BOOKS TO READ FOR FURTHER EDUCATION

The following selection of books will provide you with detailed insights into many of the theories and interventions we use in our courses. You can click on a book cover to go straight to its Amazon page.

Your life is a journey. At different points you will yearn for different things—greater happiness, more success at work, better relationships—but where are you looking for answers? In The Power of Character Strengths, Positive Psychology experts, Drs. Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath, encourage you to look within. In this research-based reference guide you will discover why your character strengths, the positive aspects of your personality, are your best-kept secrets for boosting your well-being. Discover how to appreciate what’s best in you and champion strengths in the people you care about most. As a bonus, you’ll practice putting your strengths into action with Strengths Builder, an easy-to-learn, four-step, research-backed program. Your adventure lies ahead, and The Power of Character Strengths is your must-have resource for building your best life!

The groundbreaking book, Character Strengths and Virtues, championed by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, describes the VIA Classification of character strengths and virtues. The book outlines the results of a 3-year project led by Peterson and Seligman involving 55 distinguished social scientists. From Aristotle and Plato to the major world religions, to other great thinkers and philosophers spanning the last 2,500 years, this work represents the most significant effort in history to review, assemble, research, and classify positive strengths/traits in human beings. The result is a “common language” (scientifically speaking, a “consensual nomenclature”) for understanding and discussing these core capacities in human beings.

Looking for the latest research and practices on character strengths and mindfulness? Curious about how character strengths can supercharge your mindfulness practice? Or how mindfulness can help you deploy your best qualities? Look no further the answers are in this book! At the core of this hands-on resource for psychologists and other practitioners, including educators, coaches, and consultants, is Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP), the first structured program to combine mindfulness with the character strengths laid out in the VIA Institutes classification developed by Drs. Martin E. P. Seligman and Christopher Peterson.

This game-changing book shows us the extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. Most parents struggle with this shift because they suffer from a negativity bias, thanks to evolutionary development, giving them “strengths-blindness.” By showing us how to throw the “strengths switch,” Lea Waters demonstrates how we can not only help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today’s pandemic of depression and anxiety.

Are you ready to make your work just a little bit easier and a lot more enjoyable? Would you like to unleash the potential of the people in your team? Do you want to enhance your business goals of employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and profitability? Then this book is your blueprint to discovering, developing, and delivering on your strengths at work–those things you’re good at and actually enjoy doing. Now is the time to strive for a strengths-fueled future. Discover how to nurture your strengths and unleash your inner potential to find new and exciting pathways at work.

After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

What really makes people glad to be alive? What are the inner experiences that make life worthwhile? For more than two decades Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied those states in which people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. His studies revealed that what makes experience genuinely satisfying is ‘flow’ – a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to complete absorption in an activity and results in the achievement of an ideal state of happiness. Flow has become the classic work on happiness and a major contribution to contemporary psychology.

In this must-read for anyone seeking to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth takes us on an eye-opening journey to discover the true qualities that lead to outstanding achievement. Winningly personal, insightful and powerful, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that – not talent or luck – makes all the difference.

In a world where academic success can seem all-important in deciding our children’s success in adult life, Paul Tough sees things very differently. Instead of fixating on grades and exams, he argues that we, as parents, should be paying more attention to our children’s characters. Inner resilience, a sense of curiosity, the hidden power of confidence – these are the most important things we can teach our children, because it is these qualities that will enable them to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives. In this personal, thought-provoking and timely book, Paul Tough offers a clarion call to parents who are seeking to unlock their child’s true potential – and ensure they really succeed.

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Outward Bound Netherlands is proud to be part of Outward Bound International. Outward Bound International is a membership organisation of the worldwide Outward Bound network. This network consists of 34 Outward Bound schools around the world.