Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results

Josh Linkner

Post Hill Press, 320 pp., $26

Stop telling yourself you’re not creative. Linkner believes that everyone can tap into their imagination, channel creative energy, and unleash their innovative potential. In Big Little Breakthroughs, he defends the idea that creativity is a universal skill by disclosing personal experiences and sharing insights from conversations with creatives at LEGO and other innovative companies. He provides an up-close look at the habits of imaginative icons such as Lady Gaga and Steven Spielberg. Linkner also breaks down the creative process and shows readers why there’s so much power in little ideas.

The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer

Steve Kotler

Harper Wave, 336 pp., $28.99

If science-grounded discussions on the neurochemistry of reward and how to hack creativity pique your interest, this book is for you. In it, Kotler explores the connection between neuroscience and reaching your full potential. He divides the book into four parts—motivation, learning, creativity, and flow—in which he explains the psychological and physiological intricacies associated with each concept. "The central premise of this book is that impossible has a formula," Kotler writes. Readers will learn how to engage and employ neurology as an ally in pursuit of goals that they otherwise may think are unattainable.