Our Top 5 Motivational Reads for Young People

Navigating through life as a young adult can be challenging and daunting. Teenagers face school, exams, relationships, friendships, raging hormones and growing up all at once. There are so many new and unfamiliar situations we face all deemed to be 'part of growing up'. If you are feel unmotivated, uninspired or a little bit confused by life, we hope we can help. Here are the top five motivational books we have found that we recommend for tweens, teens and young adults.

 

Just As You Are - Kelly Skeen

If you're like many teens, you probably feel pressured to live up to the impossible standards set by our culture, the media, and even by your peers. After all, everyone wants perfect hair, a perfect body, cool friends, and good grades. But while it's okay to strive to be your best, it's also easy to get caught up in a never-ending comparison game that can feed your inner critic and rob you of your happiness. So, how can you break free from negative self-criticism and learn to appreciate your strengths?

In Just As You Are, psychologist Michelle Skeen and her daughter, Kelly Skeen, offer simple tips to help you overcome feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, stop comparing yourself to others, and be more open and accepting of all aspects of who you are. You'll also learn how to be more aware of your thoughts and feelings in the moment using powerful mindfulness tools, and build a plan of action for the future based on your values.

Sometimes it's hard to see yourself with clarity and kindness. With this important guide, you'll learn to move past your faults, celebrate your true strengths, and discover what really matters in your life. What are you waiting for?

You Are A Champion - Marcus Rashford MBE

The front cover of You Are A Champion by Marcus Rashford MBE. The Manchester United striker wrote this motivational and inspirational book for tweens and teens following the work he did during the covid-19 lockdown to ensure that every child had access to a meal.

 

Marcus Rashford MBE is famous worldwide for his skills both on and off the pitch – but before he was a Manchester United and England footballer, and long before he started his inspiring campaign to end child food poverty, he was just an ordinary kid from Wythenshawe, South Manchester. Now the nation's favourite footballer wants to show YOU how to achieve your dreams, in this positive and inspiring guide for life.

Written with journalist Carl Anka, You Are a Champion is packed full of stories from Marcus’s own life, brilliant advice and top-tips from performance psychologist Katie Warriner. It will show you how to be the very BEST that you can be.

It shows kids how to:
- Be comfortable with who you are – you can't be a champion until you're happy being you!
- Dream big
- Practise like a champion
- Get out of your comfort zone and learn from your mistakes
- Navigate adversity in a positive way
- Find your team
- Use your voice and stand up for others
- Never stop learning

With an afterword by Tim S. Grover.

You Don't Have to Learn Everything the Hard Way - Aunt Laya Saul

You Don't Have to Learn Everything the Hard Way covers a lot of topics that teens need and want to read about: from sensitive areas like pain and hard times, to issues like understanding how to deal with peer pressure and making the right choices. These are the topics that teens asked Aunt Laya to write about. They also asked for inspiration and ideas about goals and life s changes. Laya Saul does not shy away from any topic that can empower a young adult. She gives teens the tools to meet life s trials head on! Like a favorite aunt, Laya Saul encourages her readers to use challenges as stepping-stones. This comforting and strengthening book reads like a letter written from the heart. Although it was written with teens in mind, the book is finding its way into the hands of readers spanning generations! The wisdom is practical, timeless, and helpful. Each chapter is written in bite-sized portions and packed with ideas, stories, quotes, and questions for introspection. Inspiring, motivating, comforting, and helpful, You Don't Have to Learn Everything the Hard Way is sought after by teens and the adults in their lives who want them to succeed. It s a great gift to be tucked under the pillow of your favorite teen, or read together to open discussions or bond. This book has become a beloved reference that the reader can return to over and over.

Live Fearless - Sadie Robertson

Are you tired of the comparison game and trying to keep up? Are you worried that people will discover the real you and be disappointed? Sadie Robertson, New York Times bestselling author, has an important message for her generation: you don’t have to be held back by fear, anxiety, or loneliness anymore. In Live Fearless, Sadie takes you on a thrilling journey toward power, passion, and purpose as you live at the center of who God created you to be!

No matter who you are, where you come from, or what your fears are, freedom is available to you. It’s just a matter of saying yes.

Sadie teaches teens and young adults how to:

  • Set aside fear, anxiety, and comparison so you can become the joy-filled person God created you to be
  • Really be seen and known
  • Be an agent of change by choosing compassion, connection, and acceptance

Inside Live Fearless you’ll find:

  • Places to jot down notes
  • Fun lists and practical ways to make changes
  • Inspirational thoughts on how living fearless can change everything

Live Fearless is the perfect gift for young Christian women on birthdays, for graduation, or as a “just because” gift to encourage self-care and confidence.

The Book of Joy - Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu

Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.
 
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.

In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering?

They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.

 

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