Personal Performance

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers - and also our brains - create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

Motherhood is the toughest - and funniest - job you'll ever love. Raising kids is hard work. The pay sucks, your boss is a tyrant, and the working conditions are pitiful - you can't even take a bathroom break without being interrupted with another outrageous demand. Hasn't every mother said it before? "I just want to pee alone!" Hear these hysterical essays.

I was a “Monster Kid” and “The Weird Kid, The Horror Movie Kid.” I found out early…horror is always personal. Now I make horror for a living. It shouldn’t just be WATCHED. Horror should be ENJOYED. This isn’t some stuffy analysis telling you what’s good or bad. Instead, it’s a tour of the 1930s through the 1980s—a personal account of how the best and worst of this era gave us so many memories and experiences that impacted our own lives. It’s fun…just how horror should always be.

There's no wrong way to be a woman. There are countless wrong ways to be a man. James Breakwell should know. He's tried just about all of them. Journalism. Pig ownership. Felony lawn gnome theft. Whatever masculinity is supposed to be, this can't be it. But can you really fail at something no one can quite define? Apparently. Now, in a series of funny, sharply observed, and occasionally poignant essays, everyone's favorite internet-famous father of four daughters lays down a lifetime of lessons in what it means to be a man.

From best-selling author Bob Rotella, America's preeminent sports psychologist, a groundbreaking guide to success in all aspects of life - not just sports - from business to relationships to personal challenges of every variety.

This is not just another meditation guide. In Stress Less, Accomplish More, Emily teaches a powerful trifecta of mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting to improve your personal and professional performance, clarity, health, and sleep. You’ll learn how to cultivate mindfulness through brief but powerful exercises that will help you stop wasting time stressing. Plus, you’ll get manifesting tools to help you get crystal clear on your personal and professional goals for the future.

In any undertaking, there is no doubt that persistence plays a major role. It would then be a shame to succumb to negativity, especially when your plans have failed. Instead of feeling low and unworthy, listen to voice of reason and challenge your own mindset. You don’t have to constantly torture yourself with images of you on the brink of failure. All you need to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the subliminal messages.

The High Performance Playbook is not just a book of theory. It’s a playbook designed for you to create an amazing life. It will show you step-by-step how to become a High Performer and give you tactical strategies for reaching the next level.

From the time we learn to speak, we're told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it--and your obligation. Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she developed a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor. Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly.

From social disruptions like economic recessions, pandemics, and new technologies to individual disruptions like getting married or divorced, illness and injury, career transitions, and becoming a parent, we undergo change and transformation—both good and bad—regularly. Change is not the exception. It’s the rule. Yet we endlessly fight it, often viewing it as a threat to our stability and sense of self.

The Perfect Story will help you take your stories and make them perfect. Learn how to take any story and make it perfect--from storytelling expert Karen Eber, whose TED Talk on the subject has nearly two million views.

We have entered a new world of work. It’s a world where successful leaders embrace a human-centric approach, prioritizing the mental health and personal responsibilities of their employees alongside their professional ones. However, post-pandemic, a dark side to the empathetic workplace has emerged and many well-intentioned business leaders are struggling to keep both productivity and morale high. In The Empathy Dilemma, author, speaker and empathy advocate Maria Ross explores the difficulties organizational leaders are having, and the solutions they need to get back on track.

Tip is a timeless, inspirational story created to remind anyone in a position judged by performance that the only way to achieve continued recognition and growth in work and life is to take personal accountability for your reputation and results. Whatever your role, or level of success in your career, Tip is a guide that will help you discover, or remember, how to consistently bring unique value to your team, your organization, and your most important customers.

Discover how to cultivate the right mindset, manage your time effectively, and develop habits that lead to sustained success. With The Psychology of Productivity, you’ll learn how to turn your ambitions into achievements, and your goals into reality.

Every time we open our mouths, we have an effect on ourselves and the way others perceive us. The ability to speak clearly and confidently can make or break a presentation, an important meeting, or even a first date. Now, with the advent of Skype, YouTube, podcasting, Vine, and any number of reality talent competitions, your vocal presence has never been more necessary for success or more central to achieving your dreams.

Author Scott Dikkers will tell you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, number one New York Times best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. In this definitive joke-writing handbook, he'll teach you comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes.

A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story - and why doing so matters. Whether we realize it or not, we are always telling stories. On a first date or job interview, at a sales presentation or therapy appointment, with family or friends, we are constantly narrating events and interpreting emotions and actions. In this compelling book, storyteller extraordinaire Matthew Dicks presents wonderfully straightforward and engaging tips and techniques for constructing, telling, and polishing stories that will hold the attention of your audience (no matter how big or small).

The entries in this compulsively listenable book bridge past and present with topics like getting ghosted, handling haters, and why dog owners rule (sorry, cat people). Along the way you'll get a glimpse of Edith Wharton's sex life, dating rituals in Ancient Greece, catfishing in 500 BC, medieval flirting techniques, and squad goals from Catherine the Great.

Are you looking for unique ways to "get into the game"? To enhance your training and find focus? You aren't alone. Increasingly, athletes and coaches are incorporating mindfulness practices into their training. That's because mindfulness can help you lower your stress levels, connect with the moment, and mentally bounce back after setbacks. So whether you're a sports enthusiast or a professional athlete, mindfulness can also help you deal with physical aspects of training, such as fatigue, aches, pains, injury, burnout, and exhaustion.

As a professional baseball player, Jim Murphy's sense of worth revolved around results. When he started coaching professional and Olympic athletes, he often encountered the same mindset. After years of research, Murphy had a revelatory insight: that the pursuit of extraordinary performance and the pursuit of the best possible life are the same path. Filled with exercises, techniques and tools that will improve every area of your life, Inner Excellence trains your heart and mind for extraordinary performance and the best possible life.