Career Goals: 5 Books to Help You Get There

If you’re striving to achieve a career goal, inspiration can help you along your journey. Whether your plan this year is to snag a promotion, focus on self-improvement or become more motivated at work, here are five books that could inspire you to reach higher.

1. The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do by Jeff Goins

Goins explores the mysteries behind what motivates us at work. He notes that finding our purpose and figuring out our career goals is often more of a winding path than a specific plan. Sharing real people’s stories, the author examines how you can shape your dreams and how having mentors can be key to success.

2. I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time by Laura Vanderkam

How can successful working mothers manage their careers, their families and their personal lives? In this book, Vanderkam explores the concept of having it all. Pulling from interviews with hundreds of working women, the author shares how to make time for things that matter, using strategies such as working split shifts, protecting leisure hours and adhering to specific meal times as a family. If you’re ready to have more joy in your life (and who isn’t?) this book might be for you.

3. Moving the Needle: Get Clear, Get Free, and Get Going in Your Career, Business, and Life! by Joe Sweeney

If you need a set game plan to achieve your career goals, this could be your book. For many people, making work decisions is fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. This book provides actionable tips to help improve your performance at work, clarify where you see yourself in the future and transform inertia into practical steps forward. From crafting your ideal day to planning the next decade, this book will get you there.

4. Works Well With Others: An Outsider’s Guide to Shaking Hands, Shutting Up, Handling Jerks, and Other Crucial Skills in Business That No One EveTeaches You by Ross McCammon

Entrepreneur columnist Ross McCammon offers lessons that can boost the careers of employees at all levels. No matter what career goals you have in mind, this authoritative yet entertaining guide shares tips on how to master important soft skills such as interviewing, managing difficult people and staying confident and authentic. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to deal with common awkward moments in the workplace. Have no idea how to make small talk? Not sure if you should be dancing at the office party? McCammon has the answers.

5. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

This might be the only book that challenges its readers to get bored and stay bored. If you feel tethered to your smartphone or laptop, Cal Newport wants to help you reclaim your concentration. This book helps banish distraction and procrastination for good, and offers a training system designed to increase your efficiency at work. As a bonus, “Deep Work” also contains amusing anecdotes.

Each of these books offers a unique perspective and important lessons that can steer you towards success. For targeted courses that teach critical work skills and develop your talents, visit iLearn, where you’ll gain access to a treasure trove of professional development courses. Classes cover subjects like how to get noticed and get ahead, manage your productivity and increase your emotional intelligence.

Translate »