The Success Myth: Letting Go of Having It All

"In 2023, self-help books were explicitly moving away from themes of self-optimisation, productivity, and ‘grind culture’, and towards building a more boundaried, balanced relationship with work. Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals , which Emma Gannon highlighted as one of the best self-help books of 2021 , was an early leader in this field, and remains extremely readable and convincing. It’s available now in paperback in both the UK and the US. Gannon, another bestselling British author, has herself recently published a helpful, perspective-offering book along parallel lines: The Success Myth: Letting Go of Having it All reflects on why our traditional vision of what ‘success’ looks like so often leaves us with a sense of anti-climax, and how to step off that neverending treadmill of ambition and aspiration in favour of a more fulfilling life. It was endorsed by the likes of Seth Godin and Alain de Botton , and serves as a valuable and earnestly-argued polemic that will force you to question what you are really trying to achieve. Simone Stolzoff’s The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life From Work tackles some similar ideas, and is aimed at a similar audience—those who feel they have submerged themselves in pursuit of an ideal career and lost something of their own character, objectives, and identity along the way. (The title is a riff on Derek Winnicott’s idea of ‘ good enough parenting ,’ which allowed for the child’s natural and growing disillusionment with the parental figure as part of normal development. If this sounds comforting, you may also be interested in Avram Alpert’s The Good Enough Life . ) Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant—Wharton psychologist and author of the mega-bestseller author of Think Again — comes at the question of success and aspiration from a more traditional angle, arguing that talent is overrated; it’s all about character and application. A classic self-help book for those seeking focused and inspirational life advice, with a particular concentration on organisational change and creating supportive systems. While I’m here, I should also mention that Oprah Winfrey teamed up with Harvard Business School professor Arthur C. Brooks to write Build the Life You Want : The Art and Science of Getting Happier , an uplifting book with a focus on emotional self-regulation that was an instant New York Times bestseller. Work is one of their ‘four pillars’; the other key elements as they see it are family, friendship, and faith."