my life. I have been alone for the majority of my life. And I still am. The only difference is, earlier I used to wish for the kind of best friend who will save me and now I enjoy every day with myself, doing things that I always wanted to and using my ‘alone time’ to GROW MYSELF and build my dream life.

And through my book, I want to take you on the journey of being cool with being alone. I have spent most of my life wishing for people to stay or have fun with me while ignoring my soul waiting for me to pay attention to myself. I know it’s tough to be lonely. But I promise, it’s fun to be alone. And it’s even more amazing when you use your alone time to build your dream life, achieve your goals, and fall in love with yourself.

We fear loneliness because we have been manipulated into believing that loneliness is a curse. And in the hope of finding people, we often end up losing ourselves and doing things that we hated in the first place. Why? Why do you hate the idea of being with yourself so much that you are ready to settle for the bare minimum?

But enough is enough. I have divided this book into two sections. The first section is about transforming loneliness into solitude. And the second section is about how you can use your solitude to turn into your growth period. If you are ready to transform your perception around loneliness and if you are all set to achieve your goals using your ‘alone time’ then welcome to ‘The Art of Being Alone’