Caroline Beaton is a prominent writer covering psychology, social trends and millennial careers. In an article she wrote for Forbes a few months ago, she listed 5 books “every ambitious millennial should read.”

It’s reading them that shaped her the most, both professionally and personally.

Deep Work, by Cal Newport

Nowadays personally and economically rewarding activities are highly specialized and self-controlled focus. If we can’t develop rare skills, human competition or machines will replace us in the work environment. Here Newport suggests a series of deep work tactics to enhance mental energy and improve professional skills.

Grit, by Angela Duckworth

Duckworth argues that passion is just the beginning to achieve our life purposes; it must be combined with perseverance, which is more important to achieve professional success than IQ. In this regard, Beaton claimed that “passion fades but, with commitment, purpose prevails.”

The Defining Decade: Why your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of them Now, by Meg Jay

As a psychologist working with millennials, Jay puts their specific complaints about life to diagnostic use. Here he talks about directionlessness, a common millennial feeling. “I feel like I’m in the middle of the ocean. I can swim in any direction but I can’t see land on any side so I don’t know which way to go” as how his patient Ian describes it. To define a route for career and reduce anxiety, Jay underlines the importance of developing the identity capital. “It’s the things we do well or long enough that become part of who we are” he claims.

The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr

Illustrating his research on how the Internet compromises mental abilities, Carr explains that each time we encounter a link, ad, banner or image, we have to pause to allow our pre-frontal cortex to evaluate whether or not to click on it. The consequence of such a decision-making is the overload of our brains, with the risk of becoming mindless consumers of data.

Essentialism, by Greg McKeown

This book teaches how to eliminate less important paths to apply “tougher criteria to life’s big decisions”. Stressing the importance of prioritizing, McKeown says we should not look for a set of good things to do, but for one that is the best out of all the others, where we can make our highest point of contribution. To gain time and thoughts control, he suggests exercises such as asking targeted questions like: What am I deeply passionate about? What taps my talent?