Resources
A book for every gear. When one part of your life stops turning, someone has already written the manual for it — here they are, gear by gear, in the order the wheel runs.
Prefer listening? Nearly every title here is on Audible — the same link will show you the audiobook edition.
Eight gears. One machine.
A machine is designed so every part works together for a purpose. Your life is no different. These eight gears reveal what's running strong — and what may be throwing the whole ride off.
your walk with God
your mind & inner life
your body & rest
your marriage & household
your circle & church
your work & calling
your money & resources
your time, talent & legacy
Faith
The EngineComplimentary downloads
Religion vs. The Gospel
One page, two columns: what religion asks of you, and what the gospel already did for you. Print it and keep it where you will see it.
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Books
- The Bible
The owner's manual. Everything else on this page is commentary.
- The Purpose Driven Life · Rick Warren
What you were built for, in 40 days.
- Mere Christianity · C.S. Lewis
The best on-ramp to the faith ever written for a skeptical mind.
- The Screwtape Letters · C.S. Lewis
The enemy's playbook, from the enemy's side of the desk.
- The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry · John Mark Comer
Why your pace is a spiritual problem.
The Stewardship Sheets
Time, Talent & Treasure — three two-page tools that budget your hours, your gifts, and your money to zero, on purpose. Each one teaches it, then hands you the tool.
Focus
The SteeringBooks
- Atomic Habits · James Clear
Small systems that compound. The mechanics of the tick.
- Think and Grow Rich · Napoleon Hill
The classic on desire, belief, and persistence.
- Outwitting the Devil · Napoleon Hill
Hill's boldest book: how drift steals a life.
- The Four Agreements · Don Miguel Ruiz
Four sentences that end most of your suffering.
- Loving What Is · Byron Katie
Four questions that dismantle the story causing the pain.
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- Man's Search for Meaning · Viktor Frankl
Everything can be taken but the last freedom: your response.
- Emotional Intelligence · Daniel Goleman
The science under every soft skill you've ever needed.
- The Compassionate Samurai · Brian Klemmer
Tough and kind are not opposites.
- Awaken the Giant Within · Tony Robbins
Decisions, not conditions, shape a life.
Fitness
The ChassisTested and trusted
GlycanAge — Your Biological Age Test
The dyno sheet for your body. A finger-prick kit that reads your biological age off your immune system — the number your training and rest actually move. We've used it ourselves. Code SGC gets you a discount at checkout.
Get your GlycanAge test →CODE SGC AT CHECKOUT
Disclosure: GlycanAge is an independent business, not part of Shifting Gears. We may be compensated for purchases made through this link or code.
DNA 360 — Your Genetic Blueprint
The factory build sheet. GlycanAge reads how the engine is running today; DNA 360 reads how it left the line — the genes behind how you handle hormones, inflammation, detox, and what you put in the tank. It won't change the block you were cast with, but it tells you which parts of the maintenance schedule were never optional for you. Code SHIFT gets you a discount at checkout.
Get your DNA 360 test →CODE SHIFT AT CHECKOUT
Disclosure: The DNA Company is an independent business, not part of Shifting Gears. We may be compensated for purchases made through this link or code.
Books
- Why We Sleep · Matthew Walker
The single highest-leverage health habit, explained.
- Outlive · Peter Attia
The engineering manual for a longer healthspan. Pairs with the tests above.
Family
The PassengersComplimentary downloads
The Hibernation Instructions
What to do when you cannot do anything — how to hold the line until the engine will turn over again.
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The Marriage Charges
Two one-page role resources in a single file — the Husband's Charge and the Wife's Charge. Read your own first.
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Books
- The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work · John Gottman
The research-backed marriage manual.
- The 5 Love Languages · Gary Chapman
Love received is love spoken in the right language.
- Love & Respect · Emerson Eggerichs
The cycle most marriages are stuck in, and the way out.
- Attached · Amir Levine & Rachel Heller
Why you bond the way you do.
- The Origins of You · Vienna Pharaon
Family-of-origin wounds and how they run your present.
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- Boundaries · Henry Cloud & John Townsend
Where you end and others begin.
Friendship
The MirrorsBooks
- How to Win Friends and Influence People · Dale Carnegie
Still the best book on being worth knowing.
- The Anatomy of Peace · The Arbinger Institute
How conflict starts in the heart before it starts in the room.
Field
The Gear You Drive InBooks
- The E-Myth Revisited · Michael Gerber
Work ON the business, not just in it.
- Good to Great · Jim Collins
What separates enduring companies from lucky ones.
- How the Mighty Fall · Jim Collins
The five stages of decline, so you can spot stage one.
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership · John Maxwell
The leadership canon.
- Blue Ocean Strategy · Kim & Mauborgne
Stop competing. Make the competition irrelevant.
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- Three Feet from Gold · Sharon Lechter & Greg Reid
Most people quit right before the vein.
- Never Split the Difference · Chris Voss
Negotiation from an FBI hostage negotiator. Awesome is the word.
Finances
The FuelFinancial coaching
Financial Coaching — Mike Staunton, Sentinel Coaching
“If you don’t control $50,000/year, then you won’t control $500,000/year.”
— Mike Staunton
Our trusted financial coach. Start with a conversation or start with a course — either way, start.
Disclosure: Sentinel Coaching is an independent business, not part of Shifting Gears. We may be compensated for referrals made through these links.
Books
- Profit First · Mike Michalowicz
Pay profit first and the business behaves.
- The Psychology of Money · Morgan Housel
Money decisions are behavior, not math.
- The Total Money Makeover · Dave Ramsey
The starting point when debt is driving.
- Principles · Ray Dalio
Radical truth as an operating system.
Future
The HeadlightsBooks
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People · Stephen Covey
Begin with the end in mind — literally the Headlights.
- Success Unshared Is Failure · John Paul DeJoria
Legacy from a man who lived it.
- Die With Zero · Bill Perkins
Spend your life on purpose, not your money by default.
The Hard Miles
Grief & lossWe're all gonna die. Every one of us loses people we love along the way — a death, a divorce, a friendship that ends. Nobody trains for these miles. Here's what I learned riding them.
The process takes a full year — and it does not have to be the first year without them. Grief can wait decades for the day you finally sit down with it. Whenever that day comes, give it a full year. Then the healing can begin. Spend that year remembering on purpose: when a memory comes up, embrace it and feel it all the way through. Laugh, cry, scream, yell — be present and experience it in its fullness. That's where the power is. After the year, you operate from the scar instead of the wound.
The Year of Remembering
A month-by-month guide to a year of grieving someone well — whether you lost them last spring or decades ago and never had the room to grieve until now. What to expect, and what to do with the days that ambush you.
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When you can't do it alone (and you shouldn't)
- GriefShare · griefshare.org
Find a church-hosted grief group near you.
- DivorceCare · divorcecare.org
Same format, built for the end of a marriage.
- A Grief Observed · C.S. Lewis
Lewis's own journal after his wife died. No tidy answers, which is why it helps.
- It's OK That You're Not OK · Megan Devine
Grief as something to be carried, not fixed or hurried.
When you're ready — not before — the complimentary Scorecard can show you which gears took the hit.
Rounding Out the Lag Gear
Take the complimentary 8 F Words Scorecard and the wheel names your lag gear — the one costing you the most. This is the teaching that comes next: the read on why that gear stopped, one move to run for thirty days, and the rung after it. It arrives by email when you finish the Scorecard. All eight are here too, because the gear you need to read about isn't always the one that scored lowest.
- Rounding Out the Faith Gear
The Engine · PDF
- Rounding Out the Focus Gear
The Steering · PDF
- Rounding Out the Fitness Gear
The Chassis · PDF
- Rounding Out the Family Gear
The Passengers · PDF
- Rounding Out the Friendship Gear
The Mirrors · PDF
- Rounding Out the Field Gear
The Gear You Drive In · PDF
- Rounding Out the Finances Gear
The Fuel · PDF
- Rounding Out the Future Gear
The Headlights · PDF
Everything above is the reading around the eight gears. The gears themselves — and the language that moves them — are in Shifting Gears, out now.
As an Amazon Associate, Shifting Gears earns from qualifying purchases. Referral cards disclose their own terms.
Ready to go deeper?
Run the complimentary 8 F Words Scorecard and see your whole wheel.
Run the ScorecardPrintable PDF Version of the Scorecard
The same Scorecard, on paper — for the people in your life who will never fill out a web form. Part One in full, then the Scorecard itself: the Owner and the Operator, why balance is the wrong word, the eight gears, and the Language Engine. Print it, hand it over, and let them score it by hand and plot their wheel.
Please give this away.