Hello all,
I’m making this post because I really want to get into reading to help develop my mind and way of thinking. Growing up, I always struggled with critical thinking and basic common sense. My parents never really showed me how to face fears, deal with obstacles, or approach problems with confidence and now as a young adult, I feel like that’s what held me back. My mom worked to long so she never had time to teach me anything and my father didnt truly care about me (basically fatherless). He was to busy causing issues with my mom.
I’ve noticed that it sometimes takes me longer than others to pick up new ways of doing things or to find a quick solution when issues come up. It’s like that with anything really, even when I learned how to cook or install something in my house it took alot of repeating of a specific part of the video to get it down. I overthink a lot too and get anxious when I’m struggling, failing at something, or get tasked with something new that I’ve never done before.
Most importantly, I just want to become smarter overall to learn how to think better, reason through problems, and not stay stagnant. I’m looking for book recommendations that can help build those mental muscles: critical thinking, problem solving, emotional control, and overall mindset. I’m not trying to make excuses with the way my upbringing was like I used too when I was a teenager. I realized it is what it is at the end of the day. No point in keeping a victim mentality. I’m very self aware so it’s mentally draining. Sorry for the long read.
by __Fl0w__
3 Comments
I’d start with Mindset by Carol Dweck.
Maybe something like Atomic habits, Meditations or 7 habits of highly effective people would be a good starting point
1st Congrats to you for realizing this about yourself and seeking resources, that is NOT an easy choice to make!
Secondly there there 2 things I think that would be helpful for you : critical reading and reading more complex books.
Critical reading is the most important thing, and this is great bc you can bring a critical mindset to anything you can consume. You can start with books/movies/games you already enjoy (but maybe not like absolute favs that u cannot look at rationally) and carve out time for what they’re “saying”/the messages are, why they’re saying it, how they’re saying it, and who benefits from the message. You can also begin by “borrowing” criticality from others — what would the critical/smart authors or people in your life think about that media?
Then, reading critical books. Not only are books more likely to have complex characters/themes that may stretch your brain to have to consider what you think about a lot of different topics/situations, but they are also more likely to have “discovering autonomy/agency” as a theme (and you can use those story’s as models for your own journey).
Bonus points if u can critically read complex books!!!
Some fiction books that may be good for this as they are complex and still fun to read are:
– Towards Eternity by Anton Hur (scifi book)
– The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
– Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro