Last Wednesday, I shared some of my ideas about philosophy: where I learned some of the things I hold to be true and why they are useful to me. This week I want to share some resources that helped me get to where I am professionally and continue to be valuable.

2.     Resources for the young professional:

• So Good They Can’t Ignore You: this book really resonated with me. I think that, overall, Cal Newport is right in saying that in order to achieve a highly satisfying professional career, you must first focus on developing skills that are in high demand. Passion usually follows this. Plus, being useful to others is generally highly satisfying.
• Deep Work: again by Cal Newport, he dives into the topic of how to work best. The key takeaway is that setting aside time to work deeply without interruptions yields the best kind of knowledge work the mind can produce. The key is to have no distractions. There has been a lot of science supporting this claim.
• www.optimalwork.com: a product that’s become a company developed by a good friend of mine. This platform will teach you work habits that will enable you to be in flow when you work. It goes beyond work habits, however, to help you become more introspective and truly gain satisfaction in life.
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: one of my all-time favorites, this book taught me to focus on the things I can control and work towards them, leaving the tings that are out of my control to sort themselves.

As you can probably tell, these resources are profoundly influenced by some of the philosophers I mentioned in my previous post. I hope they’re useful to some extent and please share more if you come across any that helped you!