5 Books for Awake Living, Focus + Ease

By Cate Stillman

Before we dive into the books I’ve chosen in the Awake Living Course, have you heard of VUCA?

VUCA is an acronym used to describe or reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations. The common usage of the term VUCA began in the 1990s and derives from military vocabulary. Understanding VUCA can help us understand why we want awake living, focus and ease in our life right now.

VUCA diagnoses our current challenges beyond the battle field and into modern life. Each of the 4 elements points us to developing the opposite in our daily life. If we can predict how we breakdown, collectively and individually, it points the way to how we can build immunity, strength and ease.

V = Volatility. The nature and dynamics of change, and the nature and speed of change forces and change catalysts.
U = Uncertainty. The lack of predictability, the prospects for surprise, and the sense of awareness and understanding of issues and events.
C = Complexity. The multiplex of forces, the confounding of issues, no cause-and-effect chain and confusion that surround an organization.
A = Ambiguity. The haziness of reality, the potential for misreads, and the mixed meanings of conditions; cause-and-effect confusion.

Once we get a grasp on our future personally and collectively is challenged by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, we can design our lives to cultivate the opposite. This is the law of contrary complements. Ayurveda refers to it as the law of opposites (like increases like and opposites reduce each other).

The books you’ll see below are the books that have streamlined by life into the opposite of VUCA. I assume VUCA. And I plan for SSSS:

S = Steady. My days and emotions are not volatile. They are steady, constant, stable, calm.
S = Settled. My days, my energy levels, and my organization runs on patterns that have a settling effect.
S = Simple. I refine my systems for simplicity. In the kitchen, in my workouts, in my team meetings, in synchronizing my family.
S= Synchronized. The co-creativity of potentiality is attracted and optimized through synchronicity with the present moment.

I’m not as good at acronyms as the military. In any case, my four S formula I come upon through my extreme pro-active self-development disposition. I found I recommended these books hundreds of times. These books brought me from VUCA to a day-to-day experience that is increasing steady, settled, simple, and synchronized. I created a course around this experience and these books. It’s called The Awake Living Course. Below is our book list.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

This simple book helped me be in right relationship with my the stuff in my life. I’ve used the KonMari method of cluttering and organizing for 12 months. I just spent 2 days upgrading my space. My home is completely resonate with who I am now, and who I am becoming. If this isn’t true for you… the objects in your life and pulling you backward, rather than propelling your evolutionary momentum. You’ve got to experience it to …. experience it!

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

I started using 12 Week year 18 months ago. My team adopted the planning strategy about 9 months ago. I insist all my career coaching clients implement the planning strategy in this immediately. The concept is very simple. The results are profound. Next time you run into me, you can ask me what my 12 Week Year goals are, and what % I’ve nailed. I’ll know.

Body Thrive by Me

We use Body Thrive to dial in the 10 Body Habits from yoga and Ayurveda. Body Thrive – the course – is included in the Awake Living Course. We can’t do both at the same time… so people take it before or after Awake Living to dial in the 10 body habits of yogis. I wrote this book because I found the peeps I work worth did NOT have these habits dialed, nor understand how to reverse engineer their habit evolution. This book puts that series of actions into order for simplicity and thrive.

The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks, the New York Times bestselling author of Five Wishes, demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs. Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed On Your Own

This book teaches you to think like some of the greatest non-conformist minds of our era, to question, challenge, hack, and create new rules for YOUR life so you can define success on your own terms.

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, a New York Times bestseller, is a blueprint of laws to break us free from the shackles of an ordinary life. It makes a case that everything we know about the world is shaped by conditioning and habit.

Optional:

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace

When I surveyed my peeps I heard you were very interested in streamlining meal prep and kitchen time. Deep nourishment is essential for living an optimized life. Setting yourself up to receive seasonally-attuned nutrient sense meals in a time-efficient flow is the name of the game. Adler Stevens writes pure poetry-in-action as she shows you how to easy build meals in a normal day-to-day flow.