Self Talk – Avoid Comparison thinking

Strong-minded people are confident and resilient no matter how other people are performing. If you are going to compare, it should be against goals you have made and achieved in the past, to show how you’ve grown.

• Although strong-minded people are often in competitive fields, such as sales, athletics, politics, and academics, they win by being able to move past competitive pressures.

• Pay attention to your social media use and determine whether it’s causing you to compare yourself, feel inadequate, or suffer from any other negative impacts.

Tech Tip

 Subscribe to Audible – download some books – learn and enjoy on the road. Last year I listened to 42 books!  Here’s my last 50:

• Abaddon’s Gate: The Expanse, Book 3
• By: James S. A. Corey
• Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
• Series: The Expanse, Book 3
• For generations, the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt – was humanity’s great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus’s orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark….

• The Go-Giver, Expanded Edition: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
• By: Bob Burg , John David Mann
• Narrated by: Bob Burg , John David Mann
• Series: Go-Giver, Book 1
• The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success….

• Onward: Where Certainty Ends, Possibility Begins
• By: Scott Perry
• Narrated by: Scott Perry
• Onwardis a handbook for aspiring and advancing change agents leaning into endeavors that make a difference. Presented in a pithy and provocative style, Onward will help listeners cultivate a thriving difference-maker’s mindset and posture….

• The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth
• By: Marcus J. Borg , John Dominic Crossan
• Narrated by: John Pruden
• Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, join forces to show how history has biased our reading of the nativity story as it appears in the gospels of Matthew and Luke….

  

• The Dark Hours
• By: Michael Connelly
• Narrated by: Titus Welliver , Christine Lakin
• Series: Harry Bosch, Book 23
• There’s chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air….

• Later
• By: Stephen King
• Narrated by: Seth Numrich
• The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn….

• The Gift of Struggle: Life-Changing Lessons About Leading
• By: Bobby Herrera
• Narrated by: Bobby Herrera
• Every leader has stories about the challenges they have faced and struggles they have overcome. In the moment, those situations require strength, patience, perseverance, and courage. With time, those struggles provide us lessons for how to be better leaders….

• A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
• By: Amor Towles
• Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
• In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin….

• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
• By: Lori Gottlieb
• Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
• One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of­fice she suddenly lands….

• The Madness of Crowds: A Novel
• By: Louise Penny
• Narrated by: Robert Bathurst
• Series: Chief Inspector Gamache/Three Pines, Book 17

• While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request….

• Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel
• By: Anthony Doerr
• Narrated by: Marin Ireland , Simon Jones
• Set in Constantinople in the 15th century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood….

• The Sweetness of Water (Oprah’s Book Club): A Novel
• By: Nathan Harris
• Narrated by: William DeMeritt
• In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry – freed by the Emancipation Proclamation – seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle….

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
• By:  E. Schwab
• Narrated by: Julia Whelan
• France, 1714: In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever – and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents….

• Revelator: A Novel
• By: Daryl Gregory
• Narrated by: Reagan Boggs
• In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. The mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family’s personal god….

• The Wrong Side: Bocephus Haynes, Book 2
• By: Robert Bailey
• Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
• Series: Bocephus Haynes, Book 2
• A battle-worn lawyer fights for a young man’s life in this criminally enthralling legal thriller….

• Spoonbenders: A Novel
• By: Daryl Gregory
• Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
• Teddy Telemachus is a charming con man with a gift for sleight of hand and some shady associates. In need of cash, he tricks his way into a classified government study….

• This Is How You Lose the Time War
• By: Amal El-Mohtar , Max Gladstone
• Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell , Emily Woo Zeller
• From award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone comes an enthralling, romantic novel spanning time and space about two time-traveling rivals who fall in love and must change the past to ensure their future….

• Billy Summers
• By: Stephen King
• Narrated by: Paul Sparks
• Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit….

The Great Alone

• By: Kristin Hannah
• Narrated by: Julia Whelan
• Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision….

• Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon
• By: Robert Kurson
• Narrated by: Ray Porter , Robert Kurson
• The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind’s historic first mission to the moon, from the best-selling author of Shadow Divers….

• Caliban’s War
• By: James S. A. Corey
• Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
• Series: The Expanse, Book 2
• The second book in the NYT best-selling Expanse series, Caliban’s War shows a solar system on the brink of war, and the only hope of peace rests on James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante’s shoulders. We are not alone….

• The Perfect Marriage
• By: Jeneva Rose
• Narrated by: Neil Hellegers , Teri Schnaubelt
• Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned. The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer….

• Afterparty
• By: Daryl Gregory
• Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
• It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them….

• The Midnight Library: A Novel
• By: Matt Haig
• Narrated by: Carey Mulligan
• Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality….

• Small Is the New Big: And 193 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
• By: Seth Godin
• Narrated by: Seth Godin
• Collected here for the first time are eight years of Seth Godin’s very best blog posts, magazine columns, and e-books.

• The Walk
• By: Lee Goldberg
• Narrated by: Luke Daniels
• It’s one minute after the Big One. Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse….

• Project Hail Mary
• By: Andy Weir
• Narrated by: Ray Porter
• Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission – and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it….

• The Space Race: An Audible Original
• By: Colin Brake , Patrick Chapman , Richard Hollingham , Richard Kurti , Sue Nelson , Helen Quigley , Andrew Mark Sewell
• Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew
• To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, this major drama-documentary series charts the definitive story of the past, present and future of humankind’s exploration of space. The Space Raceis narrated by Kate Mulgrew and features a full cast….

• Win at Work and Succeed at Life: 5 Principles to Free Yourself from the Cult of Overwork
• By: Michael Hyatt , Megan Hyatt Miller
• Narrated by: Michael Hyatt , Megan Hyatt Miller
• Great leaders are driven to win. Yet career wins can come at great cost to your health, relationships, and personal well-being. Why does it seem impossible to both win at work and succeed at life? Find out….

• The Woman in the Window: A Novel
• By:  J. Finn
• Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
• For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade’s most anticipated debuts….

• On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition
• By: Jack Kerouac
• Narrated by: Will Patton
• Few novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing….

• The Casual Vacancy
• By: K. Rowling
• Narrated by: Tom Hollander
• When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early 40s, the little town of Pagford is in shock – and at war….

• The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It
• By: Kelly McGonigal
• Narrated by: Walter Dixon
• Based on Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal’s wildly popular course “The Science of Willpower”, The Willpower Instinctis the first book to explain the science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, happiness, and productivity….

• If It Bleeds
• By: Stephen King
• Narrated by: Will Patton , Danny Burstein , Steven Weber
• From number one New York Timesbest-selling author, legendary storyteller, and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary collection of four new and compelling novellas….

• The War of Art
• By: Steven Pressfield
• Narrated by: Steven Pressfield
• Think of The War of Art as tough love…for yourself. Since 2002, The War of Art has inspired people around the world to defeat “resistance”; to recognize and knock down dream-blocking barriers and to silence the naysayers within us….

• All the Devils Are Here: A Novel: Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, Book 16
• By: Louise Penny
• Narrated by: Robert Bathurst
• Series: Chief Inspector Gamache/Three Pines, Book 16
• In All the Devils Are Here, the 16th novel by number one best-selling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light….

• The Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel
• By: Jo Nesbø
• Narrated by: John Lee
• Series: Harry Hole Series, Book 1
• Available in English at last! The first book in the remarkable, best-selling Harry Hole series from Jo Nesbø….

• And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella
• By: Fredrik Backman
• Narrated by: David Morse
• This is a moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories and his family’s efforts to care for him – even as they must find a way to let go….

• Us Against You
• By: Fredrik Backman
• Narrated by: Marin Ireland
• Series: Beartown, Book 2
• After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they learn that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players take in that fact….

• Anxious People: A Novel
• By: Fredrik Backman
• Narrated by: Marin Ireland
• Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage….

• Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
• By: Anonymous
• Narrated by: Gabra Zackman , Lyle Lovett ,  Smith-Cameron
• Becoming Duchess Goldblattis two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media….

• The Tribes: A Novel
• By: Mari Howes
• Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik , Piper Goodeve
• A dark and daring debut novel exploring power, control and resilience against all odds, The Tribes tells the story of a cult member accused of a shocking crime and the lawyer who chooses to defend her….

• A Time for Mercy: A Jake Brigance Novel
• By: John Grisham
• Narrated by: Michael Beck
• Series: Jake Brigance, Book 3
• Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid 16-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy….

• The Overstory
• By: Richard Powers
• Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
• The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fable that range from antebellum New York to the late 20th-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond….

• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
• By: Isabel Wilkerson
• Narrated by: Robin Miles
• interactive rating stars
• From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history….

• Beartown
• By: Fredrik Backman
• Narrated by: Marin Ireland
• Series: Beartown, Book 1
• People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink….

• The Vanishing Half: A Novel
• By: Brit Bennett
• Narrated by: Shayna Small
• interactive rating stars
• The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern Black community and running away at age 16, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything….

• Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It: Unlocking the Nine Secrets of People Who Changed the World
• By: Richard Koch
• Narrated by: Roger Davis
• Best-selling author and serial entrepreneur Richard Koch charts a map of success, identifying the nine key attitudes and strategies that can propel anyone to new heights of accomplishment….

• Courtship After Marriage: Romance Can Last a Lifetime
• By: Zig Ziglar , Tom Ziglar – contributor
• Narrated by: Tom Ziglar , Zig Ziglar
• Whether you have been married two years, 50 years, or anywhere in between, this book offers couples commonsense advice on how to keep romance alive in their relationships….

• Between Black and White: McMurtrie and Drake Legal, Book 2
• By: Robert Bailey
• Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
• Series: McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers, Book 2
• In 1966 in Pulaski, Tennessee, Bocephus Haynes watched in horror as his father was brutally murdered by 10 local members of the Ku Klux Klan….