As creative individuals we fantasize everyday about leaving our mark on this Earth when we checkout. It’s not an easy feat to accomplish, but we aspire in our own little way to satisfy our need.
Since creativity is ultimately the source of our existence, we operate on a high level of consciousness and are able to adapt to our surroundings with ease. To compliment this journey of creativity, this week we’ve compiled a list of great titles to help with your career and to give you some insights. If you’re looking to jumpstart your 2016 with some motivation, inspiration and empowerment, look no further, we’re sure one of more of these books will do the trick.
Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
Austin Kleon shows readers how to master the next step of the creative journey―getting known. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery―let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive.
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism – the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience, to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.
The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice
Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to unleash your creative potential. Whether you’re a creative by trade or an “accidental creative,” this book will help you quickly and effectively integrate new ideas into your daily life.
Unthink: Rediscover Your Creative Genius
This book will inspire everyone to realize that we are capable of so much more than we have pre-conditioned for. Creativity is not in one special place–and it is not in one special person. Creativity is everywhere and in everyone who has the courage to unleash their creative genius.
Creative Block: Get Unstuck, Discover New Ideas. Advice & Projects from 50 Successful Artists
This chunky blockbuster of a book is chock-full of solutions for overcoming all manner of artistic impediment. The blogger behind The Jealous Curator interviews 50 successful international artists working in different mediums and mines their insights on how to conquer self-doubt, stay motivated, and get new ideas to flow. Each artist offers a tried-and-true exercise—from road trips to 30-day challenges to cataloging the medicine cabinet— that will kick-start the creative process.
Breakthrough! Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination
From cleaning the house and eating spicy food to making a plaster cast of your hands and feet, Breakthrough! is rocket fuel for any creative individual in need of a catalyst to get ideas flowing again. This book is a compilation of strategies for combating creative block offered by a who’s who of leading graphic designers, typographers, cartoonists, photographers, illustrators, musicians, writers, and other creative professionals.
Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential by America’s Master Communicator
Take a look into the mind of one of America’s most legendary creative thinkers, George Lois. Offering lessons, practical advice, facts, anecdotes and inspiration, this book is a timeless creative bible for all those looking to succeed in life, business and creativity.
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone.
Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn’t get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. Written by two working artists, the book offers insights and observations, drawn from personal experiences, and provides an incisive view into the world of art as it is experienced.
Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job
Quitter is a book about how it’s possible not only to survive, but actually thrive in the tension between a day job and a daydream. If you’ve ever sat in a cubicle and thought, I don’t want to do this job for the rest of my life, this book is for you.
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there’s no rule-book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art. Seth Godin teaches you how to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose.
What other books do you think should be on this list? Leave your comments and happy reading!
