Written by a Canadian clinical psychologist, this self-help book shows us how to live our lives in a more meaningful way, including ways to become a more assertive individual, acting with integrity, choosing the right friends and pursuing what is most important to you, all while living the best life you can. Those interested in maintaining a good work-life balance as a doctor may find this book appealing.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

A classic – The book begins with an explanation of how many individuals who have achieved a high degree of outward success still find themselves struggling with an inner need for developing personal effectiveness and growing healthy relationships with other people. This book is for anyone who wants to achieve more in their life and seeks strategies to help propel them towards their ultimate goals.

How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie

Another classic – The ability to sell yourself and convince others to see your point of view through logic and reasoning is one of the most underrated yet highly valuable skills one could possess. It is how individuals become prominent within their sector and is essentially what drives the economy. Even as doctors, it is helpful when our explanations are understood and accepted by the patients we see. As such, anyone interested in improving their communication skills and public speaking will find this book extremely useful.

Habits are the backbone of what maintains our daily routine. Atomic Habits goes into depth on how we can improve our habits and become more efficient in our daily lives. It also talks about goal setting, sticking to a schedule and determining your areas of opportunity in life. It is a great read for those interested in how to manage their time better – an important quality for medics to have.

A highly motivational read that emphasises the need to take massive action in order to achieve your goals, whether that is finding your ideal loved one, making a certain amount of money or achieving a certain body fat percentage. We as humans have a tendency to underestimate what we can accomplish, and therefore set lower goals and not reach our full potential. The key is to multiply the effort and time you think it’ll take to achieve your ambitions by 10, and therefore create results you never expected would be possible.

Living life on your own terms is the key message of this self-help book. It argues that only caring about the things most important to you whilst disregarding those that are not is crucial in becoming happier, and that seeking happiness itself is counter-intuitive. A great read which emphasises how finding something important and meaningful in your life is perhaps the most productive use of your energy and time.

One of my favourite books that has had the greatest impact in shifting my mindset and understanding of financial independence. As medics, when we think of income, we think of salary – a form of active income where one exchanges their time for money. Robert Kiyosaki argues that illiteracy, both in words and numbers, is the foundation of financial struggle and that it is important to educate yourself and acquire assets that generate passive income whilst also cutting down on liabilities and expenses. A fantastic read that truly opens the mind to new possibilities that may help you live a more fulfilling life.