Every year, I pick one or two personal or professional development books to read slowly and purposefully. These aren’t books to read for escapism. These are books to read for shaping real-life thoughts and processes. Reflecting, not rushing matters. In 2023, one of the books I chose was Chasing the Bright Side by Jess Ekstrom.

Through engaging storytelling, Jess Ekstrom shows readers that optimism doesn’t mean ignoring challenges, but it is a key ingredient toward fulfilling a purposeful future.

10 Impactful Quotes from the Book:

“So even if you don’t know what the silver lining is right now, that doesn’t mean you won’t discover it later. Some silver linings just take longer to develop, so it’s okay to see a moment for what it is at that moment: a really tough situation.”

“If you let it, rejection can give you the tenacity to find another way to accomplish your goals.”

“Failure will always feel better than regret. Once you realize there is life after mistakes, you gain an untouchable level of confidence.”

“Optimism isn’t about being happy all the time. It’s not about avoiding situations to stay in your happy place. It’s about being willing to be exposed to the bad in order to see the good. Otherwise, if we don’t put ourselves in those shoes, we’d never know how to help.”

“And we also never want to reach a place where we feel like we know it all, which is why it’s a benefit not to classify yourself as an expert. When we feel like we’ve reached a place where we should stop being curious of learning from others, that’s a far worse place to be than a beginner.”

“You will never be able to walk into a new experience being totally prepared and knowing everything there is to know, so you need to feel tall enough even when you don’t have all the answers. You need to accept the fact that you’re a work in progress and do it anyway.

I’ve seen so many people successfully transform into who they want to be, whether it’s an entrepreneur, an acrobat, a speaker, or a musician. Very rarely does it have to do with the tangible skill sets they work so hard to master before they step forward.”

“This precedent of measuring ourselves based against other people is setting us up not just for conformity but for lack of innovation and creativity.”

“I thought that the attention meant success. But attention and success are not codependent. You can have success without the attention. And you can have attention without the success.”

“If what you’re chasing is only validated by the likes of others, then stop chasing it. But if what you’re chasing is something that is meaningful to you without the attention, then go for it at full speed.”

“Purpose is an overlap between what you love doing and what you want to give others.”

Read the book!