Seventeen books behind the pages we print

Each exercise in the Astera workspace starts from an idea somebody wrote a whole book about. We’ve grouped the books by what they cover.

On habits and the daily page

• Atomic Habits, James Clear. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. The daily check-in in our workspace comes from this line.
• Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins. When you think you’re done, you’re only 40% in to what your body’s capable of doing. Read it when you think you’ve hit your limit.
• The Obstacle Is the Way, Ryan Holiday. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind. There is no other definition of it.

On thoughts, and getting out from under them

• The Feeling Good Handbook, David D. Burns. When you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel. Our cognitive distortions guide uses his list.
• Awareness, Anthony de Mello. What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you.
• The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. Read it beside the personalisation distortion.
• Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Wayne Dyer. Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
• The Surrender Experiment, Michael A. Singer. Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results.
• The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav. When the personality comes fully to serve the energy of its soul, that is authentic empowerment.

On what you want, and deciding

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson. Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for. Keep it in mind when you pick your top three values.
• Finding Your Own North Star, Martha Beck. A knowledge of that perfect life sits inside you just as the North Star sits in its unaltering spot.
• Everything Is Figureoutable, Marie Forleo. The most powerful words in the universe are the words you say to yourself. The exercise of the same name comes out of this book.
• The Path Made Clear, Oprah Winfrey. Your life isn’t about a big break. It’s about taking one significant life-transforming step at a time.
• What I Know For Sure, Oprah Winfrey. You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.

On work, and the people you do it with

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz. Hard things are hard because there are no easy answers or recipes.
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith. We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Read it beside the Johari Window, since it’s about blind spots.
• Start With Yourself, Emma Grede. Nobody’s coming to hand you power. You have to take it for yourself.

Two podcasts

• Poetry Unbound, Pádraig Ó Tuama. A poem’s like a house with many entry points: a window, a door, a crack in the walls. Each episode takes one poem and reads it slowly. We love it on a bad week.
• The Resilient Mind. Build unshakable resilience from the inside out.

How to use this reading list

Pick the book behind whatever you’re stuck on, read it, and do its exercise in the same week.

Every book on the list links to its own page here, and most of those pages open the exercise the book sits under.