9 Powerful Books on Creativity & Personal Growth To Read in Your Career Pause
Thinking of pursuing a personal project while on your career break? Here are nine books to help you find inspiration, organization, and the time you need to focus on your goals.
If the wise and ambitious women of the Mother Untitled community have taught us anything it’s that the shifts we make in our careers not only benefit our families, but they throw open the doors of possibility for ourselves too.
After all, it’s during a career break that Bubbsi founder Sweta Doshi dreamt up her gentle line of children’s skincare. And after Mookabee founder Jessica Jackson was laid off from part-time work, she dove into launching what would grow into her successful baby swaddle company. The Mother Untitled community is full of inspiring examples of women who used their career shifts and pauses to invest in their creative pursuits, from starting small businesses to writing novels and nearly everything in between.
If you’re feeling the call to pursue new personal goals but simply don’t know where to start, then this one’s for you. Below, we share nine books meant to inspire your imagination, help you establish your own creative practice—and find the time to dedicate to the things that fill you up.
9 Resources for Inspiring Creativity & Carving Out the Space Your Imagination Needs
From the downright strange to the entirely useful, Daily Rituals shares the working routines of 160 of history’s most influential philosophers, composers, writers, and artists. Detailing the habits of great creators like Sylvia Plath and Albert Einstein, Daily Rituals explores the seemingly endless ways to tap into your potential and pursue your creative goals.
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Julia Cameron’s bestseller, The Artist’s Way, might just be the bible for the creative world (Elizabeth Gilbert swears by it!). For anyone looking to carve space into their days for imaginative play, this book features techniques, practice exercises, and more to tap into your inner creative—whether you have plans to build a proper hobby or pursue your interests for a new career.
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Consider this your practical guide for unlocking your creative potential and learning how to build a sustainable practice that works for you. Full of exercises, techniques, and real-life examples culled from Lui’s extensive research on practicing artists, Creative Doing is for anyone—writers, artists, designers, musicians, digital creatives, and more—seeking fuel for a personal project or idea.
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A New York Times bestseller, Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals guides readers on prioritizing what they find most meaningful in their lives, based on the premise that human beings have an average of 4,000 weeks in their lifetime. “Instead of offering new tips on how to cram more into your day, it questions why we feel the need to,” writes Marianne Powers in The Times (UK). “My favorite kind of book is this one―a book that doesn't offer magic solutions to life because there aren't any. Instead, it examines the human struggle with intelligence, wisdom, humor, and humility.”
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“If you are looking for inspiration to get the most out of your life, this is a must read,” reads Reese Witherspoon’s blurb on the cover of the New York Times bestselling author Eve Rodsky’s latest book, Find Your Unicorn Space. Full of research, advice, and practical techniques, this book aims to prove that creativity is essential for everyone on the planet. Pinpointing the term “unicorn space” as a time in which people can let their imaginative sides go wild, Rodsky weaves in the stories of thought leaders, academics, and everyday people to detail just how powerful tapping into your creative side can be.
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Upending the popular belief that we only earn time to rest through grueling work, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang introduces a new term into the zeitgeist: “deliberate rest.” With thorough research and real-life examples from influential creators throughout history, Rest repositions down time as a valuable tool for finding clarity, increasing productivity, and tapping into your creativity. Oh, and enjoying your life more, too.
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Forthcoming in April 2023, The Key to Creativity is an investigation into the science of our imaginations from journalist Hilde Ostby. Inspired by the fanciful adventures of Alice in Wonderland, Ostby falls down her own rabbit hole of research, interviewing creative movers and shakers, exploring the science behind our “aha” moments, and detailing research-backed avenues to unlocking your creative mind.
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Author Ken Robinson describes “the element” as the intersection of natural talent and personal passion—a mental state that fuels inspiration and achievement. With plenty of examples from big names like Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, and Paul McCartney, The Element seeks to uncover the factors humans need to reach their highest potential.
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The antidote to feeling overworked yet unproductive, Essentialism positions itself as a new discipline—one for finding what’s most important in your life and retraining your energy to focus on the right pursuits. Adam Grant calls it “A timely, essential read for anyone who feels overcommitted, overloaded, or overworked.”
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