This holiday season, I’m thankful for the many inspiring authors who’ve helped provide fresh perspective throughout an incredibly challenging 2020.
If you’re like me, the events of the year have prompted a need to seek a positive outlet to recharge and reset. For me, books have been my refuge.
While I read a lot of great books this year, a few stand out for challenging me to think differently and stretch my perspective. They were particularly helpful in helping me better understand things happening in the environment (social, economic, etc.), while also providing practical advice and productive steps forward for improving as a society and as individuals.
The first is The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio, successful hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and author of several other good books. Drawing a number of present-day similarities Dalio provides a historical view (300-year analysis) of the forces that have contributed to the rise and fall of nations: a wealth gap, significant government debt, and political polarization. These are big challenges for sure, but fixable ones that require the right kind of leadership to unite, lead compromise, and solve the difficult-to-address issues. This also requires all to be advocates of, and committed to, education. A solid education is the best and most powerful resource a society can have, especially in times of innovation and advancement to ensure no one’s left behind.
If the events of this year have taught us anything, it’s that if we’re to come together to achieve a bold goal like this, it has to start by better understanding one another. Malcolm Gladwell explores this challenge in Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know.
Citing events, both in history and culture, Gladwell points out that understanding each other requires more than just a quick conversation. It requires active listening, reserving judgement, and really hearing each other. It should be an ongoing personal challenge. Otherwise, it’s too easy to make up our own versions of the truth and never truly see people for who they are. When we do, real breakthroughs happen. Our most successful ideas come from discussion, debate, and consensus, with diversity of experiences and perspectives giving them strength.
The final book is one I re-read often because it offers hope and guidance from two incredible leaders, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World captures a 2015 meeting between the two leaders, in which they answer the question: how do we find joy in the wake of suffering? They offer insight into both the obstacles and pillars of joy.
Given the personal toll 2020 has taken on so many, I find this book especially helpful during times of self-reflection, as it provides practical, actionable steps for finding more joy in life, something of which the book suggests we can all take ownership. Their lives are well-chronicled, as are their struggles. They’ve been an inspiration for as long as I can remember. Nonetheless, I was struck by the selflessness of the discussion. The Dalai Lama offered:
“Joy is the reward, really, of seeking to give joy to others. When you show compassion, when you show caring, when you show love to others, do things for others, in a wonderful way have a deep joy you can get in no other way.”
This holiday season, theirs is a perspective worth spreading.