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The 25 top self-help books for personal growth, the greatest self-help books of all time, top self-help books for women, top self-help books for men, top self-help books for non-binary people.

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Author James Clear presents his book, "Atomic Habits" during Workplace Summit, Pennsylvania ... [+] Conference For Women 2019. "Habits" is one of the best self-help books.

Self-help books provide the guidance and even the road map for accomplishing things we may dream of but lack the confidence to achieve. The best self-growth books are accessible, encouraging and feature a compelling story that pulls together the inspiring words. Self-improvement and self-development books remain staples on bestseller lists for good reason. They can help you change your life, but more than that—they help you believe the change can happen, which is often half the battle. This list of top personal development books includes authors of all different backgrounds, advising on a range of topics, from financial well-being to overcoming trauma.

Self-help books assist people with improving their lives. They offer strategies from experts who have often struggled with the problem they’re addressing and found ways to overcome it. The approach often includes raising self-awareness and using techniques for greater productivity and assertiveness.

What is the difference between self-help books, personal growth books and self-development books? Self-help books cover the entire genre of books dedicated to self-improvement, and the other two fall under that umbrella. Personal growth books focus on becoming more self-aware and addressing the attitude and behaviors that underly obstacles to improvement. Self-development, on the other hand, is more about the actions that lead to self-improvement. This list of the 25 best self-help books includes personal growth and self-development books.

The best self-help books feature insights on a variety of skills and topic areas.

25. Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans by Jenny Wang (2022)

Jenny Wang’s Permission to Come Home examines how Asian American and immigrant identities can play into mental health. She uses personal stories of strength and pain to illustrate impressive instances of resilience. The author also pokes holes in narratives that discourage Asian Americans from taking up space.

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This book is best for those who want to work on their mental health while gazing through a cultural lens. Jenny Wang ’s Permission to Come Home is available from publisher Hachette Book Group .

24. Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included) by Pooja Lakshmin (2023)

Actual self-care isn’t about hitting the spa or sweating out the toxins. Pooja Lakshmin both takes down myths perpetuated by the wellness industry and explains how the self-care culture can actually damage women’s psyches by convincing them a pretty day planner will solve all their problems.

This book is best for women who are tired of being told they can fix their problems with a bubble bath. Pooja Lakshmin ’s Real Self-Care is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

23. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford (2023)

In this Bloomberg and Economist Book of the Year, the authors cull the best scientific research to offer cutting-edge advice on nutrition, exercise and sleep designed to optimize life expectancy. They also look at the role mental health plays in longevity.

This book is best for those open to considering ways to combat aging that go beyond mainstream medicine. Peter Attia and Bill Gifford’s Outlive is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

Peter Attia and Bill Gifford's top self-help book "Outlive" explores the secrets of longevity.

22. For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez (2021)

Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, creator of Latina Rebels, makes a space for women of color to free themselves from the narratives that enforce racism, classism and other dangerous -isms that can lead to damaging thoughts. Instead, she encourages feelings of pride and sisterhood as a means to empowerment.

This book is best for women of color who want to overcome self-doubt and struggle with imposter syndrome. Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez ’s For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts is available from publisher Hachette Book Group .

21. You Owe You: Ignite Your Power, Your Purpose, and Your Why by Eric Thomas (2022)

Eric Thomas uses his own story, of going from an unhoused young Black man to becoming a successful businessman and speaker, to inspire others to do the same. He advocates for writing your own narrative and not waiting for inspiration to strike before you make improvements.

This book is best for anyone who feels stuck and uninspired. Eric Thomas ’s You Owe You is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

20. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (2005)

According to Malcolm Gladwell, the decisions we make in the “blink” of an eye are actually way more complex than we believe. He examines how greatness can stem from quick decision-making and how historical events play into that interpretation.

This book is best for fans of The Tipping Point or anyone who overthinks their decisions. Malcolm Gladwell ’s Blink is available from publisher Hachette Book Group .

Author Malcolm Gladwell has penned a number of bestsellers, including "Blink," one of the top ... [+] self-help books.

19. How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis (2022)

Do you feel guilty about your messy home? When young mother KC Davis struggled with housekeeping, she eventually realized that having a messy home didn’t make her a bad person. She helps others navigating similar situations by teaching self-compassion and affirmation, especially for those struggling with bigger matters.

This book is best for anyone who has ever felt judged by the pile of dishes in the sink. KC Davis ’s How to Keep House While Drowning is available from publisher Simon & Schuster .

18. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz (2016)

Former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss learned principles that can help you become more persuasive. When you approach every situation as a negotiation, you get more out of life and achieve results you never even dreamed of.

This book is best for those who lack confidence when standing up for themselves. Chris Voss and Tahl Raz ’s Never Split the Difference is available from publisher HarperCollins .

17. Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day by Kaitlin B. Curtice (2023)

Resistance is not just a form of protest or act of rebellion. Kaitlin B. Curtice argues resistance should be at the center of everything, and we can pull together by resisting. She also teaches ways to get more in touch with yourself and your ancestors, fostering deeper connections.

This book is best for those who value connections created through nature. Kaitlin B. Curtice ’s Living Resistance is available from publisher Baker Publishing .

16. The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power by Katherine Morgan Schafler (2023)

What if perfectionism wasn’t a flaw but rather a superpower? Katherine Morgan Schafler reclaims the label and argues that women can make their own unique form of perfectionism work for them instead of against them.

This book is best for anyone who’s ever rolled their eyes after being told they should “find balance.” Katherine Morgan Schafler ’s The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

15. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives by Lori Gottlieb (2019)

Named a best book of the year by everyone from O, the Oprah Magazine to People magazine, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone has a unique premise: Therapist Lori Gottleib lands in therapy herself after a trauma. She finds that her patients’ troubles overlap with her own more than expected and outlines paths forward.

This book is best for people who like more of a conventional narrative to their top self-help books. Lori Gottlieb ’s Maybe You Should Talk To Someone is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

Lori Gottlieb is the author of several books, including "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone," a top ... [+] self-growth book.

14. Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab (2021)

In this New York Times bestseller, Nedra Glover Tawwab teaches readers how to set boundaries, which are necessary for even the healthiest of relationships. Her techniques guide readers through stating their wants and needs without apologizing for them.

This book is best for those who struggle to say no or to advocate for themselves. Nedra Glover Tawwab ’s Set Boundaries, Find Peace is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

13. Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841)

Granted, this is more of an essay than a full-fledged book, but Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 19 th -century entry among the best self-help books still rings true. The author urges readers to home in on their internal voice and believe in themselves, arguing that others’ opinions ultimately don’t matter.

This book is best for people who find traditional self-help books too new agey and want something more straightforward. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance is available from your local library or for free on many e-book platforms.

Raymond Emerson poses with a statue of his great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, ... [+] author of "Self-Reliance," in the home dedicated to him in Concord, Massachusetts.

12. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski (2019)

Women experience burnout differently than men, and it’s often caused by unrealistic expectations placed on them by society. The Nagosakis explain the societal attitudes that can cause burnout and lay out new and unexpected ways to navigate it.

This book is best for women who feel burned out or who wonder why burnout happens. Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski ’s Burnout is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

11. How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now by Stanislas Dehaene (2020)

The human brain is pretty amazing, as this book posits. It argues ways in which we could take better advantage of our brain power, exploring its capabilities from a neurobiology, cognitive psychology and computer science perspective.

This book is best for people who like hard science and want to harness more brain power. Stanislas Dehaene’s How We Learn is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

10. Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma by Mariel Buqué (2024)

Part scientific research tome, part stories from the therapy room and part how-to manual, Break the Cycle balances showing and telling readers how they can stop the cycle of trauma and pass on strength instead of pain to the generations below them.

This book is best for those who want to know more about the physical manifestations of trauma. Mariel Buqué ’s Break the Cycle is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

9. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (2017)

Sleep plays a role in everyone’s lives, but neuroscientist Matthew Walker argues that we don’t really understand its importance or know how to harness its healing power. He explores the purpose of sleep and how it boosts our brain to its full capabilities.

This book is best for anyone who doesn’t get enough sleep and wants incentives to make a change. Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep is available from publisher Simon & Schuster .

8. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey (2004)

For two decades, this book detailing the most productive, most important skills for success has bounced on and off the bestseller list, and for good reason. Stephen R. Covey lays out simple, straightforward tips for solving problems, such as “be proactive” and “don’t be a victim.”

This book is best for anyone who wants to improve their effectiveness at work or home. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is available from publisher Simon & Schuster .

Stephen R. Covey, author of top self-help book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," delivers a ... [+] speech.

7. Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams (2019)

Stacey Abrams is an inspiring leader, but she has always been outside the circles of power as a Black woman and a Democrat in conservative Georgia. She details the lessons she’s learned from examining her own passion and putting it to work for her, no matter how many barriers stand in her way.

This book is best for those who feel marginalized or lack power. Stacey Abrams ’s Lead from the Outside is available from publisher Macmillan .

Stacey Abrams drew on her experience as a politician to write her self-help book, "Lead From the ... [+] Outside."

6. Get Good with Money: Ten Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole by Tiffany Aliche (2021)

Financial literacy is a lifeskill, and Tiffany Aliche’s no-nonsense approach to finding peace and safety with your money is transformative. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book outlines a 10-step plan to reach financial security.

This book is best for anyone who feels shaky about their money skills or wants to plan better for retirement. Tiffany Aliche ’s Get Good with Money is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

5. Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff (2015)

Self-criticism can derail everything from getting ahead at work to going to the gym. Kristin Neff argues that self-compassion, not building self-esteem, will help you through any emotional struggle, whether it’s impacting a weight loss journey, promotion or parenting.

This book is best for those wracked by self-doubt. Kristin Neff ’s Self-Compassion is available from publisher HarperCollins .

4. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm in a Busy World by Haemin Sunim (2017)

Does anyone not feel busy? The answer is probably no, but being busy shouldn’t stop you from setting a slow pace sometimes. Haemin Sunim argues that you gain spiritual strength by taking a slower approach to life.

This book is best for those who feel like they’re drowning in to-dos. Haemin Sunim ’s The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

3. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown (2018)

One of the true celebrities of the self-help world, Brené Brown has penned a slew of bestselling self-growth books, and this one is arguably her best. It argues that true leadership is recognizing the power and promise of others and helping put it into action. It’s not about having all the answers.

This book is best for anyone who wants to develop greater empathy. Brené Brown ’ s Dare to Lead is available from publisher Random House .

Self-help author Brené Brown speaks onstage during 2020 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative ... [+] Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on January 20, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.

2. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (1992)

It’s rare to see such enduring relevance from a self-help book, since science and therapeutic best practices advance every day. But Julia Cameron’s gentle guidance and advice on how to start your creative journey remains just as compelling today as it was 30+ years ago, offering concrete ways to explore your own art.

This book is best for wannabe artists, writers and other creatives. Julia Cameron ’ s The Artist’s Way is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

1. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (2018)

Building on habits James Clear established first as a collegiate athlete and then when he went into business for himself, Atomic Habits lays out clear, concise paths of habit change, including breaking damaging patterns and establishing new, nourishing ones.

This book is best for anyone, really, as we can all benefit from changing at least one habit. James Clear ’s Atomic Habits is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

Bessel van der Kolk, author of one of the best self-help books for women, speaks at Darrell ... [+] Hammond's "Cracked Up" at IFC Center.

The best self-help books for women speak specifically to their experience, often detailing paths to self-forgiveness, tips for becoming part of important conversations, and guidance on parenting or “having it all.” Far from playing to stereotypes, these books address pain points we rarely talk about, highlighting important perspectives on taboo issues.

Self-Care for Latinas: 100+ Ways to Prioritize & Rejuvenate Your Mind, Body, & Spirit by Raquel Reichard (2023)

Putting your own mental and physical health first can be a challenge for women, particularly women of color. The book argues that self-care and self-prioritization are radical acts that lead to greater joy. It includes 100 exercises to help you choose yourself.

This book is best for Latina women frustrated by daily microaggressions. Raquel Reichard ’s Self-Care for Latinas is available from publisher Simon & Schuster .

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk (2015)

Overcoming trauma is a large part of the self-help scope, and Bessel van der Kolk’s book argues everyone must cope with it. He shares ways trauma has rewired our brains and explains how techniques such as neurofeedback, play and even yoga can help us recover.

This book is best for women struggling with past or recurring trauma. Bessel van der Kolk ’s The Body Keeps the Score is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés (1996)

Another “oldie but goodie,” Women Who Run with the Wolves argues there’s a wild woman within every female, but society tries to silence her. The book explains how to reach a homeostasis where the wild female is acknowledged and encouraged in our modern world.

This book is best for women who feel squeezed by societal expectations. Clarissa Pinkola Estés ’s Women Who Run with the Wolves is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

Self-help author David Goggins, a U.S. Navy Seal, faces Mt. Whitney and the last 13 miles (21kms) of ... [+] the 135-mile Kiehl Badwater Ultramarathon, putting his advice into action.

The best self-help books for men explore mental and physical health as well as financial well-being. Many authors focus on advice versus unpacking what’s behind the problem. Men’s self-help books tend to break stereotypes that men only care about being perceived as strong and capable.

The Way of Men by Jack Donovan (2012)

What is masculinity, and why does it matter? Jack Donovan’s innovative exploration of perceptions of manhood and whether masculinity is in crisis is a compelling page-turner.

This book is best for men who want to explore masculinity’s roots. Jack Donovan ’s The Way of Men is available through his website .

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins (2018)

David Goggins went from overweight teen to the only man to ever complete training for Navy SEAL, Army Ranger and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, so clearly he has a lot to teach. He argues that we only use 40% of our capabilities and shows a way to tap more of our potential.

This book is best for men who want an inspiring, accomplished mentor. David Goggins ’s Can't Hurt Me is available from publisher Lioncrest Publishing .

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life ... And Maybe the World by William H. McRaven (2017)

Navy SEAL Admiral William H. McRaven’s viral commencement address at the University of Texas prompted this book, which details basic lessons that seem simple but can help you overcome the biggest problems in life.

This book is best for men dealing with hardship. William H. McRaven’s Make Your Bed is available from publisher Hachette Publishing Group .

Alok Vaid-Menon wrote one of the top self-help books for non-binary people.

In recent years, a new group of self-growth books have emerged for nonbinary people, those whose gender identity does not align with male or female. It can be reassuring to read other people’s insights and advice about coming out, navigating life as a trans person, and finding joy.

The Book of Non-binary Joy: Embracing the Power of You by Ben Pechey and Sam Prentice (2022)

Written with love and humor, The Book of Non-binary Joy encourages those exploring their gender identity to live as their authentic selves and answers a lot of questions about self-expression and coming to terms with your past self.

This book is best for those who’ve recently come out or are questioning their gender identity. Ben Pechey and Sam Prentice’s The Book of Non-binary Joy is available from publisher Jessica Kingsley Publishing .

Life Isn’t Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between by Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker (2020)

The world isn’t black and white, whether that’s in matters of morality, ethics or gender. This smart, insightful book looks at how we view ourselves and why thinking in a non-binary matter, about gender and other topics, can be a beneficial mindset shift.

This book is best for those who want to know more about non-binary identity. Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker’s Life Isn’t Binary is available from publisher Jessica Kingsley Publishing .

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky (2020)

Gender nonconforming artist Alok Vaid-Menon lives life in full color, in every respect of that phrase, and they encourage readers to do the same, including reconsidering their own assumptions about gender, no matter how “liberal” they may consider themselves.

This book is best for anyone who loves joyful self-help guides. Alok Vaid-Menon and Ashley Lukashevsky’s Beyond the Gender Binary is available from publisher Penguin Random House .

Bottom Line

Whether you are seeking a solution to a specific problem, or you just want to improve your life, the best self-growth books give you a place to start and a plan to follow. You can pick any one from this list and explore new paths in life.

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25 insightful self-help books that will help you grow in all aspects of your life

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• Self-help books aim to improve an aspect of our lives.
• They might be business books, psychology reads, or memoirs.
• We used Goodreads to rank the best self-help books to read in 2022.

Books can serve so many different purposes, from entertainment to education, but self-help books are designed to help us improve a specific aspect of our lives. Though the very idea of "self-help" books used to conjure mental images of cheesy lectures and impractical advice, the best self-help books actually offer a new perspective for readers to explore habit building, emotional growth, or gain a deeper understanding of the world. 

Goodreads is the largest platform in the world for readers to rate and review books, so we turned to Goodreads reviewers to rank the best self-help books to read in 2022. From classics like " How to Win Friends and Influence People " to Susan Cain's " Quiet ," these self-help books include business books, memoirs, philosophy reads, and so much more. 

25 of the best self-help books, according to Goodreads

"the subtle art of not giving a f*ck" by mark manson.

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.60

Mark Manson is a popular blogger who aimed to defy the norm of "positivity" in self-help books by acknowledging that, sometimes, life sucks! In his book, Manson encourages readers to recognize what is worth caring about and adjusting our perspectives based on our goals. 

"Atomic Habits" by James Clear

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.98

" Atomic Habits " is a practical self-help book that helps readers change bad habits and develop good ones. With an abundance of practical examples, any reader can develop a system of change with James Clear's suggestions and motivational writing.

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.99

With over 700,000 ratings and averaging at 4.21 stars, " How to Win Friends and Influence People " is the best self-help book according to Goodreads members. Selling over 15 million copies since its original publication in 1936, Dale Carnegie's book includes his tried-and-true principles to help readers in their personal and professional lives. There are six principles to help people like you, 12 to help people understand your way of thinking, and nine to encourage change in others.

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey

Available at Amazon , from $12.53

With over 15 million copies sold since its first publication in 1989, this self-help book uses 7 fundamental habits that guide readers toward an independent, successful, and fulfilling life. Using psychological principles, this book begs to be opened over and over again, refreshing readers with life mantras that will lead them to greatness.

"The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.95

After studying patterns across a variety of success stories, Charles Duhigg presents why habits exist — and what we can do to change them. He argues the key to reaching any of our goals lies with understanding how habits are formed and uses researched principles to help readers change habits in order to transform their lives.

"The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.58

With a book and Netflix series that changed how we organize and stay tidy, Marie Kondo is a professional organizing consultant who presents the KonMari method of organizing. In " The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up ," Kondo introduces readers to her approach to cleaning, including the idea of only keeping items that "spark joy".

"You Are A Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life" by Jen Sincero

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.45

This best-selling self-help book uses anecdotes and exercises to help readers break down the mental barriers that are keeping them from achieving their goals. It's an inspirational, motivational, and funny read that aims to instill self-confidence and leave readers feeling refreshed and ready to accomplish anything.

"The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.74

In this spiritual self-help book, Don Miguel Ruiz pulls from Toltec wisdom to present four principles that, when applied in harmony with each other, can offer new experiences and happiness in our lives. This book challenges readers to apply four simple truths to their lives: Be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best.

"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.51

" The Power of Now " is a spiritual self-help book that proclaims living in "the now" is the ultimate path to happiness. More a practical guide than a traditional narrative, Tolle aims to inspire readers to become conscious of the thoughts and challenges that prevent us from living in the present moment.

"Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13.89

Introverts have been widely overlooked in American society. In this psychology book dubbed a favorite self-help read by Goodreads reviewers, Susan Cain uses stories from successful introverts to explain how invaluable introverts are to our community and help introverts value themselves more. To learn more about this book, check out our review of "Quiet."

"The Gifts of Imperfection" by Brené Brown

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.47

Brené Brown's 2010 self-help bestseller is still a favorite amongst Goodreads reviewers for the revelations and impacts her reflections have had on their lives. In this book, Brown explores the psychology behind releasing our expectations of living a "perfect" life and offers 10 benchmarks readers can follow to embrace a more authentic life.

"Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead" by Brené Brown

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.99

Based on 12 years of research, " Daring Greatly " is a self-help book that encourages readers to embrace vulnerability as a strength, not a weakness. With personal anecdotes and plenty of examples, this book demonstrates how vulnerability can open new avenues to courage, connection, and creativity.

"Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.99

" Deep Work " is a self-help book about productivity that aims to help readers understand how to reach a "deep work" state where we can focus on a mentally demanding task without distraction — a skill that has become harder and harder to master in an increasingly distracted world. Cal Newport argues the importance of deep work and presents four rules readers can follow to transform their productivity habits and reach more focused success.

"The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.57

" The 5 Love Languages " is a self-help book whose concepts have permeated many relationships as its popularity grows. In this book, Dr. Gary Chapman proposes that there are five main ways in which people give and receive love. By understanding your and your partner's love language, you can enrich your relationship by showing love more effectively. 

"Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.17

First published in 1998, " Who Moved My Cheese ?" is a self-help book in the form of a motivational fable of four characters who live in a maze, looking for cheese. Representing anything we may want in life, the cheese is constantly moving and only when one character successfully navigates change to reach the cheese does the reader discover how to navigate change in their own lives.

"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11

Written after the hit movie of the same name in 2006, " The Secret " is a self-help book that outlines the law of attraction, a concept Rhonda Byrne claims can change or redirect a person's entire life. With this concept, Byrne encourages readers to find the power within themselves to apply "The Secret" to every aspect of life and achieve nearly anything.

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.29

This psychology book has helped readers understand the way we think by separating our thought processes into two systems: one that is intuitive and one that is deliberate. By knowing how these two systems work separately and together, we can better understand how we make choices and think about thinking. To learn more about this book, check out our review of "Thinking, Fast and Slow."

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.18

Though " Rich Dad, Poor Dad " is usually seen as a business or finance read , Goodreads reviewers love it as a self-help book as well for its lessons on how to make your money work for you. Author Robert T. Kiyosaki grew up with two dads — his own and his best friend's dad — who shaped his views on money and investing in very different ways. In this book, Kiyosaki explains different financial theories to change how many readers view finances.

"The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun" by Gretchen Rubin

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.19

When Gretchen Rubin realized she wasn't focusing on the things in her life that truly mattered, she decided to dedicate a year to her "happiness project." This autobiographical self-help book is a 12-month chronicle of her journey as she tried new things, focused on improving herself, and embraced happiness while encouraging others to take time and do the same. 

"Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.38

In a self-help book that aims to inspire creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert offers an honest look at the creative process — with all of its challenges and unrealistic expectations. This book reminds readers that creativity isn't linear or clean and we can be any degree of an artist, writer, or musician that satisfies our soul.

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $11.99

" Man's Search for Meaning " is a memoir that begins with psychologist Viktor E. Frankl's experiences in Auschwitz during World War II and how he coped with suffering in order to not just survive it, but move forward with purpose. With psychological, philosophical, and sociological influences, this moving read offers self-help advice through the author's inspirational personal account of searching for a guiding meaning in life. It's also a book that therapists recommend to read if you want to build more empathy .

"The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13.39

Aiming to help readers escape the confines of a 9-5 job, " The 4-Hour Workweek " encourages a restructuring of our lifestyle to find fulfillment now rather than once we retire. Born of the author's three-week break from his company, this self-help book is modeled after his series of lectures on entrepreneurship given at Princeton University.

"Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.29

While many self-help productivity books encourage readers to work harder, " Getting Things Done " proposes that our productivity is directly linked to our ability to relax, as we can only reach our greatest potential when our minds are clear and organized. This book offers core principles, tricks, and advice to help readers streamline their effectiveness, overcome challenging situations, and avoid the burnout that often comes with an overwhelming workload. 

"Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol S. Dweck

Available at Amazon  and Bookshop , from $8.55

Dr. Carol Dweck is a psychologist who, after decades of research, has discovered just how powerful and affecting our mindset can be in every aspect of our lives. In this book, she demonstrates how we can influence our success by adopting a growth mindset — and how changing the mindset of a community or organization can inspire incredible success. 

"Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell

Available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $15.94

In this personal development read, Malcolm Gladwell highlights successful "outliers," the best and brightest of our society — from the Beatles to Bill Gates — and what makes them so successful. Gladwell presents the histories of our heroes, their rise to excellence, and how their beginnings carefully positioned them for success. 

• Main content

• The 33 Best Self-Help Books of All Time to Read at Any Age

Self-help books are all about change. A change of habits, character traits, or your physical appearance – you name it. The thing is, you have to make the change yourself .

Every New Year’s Eve, you commit to another version of “new year, new me.” But how does it look a few months later? Has it ever happened to you that you ended up resolving to make the same changes again the next year? Two years, three years, four years in a row? Inevitably, we’ll ask ourselves: How many times do I have to try this to succeed?

The honest answer is “Forever” – because there’ll always be new changes you want to make, a new person you’ll want to become. That’s perfectly okay. Growth is what life is all about. When it comes to making a certain set of new habits stick, however, there are proven methods, tools, tips, and tactics you can use. That way, you won’t get stuck trying to make a single transformation over and over again.

At Four Minute Books, we’ve summarized over 1,000 books , most of them in the self-improvement category. In the process, we’ve learned a thing or two about habits, and we’ve also discovered which books are most efficient at helping us adjust our behaviors to better serve our goals.

All in all, we’ve found 33 books that’ll support you in making the changes you want to make and achieving your full potential. In this list, we’ve curated them all – the 33 best self-help books of all time. These are the hardest hitters. They’ll drastically improve your life, no matter how old you are.

Self-help can be a tricky thing initially, but if you embrace it and stick with the process for the long run, it’ll yield great rewards. Changing yourself is a never-ending process. The books in our list will be a great starting point for your journey.

If you want to live your best life and become your most powerful self, here are the 33 best books you should dive into. Discover their secrets and make it happen!

Table of Contents

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

2. atomic habits by james clear, 3. thinking fast and slow by daniel kahneman, 4. the four agreements by don miguel ruiz, 5. the 7 habits of highly effective people by stephen r. covey, 6. the daily stoic by ryan holiday, 7. the subtle art of not giving a f*ck by mark manson, 8. girl, wash your face by rachel hollis, 9. you are a badass by jen sincero, 10. 12 rules for life by jordan peterson, 11. the 48 laws of power by robert greene, 12. the courage to be disliked by ichiro kishimi & fumitake koga, 13. man’s search for meaning by viktor frankl, 14. how to stop worrying and start living by dale carnegie, 15. daring greatly by brene brown, 16. big magic by elizabeth gilbert, 17. quiet by susan cain, 18. the magic of thinking big by david joseph schwartz, 19. how to win friends and influence people by dale carnegie, 20. the 5 love languages by gary chapman, 21. deep work by cal newport, 22. getting things done by david allen, 23. who moved my cheese by spencer johnson, 24. rich dad poor dad by robert t. kiyosaki, 25. think and grow rich by napoleon hill, 26. the 4-hour workweek by tim ferriss, 27. outliers by malcolm gladwell, 28. the power of positive thinking by norman vincent peale, 29. the secret by rhonda byrne, 30. meditations by marcus aurelius, 31. letters from a stoic by seneca, 32. the power of now by eckhart tolle, 33. the life-changing magic of tidying up by marie kondo, bonus: 2-minute pep talks by niklas göke, other book lists by topic, other book lists by author, other book lists by year, best books on self-help overall.

Favorite Quote

“When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it.” — Paulo Coelho

The Book in One Sentence

The Alchemist is a classic novel in which a boy named Santiago embarks on a journey seeking treasure in the Egyptian pyramids after having a recurring dream about it and on the way meets mentors, falls in love, and most importantly, learns the true importance of who he is and how to improve himself and focus on what really matters in life.

Why should you read it?

This novel presents a simple story, yet filled with wisdom. Concentrating on the theme of destiny and integrating mysterious characters, as well as important lessons, it compels the reader to wonder constantly and to come to the conclusion that destiny is what we make of it.

Key Takeaways

• Listen to your heart if you want your dreams to come true.
• Your fear is holding you back more than anything else.
• “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” — James Clear

Atomic Habits is the definitive guide to breaking bad behaviors and adopting good ones in four steps, showing you how small, incremental, everyday routines compound into massive, positive change over time.

What does it take to form a habit? There is a lot of information out there in regards to this, but sometimes you might just not have the time to go through all of it. James Clear has put together this useful and practical book, for you to achieve more good habits and avoid the bad ones.

• Every time we perform a habit, we execute a four-step pattern: cue, craving, response, reward.
• If we want to form new habits, we should make them obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
• You can use a habit tracker as a fun way to measure your progress and make sure you don’t fall off the wagon.

“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.” — Daniel Kahneman

Thinking Fast and Slow shows you how two systems in your brain are constantly fighting over control of your behavior and actions, and teaches you the many ways in which this leads to errors in memory, judgment and decisions, and what you can do about it.

The human mind is a wonderful, yet still undiscovered place. But what Kahneman can tell you is that two systems form our thinking. If you are looking for a curious conversation about the human mind, this book will not only get you thinking but also transform the way you think.

• The biggest leaps in progress are vertical, not horizontal.
• Your brain is lazy and thus keeps you from using the full power of your intelligence.
• When you’re making decisions about money, leave your emotions at home.

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are…” — Don Miguel Ruiz

The Four Agreements draws on the long tradition of the Toltecs, an ancient, indigenous people of Mexico, to show you that we have been domesticated from childhood, how these internal, guiding rules hurt us and what we can do to break and replace them with a new set of agreements with ourselves.

Our lives are usually conducted by a set of beliefs, and they can sometimes limit us and keep us away from our true calling. According to Don Miguel Ruiz, four agreements could help us transform the way we live our lives and experience its joys to the fullest. And if you are passionate about ancient wisdom, then this book might just be what you need.

• We’re domesticated from a young age and it leaves us living by a set of rules we haven’t chosen ourselves.
• What people say and do to you is a reflection on them, not you. Know who you are and you won’t take things personally.
• There are three ways to break your old agreements and live with new ones you choose yourself.

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” — Stephen R. Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People teaches you both personal and professional effectiveness by changing your view of how the world works and giving you 7 habits, which, if adopted well, will lead you to immense success.

Taking control of your life might seem like a difficult thing to do without the proper advice. But Covey has put together a few pieces of advice to help people achieve exactly what they want, from proactivity to success in both their professional and personal lives.

• Do the funeral test.
• Learn how to say no.
• Practice active listening.

“Control your perceptions. Direct your actions properly. Willingly accept what’s outside your control.” — Ryan Holiday

The Daily Stoic is a year-long compilation of short, daily meditations from ancient Stoic philosophers, like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, teaching you equanimity, resilience, and perseverance via the three Stoic disciplines of perception, action, and will.

If you struggle with reading non-fiction at a pace that makes you feel good about your progress, this is the book for you. It’s also one of my all-time favorites. I read it every year for five years in a row. A page a day is so easy to read, you can’t not do it. As a result, you’ll gain a great overview of Stoicism and implement plenty of its tenets in your life.

• Perception gives purpose to your thoughts, actions, and ultimately everything you do.
• We can change the course of our life by actively choosing our actions instead of just reacting to our impulses.
• Will is our internal force of perseverance, ready to give us hope when everything else fails.

“Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.” — Mark Manson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck does away with the positive psychology craze to instead give you a Stoic, no bullshit approach to living a life that might not always be happy, but meaningful and centered only around what’s important to you.

Nowadays, wherever you turn your head, you hear that positivity is the key to living a happy and fulfilled life. But according to Mark Manson, this might be a flawed way of thinking and he will tell you that in a raw voice that will make you rethink all that you know about living a happy life.

• Values you can’t control are bad values to follow.
• Don’t believe you know anything with certainty, for it keeps you from improving.
• Trying to leave a legacy might ruin your life.

Best Self Help Books for Women

“You, and only you, are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are.” — Rachel Hollis

Girl, Wash Your Face inspires women to take their lives into their own hands and make their dreams happen, no matter how discouraged they may feel at the moment.

Women deal with a lot of things that might not be visible to other people. In this book, Hollis makes use of a soft, yet empowering tone that helps women remove themselves from any mentality that might destroy their self-confidence and helps them stay on top of things, even when they seem to crumble. A book that is filled with honesty and humor, as well as precious advice.

• Build the habit of keeping your promises to yourself because breaking them pulls you down.
• Rather than fighting the river of chaotic home life, learn to embrace it.
• Visualize your dreams and focus on them in detail to stay motivated to make them happen.

“You are responsible for what you say and do. You are not responsible for whether or not people freak out about it.” ― Jen Sincero

You Are a Badass helps you become self-aware, figure out what you want in life and then summon the guts to not worry about the how, kick others’ opinions to the curb and focus your life on the thing that will make you happy.

Improving your life might sound like a tedious thing to do, but it doesn’t always have to be like that. Jen Sincero has written this book exactly for those people – the ones who want to change their lives, but not in a hard way. Making use of stories and pieces of advice, as well as easy exercises, this book promises to be a good starting point in your life-changing journey.

• Decide you’ll stop caring what other people think. Right. now.
• Figure out what you want but don’t obsess about how you’ll get there.
• If your habits, surroundings and friends don’t support you, it’s time to change them.

Best Self Help Books for Men

“It’s all very well to think the meaning of life is happiness, but what happens when you’re unhappy? Happiness is a great side effect. When it comes, accept it gratefully. But it’s fleeting and unpredictable.” — Jordan Peterson

12 Rules for Life is a stern, story-based, and entertaining self-help manual for young people that lays out a set of simple principles that can help us become more disciplined, behave better, act with integrity, and balance our lives while enjoying them as much as we can.

Sometimes, life can get rather chaotic and some things just don’t seem to make sense. Not to mention those burning questions that nobody seems to have an answer to. But according to Dr. Peterson, there are some things everybody should know and he explains them in a humorous and informative way in this stunning book.

• Sweep in front of your own door before pointing out the street is dirty.
• Treat yourself like a child you’re responsible for.
• Aim to do what is meaningful, not convenient.

“Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.” — Robert Greene

The 48 Laws of Power draws on many of history’s most famous power quarrels to show you what power looks like, how you can get it, what to do to defend yourself against the power of others and, most importantly, how to use it well and keep it.

What constitutes power? Is it a set of black and white moral views? Or is it a set of gray moral views, the ones that some people never really talk about? This challenging book puts into perspective a synthesis of philosophies and historical legacies that might be surprising to the reader. Are you curious yet?

• Always make superiors look smarter than you.
• Confuse competitors by acting unpredictably.
• Don’t force others to do what you want, seduce them instead.

Best Self Help Books for 20-Somethings

“The courage to be happy also includes the courage to be disliked. When you have gained that courage, your interpersonal relationships will all at once change into things of lightness.” — Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

The Courage to Be Disliked is a Japanese analysis of the work of 19th-century psychologist Alfred Adler, who established that happiness lies in the hands of each human individual and does not depend on past traumas.

Is it that easy to liberate our real selves and be happy, despite past experiences and doubts that might have shaped us differently? This book offers precious insight in terms of what we need to do to let go of any burdens that might keep us away from who we truly are.

• It’s dangerous to believe that your past determines your future.
• If you focus on what’s wrong with you, you might be looking for reasons to hate yourself on purpose.
• Most of what we think of as competition is just made up and hurting our happiness.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl

Man’s Search for Meaning details holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s horrifying experiences in Nazi concentration camps, along with his psychological approach of logotherapy, which is also what helped him survive and shows you how you can – and must – find meaning in your life.

Do you ever wonder what is exactly that people are pursuing? Could it be anything we find meaningful or is it just something that brings us happiness and pleasure? Written by a psychiatrist, this book wants to inspire us to find something meaningful not just when it comes to things, but when it comes to your life.

• Sometimes the only way to survive is to surrender to death.
• Your life has its own meaning and it’s up to you to find it.
• Use paradoxical intention to make your fears go away.

“Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember: Life is too short to be little.” — Dale Carnegie

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a self-help classic which addresses one of the leading causes of physical illness, worry, by showing you simple and actionable techniques to eliminate it from your life.

Do you feel like you are constantly worrying and that this is taking its toll on you? This book might help you cope with those feelings, by making use of simple, yet effective techniques that can bring you peace. You might also find out the golden rule for conquering any kind of worry – but that will not be spoiled here.

• Use a 3-step approach to deal with confusion and you’ll eliminate the worry caused by it.
• Put a stop-loss on stress and grief.
• Take criticism as compliments.

Best Self Help Books for Self Esteem

“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” — Brene Brown

Daring Greatly is a book about having the courage to be vulnerable in a world where everyone wants to appear strong, confident and like they know what they’re doing.

Embracing our vulnerabilities can be a difficult thing to do, but once we learn how to do that, we find out that we can dare to do anything. Dr. Brene Brown has come up with a powerful vision that encourages us to do exactly that: overcome our insecurities and learn how to live our lives fearlessly.

• Vulnerability means strength, not weakness.
• Understand and verbalize your shame to make it go away.
• Children can only become who you are, so be a role model.

“It seems to me that the less I fight my fear, the less it fights back. If I can relax, fear relaxes, too.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

Big Magic is the book that’ll give you the courage you need to pursue your creative interests by showing you how to deal with your fears, notice ideas and act on them and take the stress out of creation.

Inspiration is a mysterious thing, but that’s what makes it so interesting. And Elizabeth Gilbert knows that, which is why she has written this book. In Big Magic, she tries to show us how to embrace who we are and to find those hidden things inside us, which can help us accomplish wonderful and unimaginable things. Filled with wonder and with a sense of joy, this book might be what you need to let go of your fears and live in a way that inspires you to change.

• Let your fears coexist with your passions.
• Give yourself permission to create.
• Keep your day job to fuel your creative affair.

“Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to.” — Susan Cain

Quiet shows the slow rise of the extrovert ideal for success throughout the 20th century, while making a case for the underappreciated power of introverts and showing up new ways for both forces to cooperate.

There are people in the world who prefer to listen, rather than talk. Or people who have greater results on their own, rather than inside a team. And those people are most likely introverts. Susan Cain presents us in this book with stories about those quiet people and promises to give us a different perspective in regards to how we perceive these quiet people.

• Whether you like small talk or not is part of your personality type.
• Western cultures portray extroversion as the ideal of success.
• Companies need to adjust their workplaces to introverts as well.

“Do what you fear and fear disappears.” — David Joseph Schwartz

The Magic of Thinking Big gives you several starting points to develop and strengthen the most important trait of successful people: believing in yourself.

What do you need in order to become successful? Is it talent or intellect or is it just a habit of thinking in such a way that all you’ve ever wanted will be sitting right in front of you? Dr. Schwartz has put together a few useful methods to achieve all those things you want but never dared to get: from a good job to a good life.

• Always be open to new ideas.
• Learn something new whenever you can.
• Ask yourself “How can I do a better job today?” every day.

Best Self Help Books About Relationships

“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” — Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends and Influence People teaches you countless principles to become a likable person, handle your relationships well, win others over and help them change their behavior without being intrusive.

Making things work to your advantage doesn’t have to be just a dream. All the things you have in mind can happen and all you need is to follow the solid advice Dale Carnegie has to offer in this bestseller. How to make friends, how to win people by making use of the way you think. and how to change people – these are all things you will encounter in this book.

• You can make a great first impression just by smiling.
• To be interesting to others, talk about their favorite topic: themselves.
• If you want to convince people, get them to say yes a lot.

“True love cannot begin until the ‘in love’ experience has run its course.” — Gary Chapman

The 5 Love Languages shows couples how to make their love last by learning to recognize the unique way their partner feels love.

Love is a curious thing, and it can even be deemed as challenging sometimes. But there is a secret to keep things going and this book contains it. Filled with practical examples, Dr. Chapman’s approach will help you experience a deeper connection with your partner and also discover the love language of both you and your partner, through a Couple’s Personal Profile assessment.

• As your relationship matures, communication is key.
• There are 5 different ways people give and show love.
• Identify your and your partner’s love language to deepen intimacy.

Best Self Help Books About Productivity

“If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive – no matter how skilled or talented you are.” — Cal Newport

Deep Work proposes that we have lost our ability to focus deeply and immerse ourselves in a complex task, showing you how to cultivate this skill again and focus more than ever before with four simple rules.

There is a valuable skill out there that could you get the best results in whatever you do. Being able to focus without being distracted can seem like a difficult thing to do, but it is a very powerful skill that could help you achieve your goals and unexpected results. If you want to find out more about this skill, Cal Newport’s book might be a good starting point.

• There are 4 strategies for deep work, all of which require intention.
• Productive meditation can help you work deeper, even while you’re taking a break.
• Stop working at the same time each day.

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” — David Allen

Getting Things Done is a manual for stress-free productivity, which helps you set up a system of lists, reminders and weekly reviews, in order to free your mind from having to remember tasks and to-dos and instead let it work at full focus on the task at hand.

Things change daily and that can sometimes become overwhelming and even frustrating. But that doesn’t always have to be the case, as David Allen depicts. Filled with methods that will help our productivity reach its peak, even in the case of stressful situations, this book will help you get things done, under any circumstances.

• Use a “collection bucket” to store things outside your mind and stay focused.
• Create a “next actions” list for all your projects to avoid thinking in the moment.
• Do a weekly review of everything, or else!

“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” — Spencer Johnson

Who Moved My Cheese?  tells a parable, which you can directly apply to your own life, in order to stop fearing what lies ahead and instead thrive in an environment of change and uncertainty.

This is not your usual guide, but rather an amusing story that will put things into perspective. You are in a maze and there’s a block of cheese in front of you. Your life is the maze and the cheese is the prize, but there is a tricky thing about it – you constantly have to chase it. Just as it is in life, this story puts into perspective the challenges we have to deal with in order to reach our goals. But what’s the moral of the story? You’ll discover it when you read this book!

• Thinking too much about your cheese might paralyze you, so just start looking.
• Nothing lasts forever, so keep your eyes open for approaching changes.
• You can always find new cheese, and the minute you start moving things will get better.

Best Self Help Books About Money

“The main reason that over 90 percent of the American public struggles financially is because they play not to lose. They don’t play to win.” — Robert T. Kiyosaki

Rich Dad Poor Dad tells the story of a boy with two fathers, one rich, one poor, to help you develop the mindset and financial knowledge you need to build a life of wealth and freedom.

As a child, growing up, your views and thoughts are usually shaped by your parents. And in this book, Robert tells the story of how his views about money and how they were shaped by his two dads, one of them being his real father and the other one, his best friend’s father. Money makes the world go round, but how do you deal with them? Read this book to find out.

• Get a real financial education if you ever want to exit the “rat race” and stop living paycheck to paycheck.
• Stop saying “I can’t afford it” and instead focus all your energy on answering the question “how can I afford it?”
• Get more assets, which are anything that brings in more money, and pay off all liabilities, which are anything that takes your money away.

“The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.” — Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich is a curation of the 13 most common habits of wealthy and successful people, distilled from studying over 500 individuals over the course of 20 years.

In life, you have to take certain steps to achieve your goals and there is also a point where you have to avoid certain steps to be successful. Filled with timeless information and pieces of advice that might take you far, this book is a must-read for your personal development.

• Use autosuggestion to build an unshakable belief in yourself.
• Be stubborn and always stick to your decisions.
• Join a Mastermind group to cut the learning curve.

Best Self Help Books for Business

“Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.” — Tim Ferriss

The 4-Hour Workweek is the step-by-step blueprint to free yourself from the shackles of a corporate job, create a business to fund the lifestyle of your dreams, and live life like a millionaire, without actually having to be one.

The world keeps changing, but some things seem to always stay the same. If you feel that your business is trapping you in a life that is not the best for you or if you just feel overworked, while other people seem to be doing very little and are living their lives to the fullest, you might want to dive into this book and find out exactly what you might be doing wrong.

• Be effective, not efficient.
• Validate all of your business ideas.
• Charge a premium to make your life easier.

“Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.” — Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers explains why “the self-made man” is a myth and what truly lies behind the success of the best people in their field, which is often a series of lucky events, rare opportunities and other external factors, which are out of our control.

Are those considered high achievers different from the rest of the world? Malcolm Gladwell answers this question and not only, in a book that puts into perspective the background of those high achieving people. According to him, being that kind of person is not just about what you are like, but so much more. Are you curious to find out the secrets of all these great people?

• After you cross a certain skill threshold, your abilities won’t help you.
• The month you’re born in matters.
• Asians are good at math, because where you come from matters.

Best Self Help Books for Positive Thinking

“The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.” — Norman Vincent Peale

The Power of Positive Thinking will show you that the roots of success lie in the mind and teach you how to believe in yourself, break the habit of worrying, and take control of your life by taking control of your thoughts and changing your attitude.

You usually hear people saying that you should have faith in yourself, and that alone will bring you to the point you want to reach. But what if you had more faith in action? Filled with practical advice, this book will help you clear your mind and realize that sometimes, you just have to let yourself believe.

• Start with confidence and watch your problems shrink.
• Your world is nothing more than the thoughts you have about your experiences.
• In order to live worry-free, first imagine a worry-free life.

“Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.” — Rhonda Byrne

The Secret explains how the law of attraction governs your thinking and actions, and how you can use it to achieve whatever you desire in life.

This is the seminal book on visualization, manifestation, and how to make your dreams a reality through the power of your thoughts. It’ll help you understand and unlock the true power of your mind. It’s not a cheat code for not doing any work, but it goes a long way in tackling our challenges with more optimism, vigor, and determination than ever before.

• The law of attraction is one of the most prevalent principles in the world.
• To use the law of attraction, you must think about what you want, not what you want to avoid.
• The three steps of the law of attraction are asking, believing, and receiving.

Best Self Help Books About Stoicism

“Put an end once for all to this discussion of what a good man should be, and be one.” — Marcus Aurelius

Meditations is a collection of 12 books written by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who’ll introduce you to Stoic philosophy, the concept of logic, self-discipline and give you faith that the course the world runs is a good one.

A remarkable collection of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius , this book will help you realize that simple and true ideas might be the most important things to live life to the fullest extent. Things are temporary, and so are people and their feelings, but what is not temporary is the work we put into developing ourselves. An enlightening read, this book will provide you with some challenging beliefs.

• Logic doesn’t always make sense, but everything happens for a reason.
• Life is too short to complain.
• The only pain you suffer is the one you create yourself.

“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you need is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.” — Seneca

Letters from a Stoic is a collection of encouraging moral messages sent by Roman Stoic and philosopher Seneca to his friend Lucilius in order to help him become less emotional, more disciplined, and find the good life.

There used to be a thing called “pen pals.” People would commit to writing each other letters on a regular basis. Nowadays, the practice is dwindling. Thanks to this book, however, you can have a pen pal, and not just any pen pal but one of the most famous philosophers in history. If you’d like a friend to send you letters of encouragement, this book is perfect for you.

• The goal of attaining wisdom is to live in harmony with nature.
• Your most valuable possession is your mind.
• A wise man doesn’t need friends, but he chooses to make them anyway.

Best Self Help Books About Mindfulness

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” — Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now shows you that every minute you spend worrying about the future or regretting the past is a minute lost, because really all you have to live in is the present, the now, and gives you actionable strategies to start living every minute as it occurs.

Is living in the present moment the key to a happy life? According to Eckhart Tolle, this might just be what we need – to be conscious and to live in the moment. Employing useful information and ideas which prove to be inspirational, this guidebook will inspire you to change your life for the better.

• Life is just a series of present moments.
• All pain is a result of resistance to the things you cannot change.
• You can free yourself from pain by constantly observing your mind and not judging your thoughts.

“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” — Marie Kondo

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up takes you through the process of simplifying, organizing and storing your belongings step by step, to make your home a place of peace and clarity.

Your environment dictates your mood. And it also applies to your home. If your home is cluttered with all sorts of things, your mood will be affected by it. Tidying up your house can help you reach a feeling of calmness and change your mindset, both of which will make you happier.

• Move from easy to hard items when considering what to keep.
• YODO – you only declutter once (if you do it right).
• Ask yourself a few simple questions for each item.

“Pep talks are like vitamins: You can take them every day preemptively, or you can wait until your body signals a lack of them — but sooner or later, you will need your vitamins.” — Niklas Göke

2-Minute Pep Talks is a collection of 67 short jolts of inspiration for more hope, comfort, and love in any situation, providing you with a daily dose of good-spiritedness so you can tackle each day with the lightness, excitement, and optimism we all used to feel as kids.

If you feel tired, burned out, or are going through a slump in motivation, this book is for you. It’ll reignite your inner fire, but not with rah-rah speeches and bold claims. Instead, these soothing daily messages will make you think and give you a quiet sense of strength that, yes, you can do this — whatever “this” is. If you enjoy brief stories from all walks of life that contain powerful lessons and are looking for a way to stay consistently motivated without injecting caffeine straight into your veins, get this book.

• No matter what has happened in your life thus far, you’re still here, and that’s all that matters.
• The secret to life is that there is no secret, except showing up on a daily basis for the things and people we care about.
• If you’re not valued, chances are, you’re just in the wrong place.

We don’t have this one on our roster yet, but thankfully, each chapter is even shorter than a Four Minute Books summary! Grab a copy, and in just two minutes a day, you’ll feel empowered, calm, and resilient!

That concludes our list of the best self-improvement books. We hope we managed to give you a bit of insight into what self help means and how to do it right. We’re confident that these 33 books will help you figure out where to start and how to become the person you want to be.

Letting go of certain beliefs or ideas might be scary, but when you take a leap, you’ll discover parts of yourself you never knew existed. Knowing yourself and changing yourself is not a piece of cake, but it will bring out your most remarkable sides.

What idea spoke most to you in our list? Which book presented it the best? Take that idea and put it into practice, and you’ll find yourself improving immediately!

Looking for more of the best books on various topics? Here are all the book lists we’ve made for you so far:

• The 60 Best Business Books of All Time (Will Forever Change How You Think About Organizations)
• The 20 Best Entrepreneurship Books to Start, Grow & Run a Successful Business
• The 14 Best Finance Books of All Time
• The 21 Best Habit Books of All Time to Change Any Behavior
• The 33 Best Happiness Books of All Time That Everyone Should Read
• The 60 Best History Books of All Time (to Read at Any Age)
• The 7 Best Inspirational Books That Will Light Your Inner Fire
• The 40 Best Leadership Books of All Time to Help You Become a Truly Inspiring Person
• The 31 Best Motivational Books Ever Written
• The 12 Best Nonfiction Books Most People Have Never Heard Of
• The 35 Best Philosophy Books to Live Better and Become a Great Thinker
• The 34 Best Psychology Books That Will Make You Smarter and Happier
• The 25 Best Sales Books of All Time to Help You Close Any Deal
• The 22 Best Books About Sex & Sexuality to Improve Your Love Life & Relationships
• The 30 Most Life-Changing Books That Will Shift Your Perspective & Stay With You Forever

Looking for more books by the world’s most celebrated authors? Here are all of the book lists by the author we’ve curated for you:

• All Brené Brown Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• Jordan Peterson Books: All Titles in Order of Publication + The 5 Top Books He Recommends
• All Malcolm Gladwell Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Michael Pollan Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• Peter Thiel Books: A Comprehensive List of Books By, About & Recommended by Peter Thiel
• All Rachel Hollis Books: The Full List of Non-Fiction, Fiction & Cookbooks, Sorted by Popularity & the Best Reading Order
• All Ray Dalio Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Robert Greene Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Ryan Holiday Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Simon Sinek Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Tim Ferriss Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Walter Isaacson Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)

Want more books sorted by the year they came out? Here are all the best-of lists we’ve made for you based on various years:

• The 21 Best Books of 2021 (Fiction & Nonfiction)

Last Updated on March 11, 2024

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The 26 Best Self-Help Books to Buy in 2024 That Actually Work

Improve your happiness, find motivation or get in touch with your spirituality.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

Because the best self-help books are the ones that really work, we crowdsourced favorites from GH staff, asked Goodreads to recommend the self-improvement books that most resonate with its readers and included some favs from Seira Wilson, Senior Editor at Amazon Books . Whatever in your life needs a little reimagining right now, we're confident one of these great self-help books will help.

Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven

Inspired by the advice Admiral William H. McRaven gave in a graduation speech that went viral, this book reminds you that sometimes little things can have a big impact. This is one you'll want to reread whenever you need a boost.

Recommended by: Amazon, GH staff

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

There are some times when you just can't muster a positive attitude. For those times, there is blogger Mark Manson, who doesn't sugarcoat the truth or tell you to turn lemons into lemonade. Instead, he uses research-backed methods for finding better, more productive ways to endure the hard parts of life.

Recommended by: Goodreads, GH staff

Lightly by Francine Jay

Getting a handle on your stuff is one thing, but what about shedding your life of your worries? Francine Jay, author of The Joy of Less , talks about dumping the burden of more than just objects, going minimalist with respect to purchases, yes, but also stress and emotional baggage.

Recommended by: Amazon

Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Sometimes you don't need a mind-changing philosophy — you just need a fast pep talk. If that's the case, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is in your corner. The book's origins are from Twitter: He started and ended each day with little bite-size affirmation. (Example: "Do NOT get stuck in the comments section of life today"). He offers new, easy-to-read insights in this thoughtful book.

Eyes Up! Discover Your Full Potential and Form Meaningful Connections Through Subtle Shifts in Perspective

TJ Kostecky is the head soccer coach at Bard College, and in this book he tells readers how to apply what he's learned on the field to other areas of life. This includes changing your perspective so you can "see the whole field," or making sure you "make the players around you better. His Vision Training, as he calls it, has been used by elite athletes like Carli Lloyd, Julie Foudy and Claudio Reyna.

Recommended by: GH staff

Grit by Angela Duckworth

If you're feeling bad about a lack of natural genius or familial advantages, researcher Angela Duckworth gives you reason to buck up. She's found that what she calls "grit," a combination of passion and perseverance, is more important than anything innate. She visits with high achievers, from Spelling Bee champions to CEOs, and shows how grit helped them get where they are.

Recommended by: Goodreads and Amazon

Deep Work by Cal Newport

In our multitasking, Twitter-scrolling world, we've lost the art of sitting down and really concentrating. Georgetown professor Cal Newport, Ph.D., outlines the benefit of really tuning out all distractions, and gives four rules to help re-wire yourself so you can deeply focus again. (Check now: How many browser tabs do you have open? Yep, we thought s0).

Year of Yes by Shonda Rimes

Most of us know Shonda Rhimes as the creator of hit shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder . But even if you're not in the TV biz, you can still get inspiration from her memoir, which chronicles a year where she vowed to say "yes!" to everything that scared her. Reading what Rhimes was able to accomplish will inspire you to attempt something you've been terrified to do, too.

Recommended by: Goodreads

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

By now, you've no doubt heard of Marie Kondo and her super viral method of purging unnecessary items from your life and organizing what remains. When you're ready to have your house be the cleanest its ever been, her book will take you through all the types of stuff you've accumulated and tell you how to get a handle on it once and for all.

RELATED: What Is the KonMari Method? Here's How to Declutter the Marie Kondo Way

Presence by Amy Cuddy

Everybody has moments when the jitters get the best of us. Harvard Business School professor and social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows readers how to get the best of those stressful situations without doing a lot of life-changing and soul-searching. Instead, she delves into research about how things like body language, posture and other mind-body techniques can banish the butterflies from our stomachs.

How Not To Die by Michael Greger, MD

Nutritionist Michael Greger, M.D., delves into the 15 leading causes of death in this country, and then prescribes foods to eat and avoid if you're at risk for those conditions. He also includes a checklist of 12 items we should all eat every day if we want to live forever. (And who doesn't?)

You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

Jen Sincero, life coach and author of You Are a Badass , wants to help women eliminate the obstacles that keep them from getting rich. And she should know: She admits she was once a poor freelance writer until she decided she wanted to make more money. "If my broke ass can do it," she writes, "you can do it, too, no matter how rickety or hopeless you may feel right now."

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Hal Elrod is a published author, speaker, ultra-marathoner, podcast host and cancer survivor, so you know he's got more than a few achievements under his belt. Elrod swears he has the key to making mornings — and, therefore, lives — happier and more productive. But most outrageous of all: He says it only takes six minutes a day. In his book, he offers a blueprint to his morning ritual — including what to do if you like to snooze.

Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin

If Marie Kondo's method doesn't work with your lifestyle, Gretchen Rubin has her own path to decluttering and organizing — including the helpful hint, "Everything looks better on a tray." Instead of telling you to nix everything, she offers easy solutions to common problems. Quick tip: Headphones always tangled? Get a headphone hanger.

The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wikiing

You've probably heard of the cozy Danish philosophy of hygge, but what exactly is it, apart from being cozy? Meik Wiking demystifies it all, showing how light, food and drink and togetherness can make for a happier home, even if your life is a little chaotic.

RELATED: 11 Ways to Make Your Life More Hygge

How to Be a Bawse by Lilly Singh

Lilly Singh, actress, comedian and creator of her Superwoman show on YouTube, offers her advice on success and shares what she learned on her way to internet superstardom. Her tips are both conventional ("say what you mean") and unconventional ("be the dumbest person in the room" — aka, learn from those who are smart than you).

Random House Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, the social scientist best known for the On Being Project (and the super popular podcast of the same name), trains her sensitive eye on our increasingly polarized world. From there, she examines what she calls "true belonging," and maps how to get there from lonely places "out in the wilderness."

Principles by Ray Dalio

Or, if you can't relate to the very creative way of Pixar's business management, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio offers a very different perspective on leadership. He offers a five-step process to getting what you want out of life, which involves systemizing everything to run like a machine — which can then be fine-tuned.

'Big Magic' by Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is best known for writing Eat, Pray, Love , but you don't have to go on a globe-spanning, pasta-devouring trip to derive insights from her life. In this book, she delves into her own creative process and explains how enchantment, permission, persistence, trust and divinity can help people create, whether it's writing a book or making art.

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, famed productivity expert and author of The 4-Hour Work Week , has access to some pretty high-powered individuals for his podcast. In this book, he distills the insights from their hours-long interviews, tests their methods and advice at home and gives you actionable tips for how to incorporate their wisdom into your own life.

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} All the Best Books to Read Next

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The 7 Best Self-Help Books to Change Your Life

Find yourself in one of these versatile, mind-changing reads

Mary K. Tatum is a licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist and has worked in the field of psychology for over 15 years, with seven years in the private practice setting.

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

Until proven otherwise, it’s safe to assume that—as the saying goes—nobody’s perfect. That means we have room for at least some improvement in our lives . And no, we’re not talking about getting a higher-paying job or a new haircut: we’re referring to inner improvement . This involves working on managing some of our less-than-desirable habits and traits—things like being unable to trust other people, having difficulties with interpersonal communication, or lacking self-confidence. 

That’s where self-help books can come in handy. It’s basically like someone has thought extensively about the general challenge you’re facing, and then walks you through steps to help you figure it out—or at least think about it more clearly. To be clear: self-help books are not a replacement for working with mental health professionals. If you’re dealing with a mental illness, seek out a credentialed person you can speak with in person (or over a video call). But for situations without a clinical element, a self-help book can make a difference.

To help you narrow down your options, here are the best self-help books according to the experts.

"A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" by Eckhart Tolle

Can be helpful to reivist certain passages, as needed

Discusses how to effectively process and find meaning in suffering

A lot of overlap with content found in the author's previous book

Many consider Eckhart Tolle one of the great thought leaders our time. Prior to " A New Earth ," Tolle wrote "The Power of Now," a best seller and must-read. The reason "A New Earth" makes this list is quite simple: it goes beyond teaching how to live in the moment and helps readers learn how to turn their suffering into peace. All types of suffering are addressed in the book, from anger and grief to jealousy and anxiety.

Tolle talks a lot about the ego and how to separate ourselves from it. His examples and recommended exercises are not just hocus pocus; they really work and are something anyone can do. Whether your suffering is rooted in jealousy, anger, grief, sadness, anxiety, or depression , Tolle will help you see life from varied perspectives, awakening you to your life’s purpose.

This book is great as a reference point, too. Those who pick up a copy will read it front to back then revisit Tolle's words over and over again. Others will keep it by their nightstands and flip to a chapter when they’re feeling some excess baggage creep in and could use some words of wisdom.

Price at time of publication: $18

"You Are a Badass" by Jen Sincero

Engaging exercises

Accessible writing style

Not the most empathetic towards people with depression

Contains some microaggressions and fat shaming

Far too often, fear gets the best of us. Jen Sincero helps readers go beyond that fear in her New York Times best seller " You Are a Badass ." What sets this self-help book apart from the others are the engaging end-of-chapter exercises.

Instead of casting the book aside and letting it collect dust after you read the last page, you'll be inspired to go back and reflect on the previous exercises you responded to. The exercises also drive home the points Sincero makes through her writing. When you feel a dip in your confidence, going back to your entries will put a positive spin on your day and remind you why you should show yourself more self-love . Also make sure to check out Sincero's follow-up book, "You Are a Badass at Making Money."

Price at time of publication: $8

Dr. Leela R. Magavi, MD, psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Psychiatry.

Some self-help books include daily therapeutic activities and provide comfort and guidance to individuals who are suffering. I recommend individuals meet with a psychiatrist and therapist, and concurrently utilize self-help books to expedite their healing.

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" by Sean Covey

Text is broken up using cartoons and quotes

Could be beneficial for both teens and parents

Updated in 2014, but still can feel outdated

Unnecessary references to dieting and losing weight

Many have read, or at least have heard about, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. Covey's son Sean followed in his footsteps, making a spinoff version for teenagers that uses the same principles to help young adults master formative areas of their lives.

To make this self-help book age-appropriate and downright fun to read, Covey breaks up the text with cartoons, quotes, brainstorming ideas, and stories from real teens to bring the book together. " The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens " covers   topics like  body image , friendships, relationships, goal-setting, peer pressure, bullying, internet safety, and so much more. Gift this book to your teenage son, daughter, niece, nephew, or grandchild. It's the perfect keepsake to pass down to future generations of teens too.

"What Are You Hungry For?" by Deepak Chopra

Helps readers understand their reasons for certain types of eating

More than simply a guide to healthy eating

Even though it’s not a traditional weight loss book, that component being included at all might turn some people off

Can feel like any other book on weight loss and our relationship with food

Deepak Chopra is the self-help guru of our time, and any one of his books could be recommended for various reasons. " What Are You Hungry For? " will help you see your relationship with food in an entirely new light.

While this self-help book could be considered a guide to help with weight loss, it’s really so much more. Chopra does talk about losing weight and also gives a pretty regimented recommendation on what to eat. But he also digs deeper into the reasoning behind our desire to seek this transformation, and fulfillment is at the center of this argument.

Since change isn’t easy for most, the book offers a lot of intention-setting tips to help readers determine the motives behind their goals. Attaching an emotion to the things you want in life, health-related or otherwise, makes it easier to stay the course when the going gets tough.

Price at time of publication: $16

"Declutter Your Mind" by S.J. Scott

Tackles negative thinking patterns—something a lot of people struggle with

Includes helpful, actionable exercises

May not feel as applicable to people who aren’t self-employed

Writing can feel self-promotional at times

The subtitle of this book provides great insight into the heart of the book: How to stop worrying, relieve anxiety and eliminate negative thinking. " Declutter Your Mind " is a book that is very hands-on with its reader and full of various exercises to engage your mindset. You will learn the causes of mental clutter, how to change negative thoughts to positive ones, strategies to help with rocky relationships, how to identify what’s important to you, the importance of meditation, how to goal set, and much more.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with stress, worry, or anxiety, this powerful book will do its part in offering various techniques, tips, and tricks to cope with an overactive mind. Reviewers consistently note how much they enjoy the actionable exercises in the book and that the co-authors offer more than a sermon on the importance of living mindfully and in the moment.

Price at time of publication: $15

"Big Magic: Create Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Great for creative people (or those who want to be more creative)

Accessible and conversational writing style makes it easy to read

Gilbert’s “tough love” approach doesn't always translate

Reads more as a memoir than a self-help book in parts

For one reason or another, some were turned off by Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling "Eat Pray Love". But don’t let that turn you away from reading her other material, in particular, " Big Magic ". If you’re an artist or creator of any type and have struggled with a blockage that prevents you from pursuing your calling to its fullest, you’ll want to give this a read.

From creating new habits (and ridding yourself of old ones) to overcoming fear and surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals, Gilbert hits the nail on the head as she dissects the obstacles a creative person may face in pursuing their dreams. Her honest, conversational, no-BS tone will light a fire in your soul and help you be upfront with yourself about what you want from life. A highlight of this book is the usage of real-life examples from regular men and women across the country who have endured in their creative feats.

Price at time of publication: $21

"The Wisdom of Sundays" by Oprah Winfrey

Full of what Oprah Winfrey considers “life-changing insights”

It’s like sitting in on a conversation between Oprah and major thought leaders

Print can be small and hard to read at times

Oprah is the queen of interviewing spiritual gurus, world leaders, therapists, doctors, and other thought leaders. " The Wisdom of Sundays " takes the best-of-the-best from these conversations and combines them into one uplifting read.

The book has 240 pages full of snippets from what Oprah refers to as "life-changing insights". Authors in The Wisdom of Sundays include   Shonda Rimes, Cheryl Strayed, Tony Robbins, Thich Nhat Hahn, Wayne Dyer, and so many more. Take your time with each individual page to make sure you don't skim over any of the wonderful and thought-provoking insights inside.

Price at time of publication: $28

Final Verdict

This one’s tricky, because a self-help book that one person hated could be the one that changed another person’s life. Having said that, if you’re new to the genre, you probably want to stick with a book with a broader appeal, like "Declutter Your Mind" ( view on Amazon ). While not everyone is looking to mold a highly effective teen, everyone does have something that makes them anxious, and this book provides a manageable way of identifying and addressing some of the ones that are holding you back. 

What to Look for in a Self-Help Book

Selecting a self-help book is, for the most part, a highly personal decision (with the exception  being cases when a book is so popular you feel the need to read it, even if you wouldn’t have done so on your own). Given that this genre is not one-size-fits-all—and that people respond to a wide range of styles, topics, and tones—finding the right self-help books for yourself can be a process of trial and error. But, to help guide you through that process, here are a few general things to look for when purchasing a self-help book:

Writing style and tone:

First, think about what kind of book that is likely to be the most helpful in your current situation, as well as the kind you’d actually like to read. These two categories don’t necessarily overlap. For example, you may think you want a clinical-sounding, research-backed guide through a particular condition or situation, but in reality, would find it so boring that you’d never pick it up. And a self-help book just sitting on the shelf isn’t helping anyone.

If you think you’d respond well to something funny, or that it would help hold your interest, look for a self-help book that injects humor into its pages. (And yes, highly qualified experts with fancy degrees can also be hilarious.)

Something your therapist recommends:

If you are working with some type of therapist or counselor , ask them for recommendations for self-help books. Not only are they probably very familiar with this genre, but they also have gotten to know you during your sessions, and may have a good idea of the type of book that you’d benefit from the most.

In addition to tone, self-help books also come in several different formats. “Some individuals fare better with more structure and guidance, while others excel with more creative and fluid feedback,” Dr. Leela R. Magavi, MD , psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Psychiatry explains. “Some people enjoy reading about concepts, while others prefer completing daily tasks and worksheets.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Like many things in life, what you get out of self-help books depends on the time and effort you put into not only reading them, but also doing the work. And no, that doesn’t necessarily include actual worksheets: the “work” also involves taking what you’ve read, sitting with it, processing it, and figuring out how you can use it in your own life (if applicable). 

“Self-help books can, in truth, be very helpful if an individual puts forth the effort to integrate the information learned from the book into their daily life,” Summer R. Thompson , DNP, PMHNP-BC, a mental health nurse practitioner at Community Psychiatry explains.

When someone finds the right self-help book and puts the time into reading it and doing the work, it can have a number of benefits. One is that they can “provide a concrete blueprint for an individual who has identified an issue in their life to navigate addressing it in a healthy manner on their own,” Thompson explains.   

In addition to providing a general blueprint for how a person can approach some of their biggest challenges, self-help books can add structure to individuals’ day-to-day life. “They can motivate individuals to try different strategies and venture into uncomfortable territory,” says Dr. Leela R. Magavi, MD , psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Psychiatry .

Beyond that, Magavi notes that self-help books can lead to more fluid and healthy communication at work and at home, and many allow individuals to remain introspective and practice self-compassion. “It helps individuals identify ways in which they can respond to inevitable stress in a more positive way, and reiterates the fact that they have the power to write their own story and determine their own emotional experience,” she explains.

What the Experts Say

“Self-help books have helped many men and women initiate the often-daunting task of processing their thoughts and assessing their insecurities and weaknesses. Self-help books allow individuals to try different techniques and find what works the best for them to assuage anxiety and confront tumultuous times with grace.” — Dr. Leela R. Magavi, MD , psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Psychiatry . 

“When looking at self-help books, it is important to look for books that provide clear and attainable goals in the context of the issue you are addressing. If a book makes recommendations that you do not feel are achievable in the context of your life, the book will likely not be very helpful to you and end up collecting dust rather than being an effective self-improvement tool.” — Summer R. Thompson , DNP, PMHNP-BC, mental health nurse practitioner at Community Psychiatry

Why Trust Verywell Mind?

Erinne Magee is a freelance writer covering health, wellness and lifestyle topics. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Yuko

As a seasoned health writer and editor with a special focus on mental health and well-being, Elizabeth Yuko understands how powerful stress-relieving activities can be for many people—as well as the fact that they’re not one-size-fits-all. With decades of first-hand experience dealing with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, she’s always on the lookout for new (and research-backed) products, techniques, and services that can help people cope with stress and other mental health challenges. 

By Mary K. Tatum, MS, LMHC Mary is a licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist with 15 years of experience working in the psychology field. She earned a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Bluefield College and a Master of Science in Psychology from Palm Beach Atlantic University. She began in social work and then moved to drug rehab settings, working as a therapist, group facilitator, and clinical director. She specializes in family dynamic systems, trauma recovery, improving resilience, addiction recovery, and the psychology of successful business management.

110 Of The Best Self-Improvement Books You’ll Ever Read

If you're a self-improvement junkie like I am, you're always looking for something inspiring and motivational to read.

Over the years, I've read hundreds of the best self-help books and have written a dozen or so myself.

Some of the most profound “aha” insights in my life have come as a result of what I've learned from these amazing self-growth books.

I firmly believe you should never stop learning and growing as a person. In fact, I like to challenge my own beliefs and assumptions and read the ideas and perspectives of others in order to stretch myself.

One thing I've learned as a personal coach is how every element of our lives impacts the rest of our lives. You can't change one area without it impacting everything else.

That's why it's important to grow and learn in all areas of your life — from your relationships to emotional well-being.

With that in mind, I've shared some of the best self-improvement books in a variety of self-development categories that are important to our overall happiness, peace of mind, and balance.

Here are 110 of the best self-improvement books that can change your life for the better:

Self-improvement books on  confidence.

1.  The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are , by Brene Brown

2.  Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It , by Kamal Ravikant

3.  Self-Esteem: A proven program of cognitive techniques for assessing, improving and maintaining your self-esteem by Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning

4.  Building Confidence: Get Motivated, Overcome Social Fear, Be Assertive, and Empower Your Life For Success. , by Barrie Davenport

5.  The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know ,by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

6.  The 21-Day Self-Confidence Challenge: An easy and step-by-step approach to overcome self-doubt & low self-esteem , by Ingrid Lindberg

7.  Own Your Self: Master Your Character, Rise To Any Challenge, Find True Inner Peace ,by Cary Hokama

8.  Confidence Hacks: 99 Small Actions to Massively Boost Your Confidence , by Barrie Davenport

9.  Confident You: An Introvert's Guide to Success in Life and Business , by Steve Scott and Rebecca Livermore

10.  Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself , by Kristen Neff

Self-Improvement Books on  Happiness

11.  Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill ,by Matthieu Ricard and Daniel Goleman

12.  10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story , by Dan Harris

13. The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want, by Sonja Lyubomirsky

14. Habits Of A Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels , by Loretta Graziano Breuning

15. The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World , by Howard Cutler M.D. and Dalai Lama

16. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment , by Martin E. P. Seligman

17. Finely Tuned: How To Thrive As A Highly Sensitive Person or Empath , by Barrie Davenport

18. F lourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being , by Martin E. P. Seligman

19. The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking , by Oliver Burkeman

20. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World , by Eric Weiner

Self-Improvement Books on  Life Purpose

21. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything , by by Ken Robinson Ph.D. and Lou Aronica

22. Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life , by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica

23. Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion , by Gregg Levoy

24. I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It , by Barbara Sher and Barbara Smith

25. The 52-Week Life Passion Project: Uncover Your Life Passion , by Barrie Davenport

26. Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type , by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron

27. The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Life Purpose , by Janet Attwood

28. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose , by Eckhart Tolle

29. The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose , by Dan Millman

30. Unplug: 26 People Share How They Recharge and Reconnect to Passion, Presence , and Purpose, by Deb Ozarko

Simplifying and Simplicity Self-Help Books

31. The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own , by Joshua Becker

32. The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life , by Francine Jay

33. 10-Minute Declutter: The Stress-Free Habit for Simplifying Your Home , by Barrie Davenport and Steve Scott

34. 10-Minute Digital Declutter: The Simple Habit to Eliminate Technology Overload , by Barrie Davenport and Steve Scott

35. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing , by Marie Kondo

36. The Cozy Life: Rediscover the Joy of the Simple Things Through the Danish Concept of Hygge , by Pia Edberg

37. Do Less: A Minimalist Guide to a Simplified, Organized, and Happy Life , by Rachel Jonat

38. The Simple Living Guide , by Janet Luhrs

39. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less , by Greg Mckeown

40. The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change , by Annie Leonard

Self-Improvement Books on  Mindfulness

41. Peace of Mindfulness: Everyday Rituals to Conquer Anxiety and Claim Unlimited Inner Peace , by Barrie Davenport

42. Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World , by Mark Williams and Danny Penman

43. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life , by Jon Kabat-Zinn

44. You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment , by Thich Nhat Hanh and Melvin McLeod

45. Mindfulness in Plain English , by Henepola Gunaratana

46. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment , by Eckhart Tolle

47. A Guide to The Present Moment , by Noah Elkrief

48. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself , by Michael A. Singer

49. Meditation: How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind , by Pema Chodron

50. Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World , by Emily P. Freeman

Self-Improvement Books on  Overcoming Stress and Anxiety

51. The Healing Power of the Breath: Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety, Enhance Concentration, and Balance Your Emotions , by Brown, Richard, MD and Gerbarg, Patricia, MD

52. Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks Fast (+Bonus Audios) , by Barry McDonagh

53. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook , by Edmund Bourne PhD

54. The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions –Today, by Julia Ross

55. Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life , by Judith Orloff

56. When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life , by David D. Burns MD

57. Healing Anxiety and Depression , by Daniel G. Amen and Lisa C. Routh

58. Social Anxiety: Social Anxiety and Shyness Ultimate Guide: Techniques to Overcome Stress, Achieve Self Esteem and Succeed as an Introvert , by Lisa Kimberly

59. Color Me Stress-Free: Nearly 100 Coloring Templates to Unplug and Unwind (A Zen Coloring Book) by Lacy Mucklow, by Lacy Mucklow and Angela Porter

60. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness , by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Thich Nhat Hanh

Self-Improvement Books on  Relationships

70.  47 Little Love Boosters For a Happy Marriage: Connect and Instantly Deepen Your Bond No Matter How Busy You Are , by Marko Petkovic

Self-Improvement Books on  Good Habits

Self-Improvement Books on  Motivation and Productivity

Self-Improvement Books on  Overcoming Challenges

98.  When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times , by Pema Chodron

Self-Improvement  Health and Wellness Books

Do you have a favorite self-improvement book that isn't listed here? Please add it to the comments.

Did you find any value from this list of self-improvement books?

I hope you enjoyed the list of books. I hope you'll use these self-improvement books to enhance your personal growth. Which of these books seemed most appealing and right for you at this time?

Would you like to help others?

It would be really great if you could help me spread this curated list of self-improvement books to others. Would you be willing to share this list of helpful books on your preferred social media channel?

7 thoughts on “110 Of The Best Self-Improvement Books You’ll Ever Read”

Pity you did not mention the Bible. It gives the answers if you are prepared to make the effort studying it. That is prayerfully and not superficially. It has helped more people than any other publication. it is the living word of God.

Very true. Such a pity Bible wasn’t included. I mean, that should be first.

Am I allowed to add my own book : Teach Yourself: Self-Esteem Workbook’or indeed one for parents ‘Be a happier parent with NLP’ or kids ‘NLP for Children, NLP for Tweens and NLP for Teens?

Thanks so much for this list , have been pouring over it!

I love this list and have been pouring over it! Thanks so much! Can you recommend one of these that deals with being insecure, existential depression, needing to feel wanted, anchored grounded? Needing attention from others to be validated? Panic for attention. So I have a good sense of self sometimes but holidays, weekends can send me spiraling. Or a unreturned text from a boyfriend. Thanks For any info!! 🙂

Have any books for couples madly in love, married, professionals, hard workers, bought home, and when they wanted to have a baby found out they were incompatible…..small chance of preganancy————so much rage, anger, resentment, ……….

Just came across this list and LOVE it. I admire so many books on this list, too many to list!

Personally, I’d add this one to your list; “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.

Not sure if you had it in mind while writing this, but it’s one of those books that get you really inspired and it doesn’t even have to relate to money or becoming rich. Give it a read, you might find the hidden secret too! 🙂

Comments are closed.

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20 books for personal growth in 2024

Start the new year off with a plan to shift gears and a practical guide to embracing your best life. As 2023 comes to a close, now is a great time to find the best personal development books for yourself or gifts for loved ones . 

From inspiring to expansively informative, these life and career books have left an imprint on our minds and hearts. We hope they guide you to growth, innovative creation, and personal excellence in the new year. 

Whether you’re looking to change your life , build resilience , kick off new habits, dive into deep work, develop your self-esteem, grow as a leader , or simply learn more about yourself, these are some of the best self-help books to guide you through it all. 

We hope you enjoy our top book picks for growth, inspiration, and reflection!

What are personal development books?

Personal growth books, often categorized under the self-help book genre , are written with the intention of guiding individuals toward self-improvement , self-discovery, and personal development. These books (or audiobooks) aim to provide insights, strategies, and tools that can help readers enhance various aspects of their lives, including relationships, careers, mindsets, habits, and overall well-being .

Key characteristics of the best self-improvement books for personal growth include:

• Actionable insights : Effective personal growth books provide practical advice and actionable steps that readers can apply in their daily lives. The guidance should be clear, realistic, and applicable to a variety of situations.
• Empowerment : These books empower readers to take control of their lives and make positive changes. They often encourage a sense of agency and personal responsibility for one's growth and development.
• Inspiration and motivation : Beneficial personal growth books inspire and motivate readers to strive for improvement. They may include stories of individuals who have overcome challenges, illustrating the possibilities for positive change .
• Research-based or well-informed : Many impactful personal growth books are grounded in research, psychology, or the author's personal experiences. They should provide evidence or reasoning behind the strategies and concepts presented.
• Holistic approach : Effective personal growth books often address multiple aspects of life, recognizing the interconnectedness of various areas such as relationships, career, mental health, and spirituality.
• Practical examples and case studies : Real-world examples and case studies help readers relate the concepts to their own experiences, making the advice more tangible and relatable.
• Positive psychology : Many personal growth books draw from positive psychology , focusing on strengths, resilience, and the pursuit of happiness. They often provide a constructive and optimistic perspective on personal challenges.
• Accessibility : A beneficial personal growth book should be accessible to a wide audience. It should be written in a way that is engaging, understandable, and relatable, regardless of the reader's background or level of expertise in the subject matter.
• Encouragement of self-reflection : Effective personal growth books encourage readers to reflect on their own lives , values, and goals. Prompts for self-reflection and journaling may be included to enhance the learning process.
• Long-term impact : The best personal growth books offer insights that have a lasting impact on the reader. They provide tools and perspectives that individuals can continue to use as they navigate through different phases of life.

It's important to note that different people may resonate with different books based on their preferences, needs, and personal situations. While personal growth books can be valuable, individual growth is a unique and ongoing journey, and no single book has all the answers.

The top 20 personal growth books to become your best self

1. Immunity to Change, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey

In this book, Lahey and Kegan explore the power of belief. Our beliefs are strong and can make it very difficult to change. But if we can understand the mechanisms behind why change is so difficult, we can move forward and grow into our potential. Filled with “hands-on diagnostic and compelling case studies”, Immunity to Change helps you directly impact your beliefs for lasting transformation.

“I strongly recommend Immunity to Change to everyone who is passionate about adult development. It’s thought-provoking, inspiring, and eye-opening. It clearly explains how we’re the architects of our own immunity to change which makes ongoing growth and development so difficult. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey provide a lot of real client examples that can guide you on how you can overcome your and your client's immunity to change systems.” - BetterUp Coach Evangelos Bertsekas , ACC

2. The Inner Work of Racial Justice, by Rhonda Magee

We all have habits we want to change. Mindfulness is an effective way of reviewing those habits to create a lasting impact. In this thought-provoking book, Rhonda Magee pairs mindfulness with the internal work necessary to defuse unconscious racism, dissolve personal barriers, and identify microaggressions so we can become more empathetic and connected through our unique differences as a global community. 

“The Inner Work of Racial Justice encouraged each of us to recognize the individual, family, and group identities we learned as kids, grew into, and participated in as adults.  The strategies allowed me to look at my own experiences of “other,” and the associated vulnerability. As a result, I became more open to hearing about the experiences of more people and able to listen with less reactivity.” - BetterUp Coach Dina Markind , PCC, RN

3. Why Meditate, by Matthieu Ricard

Ever wondered if you ought to try meditating? In this short book, Matthieu Ricard explores the theory and spirituality of meditation, with a deep-seated and fine-tuned understanding of the historical texts and Buddhist masters. This rich background leads to practical guidance paired with real-world examples of how daily meditation can profoundly enrich and impact how we see ourselves and the world.

“For those wishing to begin or refine a meditation practice, I recommend Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions by Matthieu Ricard. As both a scientist and a monk who’s lived in the Himalayas for more than 40 years, Ricard provides concise yet complete instructions on working with the mind. In addition, he gives an overview of the theory, spirituality, and practical aspects of meditation, bringing Eastern teachings to Western readers in an easily understood format.” - BetterUp Coach Julianne Davidow , PCC

4. Already Free, by Bruce Tift

Therapeutic process and deep spiritual realization are more intricately tied than we think, and embracing this duality can lead us to freedom. In his book Already Free, Bruce Tift engages these two seemingly at odds perspectives in a provocative dialogue. Through exploring psychotherapy’s ‘developmental’ approach and examining its support and contradiction of Buddhist philosophy, Tift shows us the always accessible path to personal freedom.

“In Already Free , Bruce Tift highlights the practice of personal responsibility as an antidote to unnecessary suffering. He insightfully integrates a Western therapeutic model with Eastern thought principles, bringing awareness of how we can break free from attaching our state of mind to external circumstances. He effectively creates space for acknowledging how developmental experiences impact our well-being while also recognizing the power of mindfulness, being present, and accepting what is.” - BetterUp Coach Karen Doll, PsyD, LP

5. The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler

The Dalai Lama is always happy – how does he do it ?  It starts with and flows from his core belief that happiness is the purpose of life . In this book, co-authored with psychotherapist Dr. Howard Cutler, the Dalai Lama shares his experience to explore how we can all deal with anxiety, depression, disappointment, and the day-to-day obstacles life throws at us, and be happier. This book was among the first in the genre of happiness books and is considered the cornerstone of positive psychology.

“I find this book helpful to my life as a professional coach and human being. Containing a wealth of powerful ideas, I like to keep it nearby to look at a bit at a time, exploring, savoring, and reflecting on the integration of concepts and practices with the potential to uplift the human experience.” BetterUp Coach, Ilene Berns-Zare, PsyD, PCC

6. Design Your Worklife, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Our workspace enormously affects our productivity and feelings of ease and success at work. Burnett and Evans explore Design Theory and how it can affect workers' success and happiness. Step by step and chapter by chapter, Burnett and Evans give the tools to build positive change, whether you want to make your current job more meaningful or move on. If you want a more meaningful, engaged, productive, and fun work life, this is a great book to read.

“This book uses design thinking exercises to help the reader reflect on their work life and set realistic goals while providing a toolbox to address common work-life problems.  Design thinking empowers the reader to reframe their own dysfunctional beliefs when addressing obstacles that make them feel "stuck" in their jobs.” - BetterUp Coach Marie Stevenson MSOD, ACC

7. The Source: The Secrets of the Universe by Dr. Tara Swart

Neuroscientist, former psychiatrist, and Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan, Dr. Tara Swart, brings evidence to the manifesting world. Her book talks about the “latest breakthroughs in neuroscience and behavioral psychology, including lessons in neuroplasticity, magnetism, emotional and logical thinking, and even hydration, self-care , and relaxation”, and how they overlap with the Law of Attraction. Paired with her personal evolution from doubter to ardent believer, her book provides practical knowledge with inspiration and insight in helping people stuck in unhappiness move into confident fulfillment.

“ The Source: The Secrets of the Universe lends scientific rigor to concepts well-known to many coaches, like “think it, believe it, achieve it,” and “thoughts become things.” Far from magic, Dr. Swart Bieber demonstrates why tools like affirmations and vision boards work, and how each of us can create the lives we want by first changing our consciousness, from which our actions ultimately flow. For all looking to take their lives to the next level, this book is a worthy addition to your collection.” - BetterUp Coach Rob Michelucci , PCC

8. Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine

Looking for personal and professional fulfillment? Often, we’re our own worst enemy. Chamine’s research found 10 common ways that this self-sabotage can cause significant damage to anyone trying to achieve their full potential. He then helps you identify how much potential you really have and provides concrete steps towards realizing it, bringing welcome stress relief and happiness as you progress.

“In Positive Intelligence, Shirzad explains the concepts of Sage and Saboteurs. Exploring how simple practices like using PQ reps can weaken your Saboteurs and strengthen your Sage, Shirzad helps you achieve your highest success and sustained happiness. Of all the personal development work and coaching training I have done, this is the simplest and easiest to implement, and has benefited me greatly. Better yet, I get the same feedback from my clients.” - BetterUp Coach Kristina Liu PsyD, ACC

9. Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Rather Than Telling by Edgar Schein

Oftentimes we speak before thinking. When we don’t check in with the person we’re speaking to, our conversations can miss the mark and leave people around us feeling irritated, unappreciated, and shut down. When we instead begin our conversations with humble inquiry and a desire to learn, we can spark collaborative and creative dialogues that lead to greater team success and cohesion.

“In this slim volume, Schein urges leaders to try out the philosophy, policy, and practices that turn leadership from a "telling" orientation to a "drawing out" orientation.  Leaders, he argues, will "arouse positive helping behavior" and motivate teams by leading from "an attitude of interest and curiosity" and "a desire to build a relationship ."  Members exploring how to adapt to new leadership challenges have found this guide useful, especially in underscoring how team success doesn't only have to be up to them.” - BetterUp Coach Ross Dworman , MA, BCC

10. How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barret  

Have you ever struggled with your emotions? Wondered where they came from? Now, with ground-breaking research, psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barret finds that instead of being stored in certain parts of our brains, emotions are actually made completely at the moment, lending us more power over our emotions than we previously thought. If you’ve ever wondered where emotions come from, how your children can become more emotionally intelligent , or if emotions impact ideas - this is the book for you.

“I recommended How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barret , because it opened up a breakthrough in my understanding of how emotions are created in the brain. It’s not that emotions are already built-in, waiting to surface automatically in our personal life depending on the situation. Instead,  Feldman shows us that emotions are built. The brain “forecasts” an emotion to surface based on previous experience and learning. This implies we’re able to influence our emotions based on the experiences we decide to have in our lives!” - BetterUp Coach Roberto Cuarón , ACC.

11. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

James Clear's "Atomic Habits" delves into the science of habits, advocating for the transformative power of marginal gains—small changes that compound over time. Clear explains the Four Laws of Behavior Change—cue, craving, response, and reward—providing practical strategies for reshaping habits . The book emphasizes the importance of understanding how habits work, ultimately leading readers to make incremental improvements with lasting impact.

12. How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie's timeless classic explores fundamental principles for effective interpersonal communication. Offering practical advice, the book guides readers on how to make lasting connections, influence others positively, and navigate conflicts with diplomacy. Carnegie underscores the significance of genuine interest, active listening , and expressing appreciation in building meaningful relationships, making it a cornerstone in personal development.

13. Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown

In "Daring Greatly," Brené Brown challenges societal misconceptions about vulnerability , asserting it as a source of strength, courage, and connection. Drawing from her research, Brown explores the impact of vulnerability on various aspects of life, from relationships to leadership. The book encourages readers to embrace imperfections, take risks, and step into the arena of life, highlighting the interplay between vulnerability, shame, empathy, and resilience.

14. Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl

Viktor E. Frankl's "Man’s Search for Meaning" is a profound reflection on his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. Divided into two parts, the first recounts his time in concentration camps, while the second outlines his logotherapy approach to psychotherapy. Frankl argues for the importance of finding meaning in all circumstances, even in the face of extreme suffering. The book emphasizes individual responsibility, choice, and the human capacity to derive purpose, making it a poignant exploration of resilience and the search for meaning.

15. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth

Angela Duckworth's "Grit" explores the concept of grit as a key determinant of success in this New York Times bestseller. Drawing on extensive research, Duckworth argues that talent alone is not enough; perseverance, passion, and long-term commitment are crucial elements in achieving goals. The book provides insights into how grit can be cultivated and how individuals can sustain effort over the long haul to accomplish meaningful objectives.

16. The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle is a transformative must-read guide that encourages readers to live in the present moment. Tolle discusses the importance of letting go of past regrets and anxieties about the future, emphasizing that true fulfillment and enlightenment can be found by fully embracing the present. The book offers practical advice on mindfulness and spiritual awakening , providing a roadmap to a more conscious and fulfilling life.

17. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck

In "Mindset," psychologist Carol S. Dweck explores the concept of mindset and its profound impact on success and achievement. Dweck distinguishes between a fixed mindset , where individuals believe their abilities are innate and unchangeable, and a growth mindset , where people see their abilities as malleable through effort and learning. The book offers valuable insights into fostering a growth mindset for personal and professional development.

18. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown

"Essentialism" by Greg McKeown advocates for the disciplined pursuit of less to achieve more. McKeown challenges the idea that more is always better and encourages readers to focus on what truly matters. The book provides practical strategies for prioritization, decision-making, and simplifying life, guiding individuals toward a more purposeful and fulfilling existence.

19. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

"Option B" explores resilience and finding joy in the face of adversity. Co-authored by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, the book delves into Sandberg's personal journey of coping with grief after the sudden death of her husband. It offers insights into overcoming challenges, building resilience, and finding a way forward after setbacks. The book combines personal narratives with research on resilience to provide a compelling guide for navigating life's difficulties.

20. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is a classic in the personal development genre. Stephen R. Covey outlines seven principles that can lead to success and effectiveness in both personal and professional life. The habits, such as being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and seeking to understand before being understood, provide a framework for personal growth and effectiveness.

Personal growth books of honorable mention

The list of great books for personal growth could go on and on. In addition to our top picks listed above, here are five books worth mentioning to help you build the life and mindset you want to thrive.

• Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson
• You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero
• Awaken the Giant Within, by Tony Robbins
• Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss

Investing in self-improvement books for the year ahead

These books aren't just companions; they are guides on a journey toward self-discovery, resilience, and personal excellence. As you navigate your life, these resources provide inspiration and actionable strategies, encouraging you to reflect, adapt, and cultivate habits for positive change. 

Personal growth is a unique journey, and these books are valuable companions along the way. May you find wisdom and motivation to shape a life that aligns with your values and aspirations. Here's to a new year of growth, innovation, and pursuing your best self. Happy reading, and a prosperous new year ahead

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The 40 Best Self-Help & Personal Growth Books to Read in 2024

Reading good self-help books is the most reliable way to change your life for the better. While the self-improvement and personal growth industry has a mixed reputation, it’s undeniable that if you build the habit of reading self-help books, taking notes, and actioning valuable lessons, you can transform your life in profound ways.

As someone who has read  200+ books  in the last five years, including dozens of self-improvement books and personal development books, I’m a firm believer that you can use books to improve almost any area of your life, including finding a fulfilling career, becoming more productive, learning how to navigate difficult times, developing new skills, and learning how to manage your money.

Given the volume of great works available from the world’s leading thinkers across disciplines, it’s clear that books can help you solve almost any problem in your life. But when it comes to self-help books, the most important thing you can do is  choose the best books  to read. With millions of personal development books available on the market, that task is easier said than done.

This article exists to help make the task of selecting the right self-help books easier. Below, you will find 40 of the best self-improvement books of all time, broken down by categories so that you can find the book that fits your life and current needs. If you get started with these books and put the lessons into practice, you will move closer to where you want to go.

The Best Self-Help Books To Make Your Life Better

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“Achievers rarely, if ever, see a problem as permanent, while those who fail see even the smallest problems as permanent.”

Rating : 9/10

Why it’s Great : A classic self-improvement book for people who want to embark on a deep psychological investigation of their mind, body, emotions, and finances. You’ll learn about the motivating forces of pain and pleasure, the importance of the questions you ask, and how to clarify and live by your values. Read it slowly and do the exercises.

2. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*Ck By Mark Manson

“The rare people who do become truly exceptional at something do so not because they believe they’re exceptional. On the contrary, they become amazing because they’re obsessed with improvement. And that obsession with improvement stems from an unerring belief that they are, in fact, not that great at all.”

Rating : 9.5/10

Why it’s Great : Mark Manson provides philosophical and candid thoughts on how we can live a better life, starting with rejecting the fluffy, positive psychology obsessed self-improvement culture of the modern era. He explores what it means to embrace the negative aspects of life, take responsibility for everything that happens to us, prioritize good values, and choose the problems that we solve.

3.  How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie

“The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind; yet the mind and body are one and should not be treated separately.” – Plato

Why it’s Great : In this time-tested book, Dale Carnegie shows us how to conquer worry and anxiety. Via engaging stories that reveal helpful lessons and practical frameworks, Carnegie arms you with an array of tools that will help you start living more fully and without the harmful effects of worry. Even though this book was written in 1936, the deceptively simple lessons from this book will help you better navigate the noise of the modern era.

4.  The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

Why it’s Great : Through an elegant narrative about an Andalusian shepherd boy, Coelho communicates essential life lessons, including the importance of pursuing your passions, living in the present moment, and doing things with love and enthusiasm.

5.  Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Rating : 10/10

Why it’s Great : In this heart-wrenching story, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl leverages his personal experiences in Nazi concentration camps and the philosophy of logotherapy to show you that you can overcome and find meaning in the face of unimaginable tragedy. His core idea is that while we cannot control what happens to us, we can control how we respond to everything we encounter in life.

6.  When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.”

Why it’s Great : This book will help you navigate the peaks and valleys of life. Buddhist Pema Chodron shares a compelling philosophy of how to live in a fundamentally shifting world and introduces many concepts from Buddhism that you can incorporate into your life.

7. The Obstacle Is The Way By Ryan Holiday

“We blame our bosses, the economy, our politicians, other people, or we write ourselves off as failures or our goals as impossible. When really only one thing is at fault: our attitude and approach.”

Rating : 8.5/10

Why it’s Great : A practical and actionable philosophy on how to perceive, act, and thrive in an uncertain and changing world. Leveraging the wisdom of the Stoics, Holiday explains how we can deliberately improve the way we perceive the world and find opportunities in the obstacles we face.

8. Meditations By Marcus Aurelius

“Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul. Especially if you have other things to rely on. An instant’s recollection and there it is: complete tranquillity. And by tranquillity I mean a kind of harmony.”

Why it’s Great : This is a life-changing collection of philosophical and spiritual thoughts from the former Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. The work is grounded in Stoicism, a practical philosophy that encourages us to keep our mortality in mind at all times, view things as they are, reflect thoughtfully, focus on what’s within our control, and practice virtues like generosity, honesty, and self-control.

9.  Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less By Greg McKeown

“Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and thinking. But their exploration is not an end in itself. The purpose of the exploration is to discern the vital few from the trivial many.”

Why it’s Great : A compelling philosophy about living consciously, focusing on the essential few things that fulfill you, and designing your life to achieve your highest point of contribution. McKeown highlights the danger of failing to recognize tradeoffs, the necessity of learning to say no, the value of deep work , and the importance of play and sleep.

10 .  The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

“And once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom—and the responsibility—to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp, and the only option left is to get to work.”

Rating : 8/10

Why it’s Great : Good habits are the foundation of all personal success. The Power of Habit is a digestible and informed examination of why habits exist, how they work, and how you can change them. This book will give you the foundational understanding required to make new habits stick and break old habits that are limiting your daily life. Pair this book with  Atomic Habits by James Clear to develop more self-mastery, live a happy life, and achieve success.

11.  The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu Goldratt

“Since the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link, then the first step to improve an organization must be to identify the weakest link.”

Why it’s Great : The Goal does not make most personal development book lists, and that’s a shame. Through an engaging fictional story about a manager who has 90 days to turn around his plant, author Eliyahu Goldratt teaches you the first principles of operating and improving any system. Reading this book will show you how to implement an effective and efficient process of ongoing improvement. His approach provides you with a valuable skill that will allow you to better approach problems in life and business.

12.  Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

“While desire naturally arises again, the wisdom of seeing that everything passes is liberating. Observing desire without acting on it enlarges our freedom to choose how we live.”

Why it’s Great : If you have ever struggled with self-compassion, self-love, or low self-esteem, Radical Acceptance is the book for you. Clinical psychologist and meditation teacher, Tara Brach, introduces a fantastic approach that will help you live life with a better understanding of your experiences and emotions.

13.  The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

“When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity… you cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others”

Why it’s Great : The 48 Laws of Power is a timeless guide that offers a dense, candid, and frightening examination of power and its many dynamics. If you want to understand human nature, get better at identifying bad actors, and avoid the pitfalls of naive positive thinking, this is one of the best personal development books to get a new perspective.

14.  The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

“To complain is always non-acceptance of what is.”

Why it’s Great : Eckhart Tolle explores presence, thinking, and spirituality to help you understand what presence means, how thinking and non-acceptance drive a lot of human pain, and how to live a life that reduces suffering.

15.   Own the Day, Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus

“To live one day well is the same as to live ten thousand days well. To master twenty-four hours is to master your life.”

Why it’s Great : A no-nonsense book with tactical, science-backed insights on how to live a healthier, energy-filled, and fulfilling life. Many practices in this book have helped me boost my daily energy and productivity.

16.  The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant

“So the first biological lesson of history is that life is competition. Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life—peaceful when food abounds, violent when the mouths outrun the food.”

Why it’s Great : A concise, thematic account of history that covers the core biological, social, economic, and philosophical lessons of history. The Durants introduce you to everything from the 3 fundamental biological lessons of life to the origins of racial antipathies.

17.  Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Pirsig

“You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”

Why it’s Great : Pirsig takes us on a philosophical journey through the engaging narrative of a middle-aged man who takes his son on a motorcycle trip across America. You’ll walk away with a newfound appreciation for philosophy and the great interconnectedness of the world.

18. Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

“Life is all about growth and change. It’s not static. It’s not about some destination. It’s not about answering the question once and for all and then it’s all done. Nobody really knows what he or she wants to be.”

Why it’s Great : In this book, Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show you how to use design thinking to create a meaningful, joyful, and fulfilling life. If you fully engage with the frameworks and self-reflection exercises, you will have a clearer path to creating a life worth living.

19. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

“Goals direct us from the inside, but shoulds are paralyzing judgments from the outside. Goals feel like authentic dreams while shoulds feel like oppressive obligations. Shoulds set up a false dichotomy between either meeting an ideal or being a failure, between perfection or settling. The tyranny of the should even pits us against our own best interests.”

Why it’s Great : This book directly challenges the thirty-is-the-new-twenty culture. Through research and anecdotes from her time as a clinical psychologist, Meg Jay advocates for being intentional about how you spend your twenties.

20.  Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis

“We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.” – Milan Kundera

Why it’s Great : Wanting is a transformational deep dive into the origins of desire. In it, Luke Burgis shows us how we come to want certain things in life and how we can transform our relationship with desire in ways that allow us to live a more aligned, fulfilling existence with other people. Burgis’s work builds off of the philosophy of René Girard, a French philosopher who spent his life understanding and writing about the human condition.

21.  Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) by Caroll Tavris and Elliot Aronson

“Our convictions about who we are carry us through the day, and we are constantly interpreting the things that happen to us through the filter of those core beliefs.”

Why it’s Great : An insightful examination of how and why we self-justify everything we do and the dangers of this human tendency to self-justify. You will walk away with a humbling skepticism about the reliability of your memory, the source of your beliefs, and the motivations behind your actions.

22.  Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

Why it’s Great : Phil Knight recounts his struggles, victories, and lessons learned from building Nike from a small startup to a billion dollar shoe giant. He tells engaging and inspiring stories that highlight his personal philosophies on life. Knight encourages us all to seek and pursue a calling, even if we don’t yet know what that means.

23.   Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

“Persuasion is not about how bright or smooth or forceful you are. It’s about the other party convincing themselves that the solution you want is their own idea. So don’t beat them with logic or brute force. Ask them questions that open paths to your goals. It’s not about you.”

Why it’s Great : International hostage negotiator Chris Voss provides a practical guide and set of principles to improve your effectiveness in getting what you want. You’ll learn that being a good negotiator is about being an effective communicator, understanding what drives people’s decisions, and using counterintuitive techniques, such as asking calibrated questions, beginning with “no”, and listening actively and empathetically.

24.  Give And Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success By Adam Grant

“Highly successful people have three things in common: motivation, ability, and opportunity. If we want to succeed, we need a combination of hard work, talent, and luck.”

Why it’s Great : This book reshaped my understanding of what drives success. With an engaging body of research, Wharton professor Adam Grant demonstrates how, combined with motivation, ability, and opportunity, being a giver in our attitudes and actions towards others can fuel our long-term personal and career success.

25 .  How To Lie With Statistics By Darrell Huff

“‘Does it make sense?’ will often cut a statistic down to size when the whole rigmarole is based on an unproved assumption.”

Why it’s Great : We all learn statistics in school, but rarely do we apply the important and basic principles of statistics in adulthood. This book is a great primer on statistics that shows you all of the ways in which we are manipulated by data at work, in the news, and more.

26. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

Why it’s great: How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the best self-improvement books of all time. It is full of practical advice for anyone who wants to improve their relationships, influence people, and achieve success. Above all else, Carnegie teaches us that connecting with other people is a skill (not a natural talent) and that through being honest with our shortcomings and intentional in our efforts to overcome those challenges, we develop more self-confidence and rewarding relationships.

27. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

“Making assumptions in relationships leads to a lot of fights, a lot of difficulties, a lot of misunderstandings with people we supposedly love.”

Why it’s great: Leveraging the teachings and wisdom of the ancient Toltecs, Don Miguel Ruiz takes you on a spiritual and philosophical path of understanding and changing the agreements you have with yourself. He first shows how you are indoctrinated with beliefs that harm your well-being and then teaches you how to reshape those beliefs. The result is that you leave the book with four new agreements that will help you create a life of connection, joy, and fulfillment.

28.  Models: Attract Women Through Honesty by Mark Manson

“…vulnerability is not a technique or tactic. It is a way of being. It’s not something you learn, it’s a mindset you practice.”

Why it’s Great : Personal development extends to all areas of life, including your romantic endeavors. If you’re struggling in your romantic life, Models is a wonderful book. Author Mark Manson will help you understand how to be less needy, express yourself in healthy ways, and get comfortable with dating in an attempt to make your dating life easier and more rewarding.

29.  Awareness: Conversations with the Masters by Anthony de Mello

“When you renounce or fight something, you become tied to it. In fighting it, you give it power. So instead of fighting, give in. You might find that what you’ve been resisting no longer holds the same power over you.”

Why it’s Great : Awareness is nourishment for the soul. In a humorous and digestible way, Anthony de Mello helps you understand yourself and the world in a way that will help you improve the quality of your life.

30.  Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

“Meditation is neither shutting things out nor off. It is seeing things clearly, and deliberately positioning yourself differently in relationship to them.”

Why it’s Great : A clear and engaging introduction to practicing meditation and cultivating mindfulness in your life as a pathway to personal development. You will learn about what meditation and mindfulness are, why they matter, how to introduce them to your daily activities and way of operating. If you’re interested in living a life with more clarity, presence, awareness, and acceptance, this book will help you get there.

31.  On the Shortness of Life by Seneca

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

Why it’s Great : On the Shortness of Life is one of those self-improvement books that will make you think. Unlike books that rely on ever-changing scientific research, the Stoic philosopher Seneca uses his life experience to reveal time-tested insights about how to live a good life. Through stories, he reveals the wisdom in slowing down, the futility of worrying about the future, the importance of learning how to master your emotions, and how to act in the face of uncertainty.

32. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

“I began to realize that coming in such close contact with my own mortality had changed both nothing and everything. Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. But now I knew it acutely. The problem wasn’t really a scientific one. The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live.”

Why it’s Great : What a wonderfully heavy and moving read that offers a window into the human mind grappling with the precipice of life and death. In it, neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi confronts the question of what makes life meaningful in the face of death. He wrote the book after being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer at the peak of his career.

33.  The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

“Getting money requires taking risks, being optimistic, and putting yourself out there. But keeping money requires the opposite of taking risk. It requires humility, and fear that what you’ve made can be taken away from you just as fast. It requires frugality and an acceptance that at least some of what you’ve made is attributable to luck, so past success can’t be relied upon to repeat indefinitely.”

Why it’s Great : In the Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel teaches you how to have a better relationship with money and to make smarter financial decisions. Instead of pretending that humans are ROI-optimizing machines, he shows you how your psychology can work for and against you.

34. A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Including A Life-Cycle Guide To Personal Investing By Burton Malkiel

“The core of every portfolio should consist of low-cost, tax-efficient, broad-based index funds.”

Why it’s Great : A Random Walk Down Wall Street is a classic guide full of amazing research that blends history, economics, market theory, and behavioral finance to offer practical and actionable advice for investing and achieving financial freedom. Malkiel’s central message is abundantly clear – begin a consistent savings plan as early as possible and invest the core of your portfolio in low-cost, broad-based index funds.

35. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins

“Since money is the single most powerful tool we have for navigating this complex world we’ve created, understanding it is critical. If you choose to master it, money becomes a wonderful servant. If you don’t, it will surely master you.”

Read this book if you want to get your personal finances in order. In a simple, engaging way, Collins shares the basic wisdom you need to make your money work for you, not against you. You’ll walk away with a practical toolkit to achieving financial freedom with minimal effort.

36. Rich Dad Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki

“It’s fear that keeps most people working at a job: the fear of not paying the bills, the fear of being fired, the fear of not having enough money, and the fear of starting over. That’s the price of studying to learn a profession or trade, and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money – and then get angry with their boss.”

Rating : 7.5/10

Why it’s Great : In Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki gives you the crash-course financial education that you should have learned in school. If you want to accrue wealth, this self-help book is filled with solid advice and success principles for creating a better financial life.

37. The War Of Art By Steven Pressfield

“The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

Why it’s Great : If you write or create, read this book. Pressfield names the killer of creative dreams: Resistance. He describes the many forms it takes and outlines a plan to overcome it. If you have creative dreams, Pressfield will prepare and inspire you for the war ahead.

38. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

“Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.”

Why it’s Great : Legendary music producer Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being is a mind-bending series of meditations on what it means to be an artist and creator. Through 78 philosophical musings, Rubin shares the wisdom that we are all artists, offers helpful mental frames for creating and moving through roadblocks, and helps you develop an understanding of what it means to operate as an artist in the world.

39.  The Art Of Possibility by Rosamund And Benjamin Zander

“Gracing yourself with responsibility for everything that happens in your life leaves your spirit whole, and leaves you free to choose again.”

Why it’s Great : In this engaging read, a music conductor and an experienced psychotherapist introduce 12 unique personal development practices that will reshape how you see the world and accelerate your personal and professional growth.

40.  The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

“No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.”

Why it’s Great : This timeless, 12-week course is sure to fill your spirit and help you be more creative. Cameron offers heartfelt advice for all creatives and a medley of helpful practices like morning pages and artist dates that will make you a happier, better creative.

• To get more out of every self-help and personal growth book you read, check out How to Read a Nonfiction Book. This article will help you get the most out of the time you spend reading, starting with the topic of choosing the right books.
• If you read with a Kindle (highly recommend), check out Readwise , a tool that allows you to access and learn from all of the highlights and notes you make while you read.
• If you struggle to read, try listening to audiobooks with Amazon Audible .
• Finally, I send out a weekly Sunday newsletter, Life Reimagined , with helpful ideas and quotes from good books. If you want to receive small nuggets of wisdom and recommendations for future reading every week, you can sign up below.
• 28 Books That Will Expand Your Mind
• 49 Best Philosophy Books for Beginners
• 11 Best Books On Decision Making
• 100+ Book Summaries and Notes

The 25 Best Self-Help Books for Every Age, According to Experts

These expert-backed and highly rated reads will get you one step closer to reaching your goals.

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Self-help books can be used to stimulate personal growth in a wide variety of areas and can be used in tandem with or separately from other forms of personal therapy depending on the area of focus. “Certain times the very issue that you’re struggling with might determine whether or not self-help books would be good for you,” says Chloe Carmichael, Ph.D ., clinical psychologist and author of Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety . “Certain types of issues might require more of the accountability of an actual person.”

With this in mind, it’s not advised to use a self-help book to help you work through a mental health problem. “Self-help books can be very helpful, but my experience is that you cannot read your way out of a problem or area of distress with a book alone,” says Peter Gradilone, M.A.T., L.M.S.W ., a therapist trained in cognitive behavioral therapy and Jungian analysis. “Self-help books can serve as an amplification towards the search for answers. Personal therapy in concert with readings can be most effective.”

How we chose the best self-help books

We consulted Carmichael and Gradilone for their self-help book recommendations, we combed through countless reviews, and did our own research to compile a list of the most effective, highly-rated self-help books available.

Best Self-Help Book Overall

M. scott peck the road less traveled: the psychology of spiritual growth.

Most Popular Self-Help Book on Amazon

Ed mylett the power of one more: the ultimate guide to happiness and success.

Best Self-Help Book for Anxiety

Chloe carmichael nervous energy: harness the power of your anxiety.

“I sometimes half jokingly say that if I had to take only one self-help book to a desert island, this would be the one,” says Gradilone. First published in 1978, Peck’s classic work on overall personal understanding and development has inspired readers for decades. Combining psychoanalytic theory with cultural and spiritual traditions, Peck explores a wide variety of topics including relationships, parenting, and self-actualization, encouraging readers to face life’s challenges with discipline, love, and grace.

This self-help book from renowned motivational speaker Ed Mylett gives readers insight into the knowledge and strategies that led to Mylett’s success in his business and entrepreneurial ventures. No matter what career you’re striving toward, Mylett’s book provides a roadmap to help you get there and face any challenges that come along the way. “The inspiration, the strategies, and the humanity that Ed put into this book will elevate your life,” writes one reviewer, “a must-read for self-improvement and taking life to the next level.”

If you struggle with anxiety, Carmichael’s self-help book will help you learn how to treat it as an advantage rather than an obstacle. The book “helps people unlock the healthy function of anxiety, which is to stimulate preparation behaviors,” she says. Tools, exercises, and worksheets included in the book will allow readers to learn how to “channel nervous energy in a constructive way.” Reviewers also love it, as one writes, “I find Dr. Chloe’s practical, evidence-based explanation of how to get rid of anxiety immediately actionable. So helpful!”

Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

Pema Chodron’s best-selling book draws on Buddhist teachings to help guide readers through difficult times. Rather than avoiding painful situations, Chodron teaches readers to embrace them and provides tools for achieving peace and happiness in spite of negative experiences. Reviewers have also found it impactful, as one writes, “I read this book the first time when I was going through my divorce and read parts of it again when I lost my daughter to cancer. It is a book you will be glad to have and glad to give.”

James Hollis The Middle Passage From Misery to Meaning in Midlife

Jungian psychologist James Hollis holistically approaches the midlife period in this book. Rather than viewing midlife as a time of crisis, Hollis provides tools for readers to go through midlife consciously and prepare a second half of life that is more meaningful. “A deeply profound and wonderful book,” writes one reviewer, “it’s the type of book that one can refer back to, and should, for many years to come.”

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss

A follow-up to Kubler-Ross’s groundbreaking On Death and Dying , which first introduced the now-famous five stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, On Grief and Grieving uses the same framework to influence how readers understand the process of grief. As the last book Kubler-Ross, a pioneer of psychiatry, published before her death in 2004, the book is full of personal anecdotes and experiences that make for a relatable reading experience. “This is the best book on grief that I have ever read, and I have read quite a few,” writes one reviewer. “I felt warmth and compassion. It is everything I need during this difficult period.”

Jen Sincero You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life

If you’re looking for a self-help book that’s as entertaining as it is helpful, look no further. This book from reputable success coach Jen Sincero features inspirational stories that will make you laugh out loud and helpful exercises for identifying the ways in which you’ve been holding yourself back and how to change them. No matter what goal you’re striving toward, this book will give you the confidence to get out there and achieve it. “Words to live by,” writes one reviewer, “valuable for a husband, friend, sibling, anyone who is eager to live a happy, fulfilling life.”

Michel Cohen The New Basics: A-to-Z Baby & Child Care for the Modern Parent

In an age where all sorts of parenting advice is floating around, new parents can easily become stressed or anxious as they navigate which parenting methods work best for them. Luckily, pediatrician Michel Cohen is here to help. Organized like an alphabetical index, Cohen’s book provides an easy reference guide of trusted advice for parents to raise happy and healthy children without over worrying or becoming too stressed. “I could not recommend this book more!” writes one reviewer. “It is well-written and easy to understand.”

Chloe Carmichael Dr. Chloe’s 10 Commandments of Dating: How to Stop Getting Hurt, Put Yourself Out There, and Find a Relationship That Lasts

Carmichael’s first self-help book provides readers with tools for dating when you might have a tendency to overthink or become anxious or insecure. The easy-to-read book will help readers feel more comfortable and ready to take control of their dating goals, whether they be marriage, a stable relationship, casual, or anything in between. “This book has helped my mind open a new perspective towards myself and others when it comes to dating now,” writes one reviewer. “Ready to try something new thanks to this book!”

Rachel Hart Getting Through Divorce: Healthy Ways to Handle it and Move On

Going through a divorce or any end of a relationship can cause a lot of emotional turmoil, and this book from Rachel Hart provides the tools for readers to navigate it all. Hart encourages readers to work through their emotions in a healthy way, and learn from the experience in order to rise up and become your best self. “As someone who has been subjected to a lot of divorce in my family, this is a fantastic read,” writes one reviewer. “I would highly recommend it!”

Randy J. Paterson The Assertiveness Workbook: How to Express Your Ideas and Stand Up for Yourself at Work and in Relationships

If a lack of confidence in the workplace or a relationship has ever left you feeling held back or powerless, this is the book for you. Psychologist Randy J. Paterson provides readers with effective cognitive behavioral techniques to help them become more open, assertive, and ready to defend themselves under criticism. “This book changed EVERYTHING!” writes one reviewer. “I’m so grateful for this, I haven’t finished it yet and I’ve already got a raise at work, I’m not afraid of conflict or setting my boundaries, and I’ve earned the respect of people whom I’ve never expected to respect me.”

James Clear Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

If you’re looking to banish bad habits and build good ones, this New York Times bestseller is here to help. James Clear provides readers with practical strategies to reshape how we view progress and transform our habits. “The book had a nice pace and balance of theory and application,” writes one reviewer. “Given the applicability of this topic, it is a book everyone should read.”

Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Marie Kondo has made a name for herself in the home-improvement business with her Japanese techniques for decluttering, and this is the book that started it all. If you have aspirations of organizing and tidying up your home this year, Kondo’s method of purging items that don’t bring you joy is sure to leave you with a space that’s both clean and comforting. Reviewers love it too, as one writes, “it has absolutely changed my mindset and my relationship to my belongings.”

Jean Shinoda Bolen Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women's Lives

In this unique self-help book, Jungian psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen uses Greek mythology as an analogy for female psychological archetypes. Learning about the archetypes provides readers with a better understanding of which ones are most similar to themselves and how this affects their strategies for achieving their goals. “This book is extraordinary!” writes one reviewer. “Dr. Bolen is a breath of fresh air in style, insight, and substance.”

Robert A. Johnson He: Understanding Masculine Psychology

For those identifying as male, Robert A. Johnson’s book explores societal expectations of masculine identity, leaving readers with a better understanding of themselves and masculine psychology. “This book touched my soul and helped me find more calmness,” writes one reviewer, “highly recommended.”

William H. McRaven Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World

Based on Admiral McRaven’s viral 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas at Austin, this book provides readers with basic principles and action items they can use to change themselves, and even the world. Full of personal anecdotes from McRaven’s time as a Naval career, the book fills readers with the optimism and determination to improve their lives even in their darkest moments. “One of the best books I’ve ever read,” writes one reviewer. “Great book to have on the shelf and read again and again.”

Harriet B. Braiker The Disease To Please: Curing the People-Pleasing Syndrome

If you’re in the process of trying to curb your people-pleasing habit, look no further. This New York Times bƒestseller from Harriet Braiker encourages readers to stop seeking approval from others and instead seek it from themselves. The book includes a quiz to identify what type of people-pleaser you are followed by actionable steps to shift your mindset and stop saying “yes” when you really want to say “no.” “This book has completely changed my life,” writes one reviewer. “I actually carry it around with me to remind myself to continue to work on breaking my people pleasing habits.”

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

If you ever find yourself distracted or overwhelmed by the people, tasks, and busy work that fills your day-to-day life, this book is here to help change that. Authors Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky encourage readers to take back control of their time and attention to focus on the things that truly matter using a four-step framework. “Make Time was a game changer for me,” writes one reviewer, “It gave me permission to work on my own priorities instead of reacting to everyone else’s.”

Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

Is there a difficult conversation you’ve been avoiding? If so, this book is here to help you navigate it. Rather than running away from hard conversations, Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler, and Gregory provide readers with techniques for communicating effectively when it matters most. “Just a few pages in and it was evident that this was going to be a gamechanger!” writes one reviewer. “Such a great read to put things into a new perspective and allows the reader to try to sympathize instead of analyze how others may think and process.”

Julie de Azevedo Hanks The Assertiveness Guide for Women: How to Communicate Your Needs, Set Healthy Boundaries, and Transform Your Relationships

With a specific focus on women, this book from licensed therapist Julie de Azevedo Hanks provides readers with the essential guide to becoming more assertive. Using techniques based on cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy, the book gives women the tools to identify and understand their thoughts and feelings and improve their lives. “This book really changed my life–” says one reviewer, “not only my communication and assertiveness skills but my perception of myself.”

Jenn Gonick joins Prevention as an editorial intern for e-commerce and gift guides. She has prior experience with social media management and marketing, as well as writing blogs and SEO content. She is particularly passionate about writing in the wellness and mental health spaces. Jenn is currently a student at the George Washington University pursuing a degree in English and Communication.  

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31 Best Personal Development & Self Improvement Books [2024 Update]

Interested in personal development and self improvement?

If so, there are hundreds, even thousands of books to choose from.

That's why we've boiled down the options to 31 of the best personal development books.

For the sake of simplicity, my choices for this section all revolve around books that are more about igniting passion and giving ideas rather than a step-by-step action plan.

This list includes the grandfathers of all self-help books, and it also has some of the modern masters of inspiration, education, and self-empowerment .

In the following list, you will discover a quick synopsis of our favorite personal development books with a brief synopsis for each one.

If any title piques your interest, then I recommend clicking the link and checking it out on Amazon where you can read the reviews and purchase it.

Let's get to it…

Table of Contents

31 Best Personal Development and Self-Improvement Books

1.  the only skill that matters  by jonathan a. levi.

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• The book emphasizes the importance of meta-learning, which involves learning how to learn, as the most valuable skill in the modern world.
• It provides practical strategies and techniques for improving memory, speed reading, and accelerated learning to help readers become more efficient learners.
• Levi discusses the concept of “flow state” and how to harness it to enhance focus, productivity, and creativity.
• The book highlights the significance of mindset and motivation in the learning process, offering insights on how to cultivate a growth mindset and stay motivated.
• It emphasizes the role of self-directed learning and provides guidance on creating a personalized learning path to achieve one's goals.

The sheer amount of information bombarding us every day is overwhelming. How do we stay on top of everything in order to keep our jobs or adapt to the new demands of modern life?

This book  equips you with what you need to take on the challenges of the future – whether in your professional or personal life. And it’s offered for free. All you need to pay for is shipping and handling.

In The Only Skill That Matters , Jonathan Levi shares an approach that promises to help you become a super learner. This approach is anchored in neuroscience. Athletes and top performers have used the techniques to propel them to success.

Within the pages, you’ll learn the techniques for reading faster and improving your ability to recall information.

People who have already read this book call it a game changer. If you’re ready to unlock your potential greatness, get the free book.

Want to build a new habit that will stick for the rest of your lifetime? In this video, you will discover a simple 9-step process about building habits that you can immediately implement.

2. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

• The book offers timeless principles and practical strategies for achieving success in various areas of life, including personal development, career, and relationships.
• Canfield emphasizes the power of taking responsibility for one's life and outcomes, encouraging readers to adopt a proactive mindset.
• It outlines the importance of setting clear goals and provides a comprehensive framework for creating and achieving both short-term and long-term goals.
• The book emphasizes the significance of perseverance, resilience, and continuous learning as essential components of success.
• Canfield shares inspiring stories and actionable advice to motivate readers to overcome obstacles, develop self-confidence, and create a fulfilling life.

Any avid reader of self-help books will recognize Jack Canfield. Creator of the popular motivational “ Chicken Soup for the Soul ” series, Jack has been inspiring people for years.

In “ The Success Principles ”, Jack gives 65 methods for transforming your life. If you are looking for a single self-help book that gives you a ton of great ideas on how to improve your life and your success, this would be the one.

However, die-hard personal development fans may find some of these ideas to be rehashed versions of ideas they have heard before, not fresh new ideas. The principles are repeated here due to the simple fact that they work!

Even if you know all 65 principles before buying the book, I believe it can be an excellent refresher on things you need to do to achieve the success you desire.

If you want to learn more about this book, here is a brief review of my favorite Success Principles that are covered in this book .

3.  Think and Grow Rich  by Napoleon Hill 

• The book emphasizes the power of mindset and the role of thoughts in shaping one's financial success, highlighting the importance of a positive mental attitude.
• Napoleon Hill outlines the concept of “definiteness of purpose” and the significance of setting clear, specific goals to achieve wealth and success.
• It delves into the principles of persistence, faith, and desire, stressing their crucial roles in attaining riches and prosperity.
• The book explores the idea of “mastermind” and the benefits of surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals to leverage collective knowledge and support.
• Hill presents the concept of “transmutation of sexual energy” as a means to channel creative energy and drive towards achieving financial abundance.

It could be very easy to think that a book about achieving success written 80 years ago and based on the success principles of men like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford would be stale and out of date, like a dry history lesson.

This simply is not true.  While there are admittedly parts where you have to substitute modern methods of execution for old fashioned counterparts, the basic principles themselves are based on human nature and just as true today as they were 80 years ago.

The book “ Think and Grow Rich “ is a classic and for good reason. Over the past 80 years many successful people have read this book and gained from it knowledge and insight that have helped them to achieve their own success .

When a self-improvement book sticks around for as long as this one has, there has to be a reason for its longevity and success.  

[Are you a woman looking for some personal development books geared toward helping women succeed in life? Check out this list of self-help books for women .]

4. The Power of Positive Thinking  by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

• The book emphasizes the transformative impact of maintaining a positive mindset and outlook on life, highlighting the role of positive thinking in achieving success and happiness.
• Dr. Norman Vincent Peale provides practical techniques and strategies for overcoming negative thoughts and cultivating a positive mental attitude.
• It delves into the power of faith and belief in oneself, offering insights on how to harness these qualities to overcome challenges and achieve personal growth.
• The book emphasizes the importance of visualization and affirmations as tools for reprogramming the mind and attracting positive outcomes.
• Dr. Peale shares inspiring stories and anecdotes to illustrate the profound influence of positive thinking on individuals' lives and experiences.

Most people who achieve any degree of success will tell you that attitude is a big part of the success equation.

Positive thinking will not magically make success happen, as this book's “successor” The Secret , would have you believe, but positive thinking can put you into a position to make the most of it when it happens.

So skip “The Secret” and go write to the first (and best) book on getting your mind right for success.

One slight negative is that many people complain because of some of the religious overtones of the book. While Dr. Peale is clearly a faithful Christian, I believe this book “ The Power of Positive Thinking ” has merit for you regardless of personal faith. Just listen to good advice.

Note: some of you may like The Secret . I mean no offense to you in this review.  The positivity aspect of the book is fine, I simply have a problem with the idea that the “universe will deliver” success. I believe the only way you get success is to go out and work for it. Let’s agree to disagree.

5. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

• The book explores the factors that contribute to extraordinary success, highlighting the role of opportunity, cultural background, and timing in shaping individuals' achievements.
• Malcolm Gladwell introduces the “10,000-hour rule,” suggesting that deliberate practice and extensive time investment are essential for mastering a skill and attaining expertise.
• It delves into the concept of cultural legacy and its impact on shaping individuals' behaviors, work ethic, and success trajectories.
• The book discusses the role of timing and external factors, such as birth date and historical context, in influencing an individual's likelihood of success in various fields.
• Gladwell challenges the traditional notion of success being solely attributed to individual merit, emphasizing the complex interplay of environmental, social, and circumstantial factors in shaping outliers' success stories.

Outliers The Story of Success take a scientific look at what it actually takes to achieve success in life . Unlike some of the other books on this list, it does not give a specific list of the things you need to do to achieve success.

It looks at very interesting anecdotes that support the main point of the book, that success is not achieved by luck, attitude or even skill, but that the only real measurement is the time we put into our skills.

People who achieve higher degrees of success almost always have more time building the skills they use for their success.

This book is quite interesting with some really good stories and anecdotes. It is an enjoyable read.

6. Getting Things Done by David Allen

• The book introduces the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) methodology, which emphasizes capturing, clarifying, organizing, and reviewing tasks to achieve stress-free productivity.
• David Allen highlights the importance of maintaining a clear and organized external system to free up mental space and enhance focus on meaningful work.
• It provides practical techniques for managing commitments, prioritizing tasks, and maintaining a sense of control and clarity in a fast-paced, information-rich environment.
• The book emphasizes the value of defining actionable next steps for all commitments and leveraging technology to support efficient task management.
• Allen advocates for regular reviews of one's commitments and projects to ensure alignment with goals and values, ultimately leading to increased productivity and reduced stress.

I am not by nature an organized person. Due to this fact, I would say that reading GTD for the first time was a life-changing experience. Allen gives solid advice on how to plan all the aspects of a hectic life (both business and personal).

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity comes with a solution to all the chaos life throws your way. It can help you stay organized and on top of everything. I do not currently follow all the tenants of GTD.

I have incorporated a more web-based approach as I discuss in my book on Evernote .  But I still feel Getting Things Done is a must-read, even if you discard his specific approaches, the core ideas will still shed light on many ways to be more productive.

7. The Power of Full Engagement  by Jim Leohr and Tony Schwartz

• The book emphasizes the significance of managing energy, rather than time, as the key to high performance and personal renewal.
• Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz introduce the concept of “full engagement,” highlighting the importance of balancing energy expenditure with regular periods of renewal and recovery.
• It delves into the four key energy sources – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – and provides strategies for optimizing and replenishing each source.
• The book advocates for the implementation of rituals and routines to sustain energy levels, enhance focus, and foster resilience in the face of challenges.
• Loehr and Schwartz stress the importance of aligning actions with core values and purpose to achieve sustained high performance and fulfillment.

Everyone thinks time is the enemy. I can’t count how many times I have heard, “I don’t have time for that” or “I wish I had the time”. The central idea of this book is that people have it backward. Loehr and Schwartz state that energy is the key , not time.

Success is about creating a series of “life-sprints”, not a marathon.

By laser focusing on tasks, then completely resting, you actually can get a lot more done in less time and live a happier and more fulfilling life at the same time.

The book “ The Power of Full Engagement ” makes some excellent points. The next time you hear yourself saying, “I don’t have time” to do something important, you should reach for a copy of this book.  Unless you don’t have time for that… then I can’t help you

8.  How to Win Friends & Influence People  by Dale Carnegie

• The book emphasizes the importance of building genuine, positive relationships by showing interest in others and understanding their perspectives.
• Dale Carnegie provides practical advice on effective communication, including the power of listening, giving sincere appreciation, and avoiding criticism or condemnation.
• It highlights the value of influencing others through empathy, understanding their needs, and appealing to their interests and motivations.
• The book underscores the significance of fostering cooperation and collaboration by acknowledging others' viewpoints and making them feel valued.
• Carnegie emphasizes the impact of a friendly, respectful approach in winning people over and building lasting, mutually beneficial connections.

Just like the previous entry, “Think and Grow Rich” Carnegie's book is another classic from the 1930s that still packs a ton of truth bombs in it’s nearly 90-year-old pages.

In How to Win Friends & Influence People , Carnegie discusses the personal habits that lead to success. Included are the twelve ways to convert people to your way of thinking, six ways to make people like you, and the nine ways to change people’s opinions without arousing resentment.

Regardless of what you intend to do with your life, other people will always be there. Carnegie gives you the tools to effectively recruit others to your cause, rather than have them potentially be obstacles. A must-read classic on dealing with other people.

9. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris s

• The book challenges the traditional notion of work and advocates for lifestyle design, focusing on maximizing freedom and flexibility while achieving professional success.
• Timothy Ferriss introduces the concept of “lifestyle arbitrage,” emphasizing the possibility of achieving more by leveraging international differences in cost of living and currency exchange rates.
• It provides strategies for automating and outsourcing tasks to create more leisure time and achieve location independence.
• The book encourages redefining productivity by focusing on high-impact activities and eliminating time-wasting tasks through the principles of “Pareto's Law” and “the low-information diet.”
• Ferriss shares insights on creating a fulfilling life by pursuing personal passions, embracing adventure, and redefining the traditional concept of retirement through “mini-retirements.”

I have to admit, I have a few mixed feelings about The 4-Hour Workweek .

While there is some great information in this book, it might not pertain much to people who just want more from their 9-5 lifestyle, and are not really into the idea of a “digital lifestyle”.

On the other hand, however, this book does an excellent job of challenging people to rethink the status quo and evaluate how to make the most of their time.

Tim does a great job of explaining how to make the most of the digital lifestyle, how to get started with this business and does it all with a fierce energy that will get you motivated.

If the idea of making living online appeals, this book should be a must-read and is likely already on your bookshelf. If you are just looking for tidbits to develop your personal productivity, attitude or health, this might be a book you can miss.

10. Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk 

• The book emphasizes the potential for individuals to turn their passions into successful businesses by leveraging digital platforms and social media.
• Gary Vaynerchuk advocates for authenticity and transparency in personal branding, encouraging individuals to showcase their unique interests and expertise.
• It highlights the importance of creating valuable content and engaging with audiences to build a loyal following and monetize one's passion.
• The book underscores the significance of embracing new media and technology to amplify personal brand visibility and reach a global audience.
• Vaynerchuk encourages individuals to capitalize on the current digital landscape, emphasizing the opportunities for entrepreneurial success and fulfillment by pursuing one's passion.

Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion has a few problems these days. Mainly is that the core idea of the book,  fresh and new when it was first released, has become a bit dated.

Most people have come to understand the revolutionary power of Social Media and the effect this can have on any and every single business.

However, a good portion of this book is also about following your dreams and turning your passion into a career. While this book no longer imparts what I would call “new” information, it is still extremely motivational.

Gary Vaynerchuk has an incredible amount of energy and reading what he has to say is sure to get you motivated to get out and conquer the world.

11.  Let Go by ​Pat Flynn

• Pat Flynn's Let Go emphasizes the importance of embracing change and overcoming fear to pursue new opportunities and personal growth.
• The book chronicles Flynn's journey from job loss to successful entrepreneurship, offering insights on resilience, adaptability, and finding purpose in adversity.
• It delves into the power of embracing failure as a learning opportunity and leveraging setbacks to fuel personal and professional development.
• Let Go highlights the significance of authenticity and transparency in building trust and meaningful connections with an audience or community.
• Flynn provides practical strategies for cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, taking calculated risks, and creating a sustainable and fulfilling career path.

“ Let Go: Expanded Edition ” is Pat Flynn’s inspiring story.  If you do not know Pat, he is a normal guy, trained as an architect who began to work as an online entrepreneur when the architect business got rough.

In this inspiring story, Pat shares the challenges he faced and the keys to his success.

Much like “Crush It” the value of the specific lessons is of less value than the inspiration it can give you to achieve success. If you want specifics for achieving success through Pat’s methodology, his podcasts and website are chocked full of actionable information.

12. Habit Stacking by Steve Scott

• Habit Stacking introduces the concept of stacking small, positive habits to create significant and lasting change in various areas of life.
• Steve Scott emphasizes the power of consistency and incremental improvement, advocating for the integration of new habits into existing routines for long-term success.
• The book provides a comprehensive list of 127 small habits that can be combined and stacked to enhance health, wealth, and overall well-being.
• It highlights the importance of creating a personalized habit-stacking plan tailored to individual goals, preferences, and lifestyle. Scott offers practical guidance on how to design and implement habit stacks effectively, enabling readers to make sustainable improvements in their daily habits and routines.

Yes, that’s me. I won't give any qualitative review of this book since I am biased. But I do think it is a good one.

Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness is based on a method to incorporate small habits into daily life. These small habits are easy individually but are often the sort of things that “fall through the cracks” in a hectic life .

Habit stacking makes it possible when you add DOZENS of small changes to your daily routine. Rather than trying to make dozens of individual habits part of your routine (something next to impossible) you only have to work to incorporate each “stack”.

By doing these small tasks in a block you can plan for the time to act on these tasks in your daily schedule and stick firmly to implementing these habits on a daily basis.

These habits don’t require much effort. In fact, most of these habits ONLY take five minutes or less to complete . by doing these small tasks in a block you can plan for the time to act on these tasks in your daily schedule and stick firmly to implementing these habits on a daily basis.

And if you'd like to learn more about this concept, here is a 13-step process to building a habit stacking routine .

13. Choose Yourself! by James Altucher

• Choose Yourself! encourages individuals to take control of their lives and pursue personal fulfillment and success on their own terms.
• James Altucher emphasizes the importance of self-reliance, creativity, and resilience in navigating the new landscape of entrepreneurship and career opportunities.
• The book advocates for embracing failure, learning from setbacks, and cultivating a mindset of continuous reinvention and adaptation.
• Altucher highlights the value of generating ideas, creating value, and leveraging new technologies to carve out one's path to financial and personal freedom.
• It emphasizes the significance of prioritizing mental and physical well-being, fostering meaningful relationships, and pursuing passions as essential components of a fulfilling life.

The climate of business and personal success is changing. The times when going to college, working a job for 40 years and retiring a success are evaporating before our eyes. Altucher shows a path to creating art, make money and achieve success through non-traditional methods.

Altucher’s sense of humor and brutal honesty makes Choose Yourself! Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream a great read. He doesn’t pull any punches even sharing many of his personal failures as well as successes.

Choose yourself. Choose this book.

14. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

• Awaken the Giant Within emphasizes the power of taking control of one's thoughts, emotions, and actions to create lasting change and achieve personal fulfillment.
• Tony Robbins delves into the concept of “neuro-associative conditioning,” highlighting the influence of beliefs and habits on shaping one's destiny.
• The book provides practical strategies for setting and achieving compelling goals, emphasizing the importance of clarity, purpose, and consistent action.
• It delves into the significance of mastering one's emotions, cultivating empowering beliefs, and unleashing one's full potential for success and happiness.
• Robbins advocates for embracing responsibility, resilience, and continuous growth as essential elements of personal transformation and creating an extraordinary life.

Awaken the Giant Within is another book I struggled with the decision of whether to place on this list.

On one hand, Tony Robbins has always seemed to me to be as much of a salesman of change as he is someone with fresh ideas. However, there is no denying that this book covers some important ground while still being inspirational.

Robbin’s point with this book is to take charge of your life in all the important ways: emotional, physical, mental and financial.

All of these important parts dovetail together and work with each other for you to achieve greater success. Only when you are at the peak of performance in all categories can you truly be your best self.

15. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

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• Flow explores the concept of optimal experience, highlighting the state of flow as a key to happiness and fulfillment in various activities.
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes the importance of fully immersing oneself in challenging tasks that match skill level, leading to a state of deep concentration and enjoyment.
• The book delves into the elements of flow, including clear goals, immediate feedback, and a balance between skill and challenge, offering insights into how individuals can cultivate flow in their lives.
• Csikszentmihalyi discusses the impact of flow on enhancing creativity, productivity, and overall well-being, providing a framework for achieving optimal experiences in everyday life.
• It highlights the potential for individuals to shape their environments and activities to foster more frequent experiences of flow, leading to greater satisfaction and meaning in life.

Have you ever felt at the top of your game? Answers and ideas flow freely. You feel energized and alert. You feel happy and content. You are in control. This is a state Dr. Csikszentmihaly refers to as “flow” .

The flow state happens to everyone from time to time, but it can be engineered to happen more frequently and when it does the happiness, content, and satisfaction it brings can have a lasting halo effect on our lives.

Part science and part philosophy Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience does an exceptional job of relating to us not only how to get more done , but how to live happier and fuller lives due to having an understanding of the “Flow.”

16.  177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class  by Steve Siebold

• 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class delves into the mindset and habits of high achievers, offering insights into the mental toughness required for success.
• Steve Siebold emphasizes the importance of developing a resilient mindset, embracing discomfort, and viewing challenges as opportunities for growth.
• The book provides practical strategies for building mental toughness, including maintaining focus, managing emotions, and cultivating a relentless pursuit of goals.
• It highlights the significance of self-discipline, perseverance, and a strong sense of purpose in achieving extraordinary results in various endeavors.
• Siebold offers insights into the psychology of success, outlining the mental strategies and attitudes that distinguish world-class performers and leaders.

177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class is great at what it is, a summary of all the current thinking in the realm of peak performance.

While not groundbreaking, it digests hundreds of self-help and personal development books and relays the important pieces succinctly and clearly.

A wonderful book that will save you time and money giving you the highlights of the best modern thinking on the subject of improving your personal performance in all aspects of life.

17. Why We Do What We Do by Edward L. Deci

• Why We Do What We Do delves into the psychology of self-motivation, exploring the factors that drive human behavior and performance.
• Edward L. Deci discusses the concept of intrinsic motivation, emphasizing the role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in fostering self-motivation.
• The book highlights the impact of external rewards and control on intrinsic motivation, offering insights into how to create environments that support and nurture individuals' natural drives.
• Deci provides a comprehensive framework for understanding and enhancing self-motivation, emphasizing the importance of aligning goals with personal values and fostering a sense of choice and agency.
• It delves into the implications of self-determination theory for various aspects of life, including education, work, and personal relationships, offering practical guidance for promoting intrinsic motivation and well-being.

One of the keys to success in life is self-motivation. Most people will perform when they have to work or at home. Self-motivation means going that extra mile and not needing the external commitments to get things done.

When you can become self-motivated, the achievement will follow as surely as the sun rises in the east.

But self-motivation is not something that is always as easy as it might sound. Deci showcases all the current science on the subject of motivation and explains the hows and whys in a simple to understand terms. 

You likely have ideas of what motivates you already, but reading Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation will give you a clean and clear understanding of your motivation.

18. Quiet by Susan Cain

• Quiet sheds light on the strengths and contributions of introverts, challenging societal norms that favor extroverted traits.
• Susan Cain explores the value of introversion, emphasizing the unique qualities of deep thinking, creativity, and leadership that introverts bring to various contexts.
• The book delves into the impact of cultural and workplace dynamics on introverts, offering insights into creating environments that honor and leverage introverted strengths.
• Cain discusses the power of solitude and reflective time for introverts, highlighting the benefits of embracing quiet and introspection in a fast-paced, extrovert-centric world.
• Quiet advocates for a more inclusive, balanced approach that recognizes and values the diverse contributions of both introverts and extroverts in society and organizations.

Being an introvert I kept saying. “That’s right” and “So True” constantly while reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking .

Another book on this list, “ How to Win Friends and Influence People ” does a great job of showcasing the importance of being a “people person” and how this can lead to success.

However, this advice introverts (myself included) have a hard time following. Being the loudest and driving your ideas home to others does not necessarily make your ideas the best.

Susan Cain has a book that can make any introvert proud of their nature. She shows ways many introverts have achieved high levels of success, even in “people person” positions of authority.

This is an important read for introverts to understand why we act the way we do and an important book for extroverts to help them understand the remaining 1/3 of the population.

19. Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker

• Virtual Freedom advocates for leveraging virtual assistants and remote teams to delegate tasks and achieve greater efficiency and productivity.
• Chris Ducker emphasizes the importance of outsourcing non-core business functions to focus on high-impact activities, ultimately leading to business growth and personal freedom.
• The book provides practical guidance on hiring, training, and managing virtual teams, offering strategies for effective communication and collaboration across remote work environments.
• Ducker highlights the potential for leveraging technology and global talent to build a scalable and sustainable business, enabling entrepreneurs to achieve work-life balance and pursue their passions.
• Virtual Freedom underscores the transformative impact of delegating tasks and responsibilities, enabling individuals to reclaim time, reduce overwhelm, and achieve greater success in their professional endeavors.

Virtual Freedom is a personal development book for a fairly narrow niche. These days many tasks can be outsourced and delegated, specifically, if you have your own business or side hustle.

Trying to do everything yourself is not a growth mindset. This book lays out clear paths to outsourcing a significant amount of work in a methodical manner.

If you have no need for outsourcing this book is not for you. However, if you have ever thought about the possibilities of outsourcing mundane tasks, then this book should be a must-read.

20. Influence, New and Expanded by Dr. Robert Cialdini

• Influence, New and Expanded delves into the psychology of persuasion, offering insights into the principles and tactics that influence human behavior.
• Dr. Robert Cialdini discusses the six universal principles of influence, including reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity, providing a framework for understanding and applying these principles in various contexts.
• The book highlights the impact of these principles on decision-making and compliance, offering practical examples and case studies to illustrate their effectiveness in influencing others.
• Cialdini emphasizes the ethical considerations of influence, urging readers to use these principles responsibly and with integrity.
• Influence provides valuable strategies for recognizing and resisting manipulative tactics, empowering individuals to make informed decisions and guard against undue influence.

Why do people say yes? Why do they buy things? Dr. Cialdini’s classic book “ Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion ” shows the science behind why people are persuaded.

This book will help you understand the importance of social proof, scarcity, authority, reciprocation and more on others and how it can help you to get the important “yes” or purchase in your business or at work.

People’s decisions are often not made by a rational argument and well laid out plans.  It is important to truly understand why people really choose the way they do.

21. The Now Habit by Neil Fiore

• The Now Habit explores strategies for overcoming procrastination and cultivating a healthier approach to work and productivity.
• Neil Fiore emphasizes the significance of addressing underlying psychological barriers to procrastination, such as fear of failure and perfectionism, to achieve lasting change.
• The book provides practical techniques for prioritizing tasks, managing time effectively, and creating a balanced approach to work and leisure.
• Fiore highlights the importance of scheduling guilt-free play and relaxation, emphasizing their role in fostering creativity, motivation, and overall well-being.
• The Now Habit offers insights into building a positive relationship with work, cultivating resilience, and overcoming the cycle of procrastination to achieve greater productivity and satisfaction.

Procrastination is a problem that plagues many people. I might even be bold enough to say that MOST people suffer from procrastination from time to time. It is human nature.

However, there are good scientific reasons why people procrastinate and just as many good science-backed methods to overcome procrastination. Dr. Neil Fiore gives an exhaustive overview of why we procrastinate and what we can do about overcoming procrastination.

22. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

• Man's Search for Meaning chronicles Viktor Frankl's experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, offering profound insights into human resilience and the quest for meaning.
• Frankl emphasizes the importance of finding purpose and meaning in life, even in the face of extreme suffering and adversity, as a fundamental driver of human existence.
• The book delves into logotherapy, Frankl's psychotherapeutic approach centered on helping individuals discover meaning in their lives, enabling them to endure and transcend challenging circumstances.
• Frankl highlights the power of attitude and inner freedom, emphasizing that individuals have the capacity to choose their responses to life's challenges, regardless of external circumstances.
• Man's Search for Meaning offers a poignant reminder of the human capacity for resilience, hope, and finding meaning even in the darkest of times.

Viktor Frankl’s book “ Man's Search for Meaning ” was first published in 1946. In it, he chronicles his personal experiences while he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. Despite the long span of time from its first publication to the present, this book is still relevant today.

Frankl’s narrative provides clues on how we can find our purpose and the will to survive when we’re in the midst of terrible moments in life, especially in today’s confusing times.

In this book, Frankl introduced his theory of logotherapy, which is based on the belief that human suffering can be eased when a person finds meaning or purpose even in the direst of situations.

Frankl tells us that things that happen to us, such as tragedies, are not within our control. What is within our control, however, is the way we react or respond to these situations.

If you want to find out more about a true account of human resilience and triumph over adversity, this book is for you.

23. The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

• The Obstacle Is the Way draws on Stoic philosophy to present a framework for transforming adversity into opportunity and growth.
• Ryan Holiday emphasizes the power of perseverance, resilience, and adaptability in facing challenges and using them as a path to success.
• The book provides practical strategies for reframing obstacles, leveraging them as stepping stones for personal and professional development.
• Holiday highlights the importance of maintaining a proactive and resourceful mindset, enabling individuals to navigate adversity with strength and determination.
• The Obstacle Is the Way offers timeless wisdom and actionable insights for embracing obstacles as a means to cultivate resilience, creativity, and lasting success.

Published in 2014, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage is an actionable guide to transforming obstacles into opportunities for success.

It is inspired by the wisdom of the Stoics, who developed the philosophy of perseverance and resilience in the midst of suffering.

In this book, Holiday shares anecdotes about influential people throughout history who applied stoicism during difficult moments in their lives to come out on top.

Through these accounts, Holiday shows that embracing the principles of stoicism opens up our lives to more opportunities for success than good fortune, talent, and intelligence.

24. Essentialism by Greg McKeown

• Essentialism advocates for a disciplined approach to focusing on what truly matters, eliminating non-essential activities, and making a meaningful impact.
• Greg McKeown emphasizes the importance of discerning between what is truly essential and what is trivial, enabling individuals to allocate their time and energy more purposefully.
• The book provides practical strategies for prioritizing and executing essential tasks, while learning to gracefully say “no” to non-essential commitments.
• McKeown highlights the value of creating space for reflection and renewal, enabling individuals to make deliberate choices and lead more fulfilling lives.
• Essentialism offers a compelling framework for simplifying one's life, reducing overwhelm, and achieving greater satisfaction and contribution through the pursuit of less but better.

People these days often overcommit, overwork, and overthink. If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to accomplish everything that’s expected of you, here’s Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less that introduces you to the concept of essentialism.

Essentialism is not a time-management hack promising to improve your productivity. Rather, it is discernment obtained through a disciplined pursuit of the things that really matter.

It teaches readers to enjoy the process of doing something rather than just focusing on the end goal.

The book is divided into four sections. The first section, Essence, introduces the concept of Essentialism. Meanwhile, the three remaining sections (Explore, Eliminate, and Execute) walk readers through the process of developing discernment for things that matter and eliminating those that don’t.

25. Rising Strong by Brené Brown

• Rising Strong explores the process of overcoming setbacks and embracing vulnerability as a path to personal growth and resilience.
• Brené Brown delves into the importance of reckoning with emotions, owning one's story, and cultivating the courage to rise strong after failure or disappointment.
• The book provides a framework for navigating difficult emotions and challenging experiences, offering insights into the transformative power of vulnerability and self-compassion.
• Brown highlights the significance of integrating lessons from failures and setbacks, enabling individuals to emerge stronger and more wholehearted in their personal and professional lives.
• Rising Strong offers valuable strategies for embracing discomfort, cultivating empathy, and harnessing the power of vulnerability to lead more authentic, connected, and fulfilling lives.

In this Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead , Brené Brown helps readers find wisdom and wholeheartedness amidst their struggle to overcome mistakes, rise from failure, and face the hurt brought on by painful events in their lives.

She shares a three-step process for learning more about ourselves:

• Reckoning – Recognizing our emotions and becoming curious about what triggers them instead of ignoring or repressing these emotions.
• Rumbling – Working out what lessons can be taken from a situation. We need to be open to the idea that others are also doing the best they can in their own life situations.
• Revolution – Re-writing the ending of our personal stories to reflect the growth and learning that took place during this three-step process.

This book shows us how we can own our stories so that they no longer define us, but instead open the doors to better endings and new possibilities.

26. Grit by Angela Duckworth

• Grit emphasizes the significance of passion and perseverance in achieving long-term goals and success, challenging the notion that talent alone leads to achievement.
• Angela Duckworth delves into the psychology of grit, highlighting the role of sustained effort and resilience in surpassing obstacles and achieving excellence.
• The book provides insights into cultivating grit, including the importance of developing a sense of purpose, maintaining hope in the face of adversity, and embracing a growth mindset.
• Duckworth emphasizes the impact of grit on personal and professional accomplishment, offering practical strategies for nurturing grit in individuals and organizations.
• Grit offers a compelling perspective on the power of determination and resilience, inspiring readers to harness their grit to pursue their passions and achieve long-term fulfillment and success.

What makes people successful? Is it pure talent? High IQ? Economic status?

In this eye-opening work, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance , Angela Duckworth reveals that these factors are not the main drivers of success. 

Instead, it is people’s grit—their passion for something they believe in and their willingness to persevere to see things through—that often sees them through and helps them reach the top.

Duckworth asserts that grit is a learned trait. Thus, it is accessible to everyone. The way to develop grit is through deliberate practice.

This book is a guide and a source of inspiration for developing grit, as well as for changing one’s mindset.

We can go from thinking that success is limited by the amount of talent we’re born with to believing that we can achieve anything as long as we are interested in seeing our goals manifest, willing to do the necessary things to achieve it, and committed to seeing things through.

27. Deep Work by Cal Newport

• Deep Work advocates for the value of intense focus and concentration in producing high-quality work and achieving professional success in the modern age.
• Cal Newport emphasizes the need to cultivate the ability to engage in deep, undistracted work, highlighting its impact on productivity, creativity, and skill development.
• The book provides practical strategies for integrating deep work into one's daily routine, including time-blocking, minimizing distractions, and embracing solitude to maximize cognitive output.
• Newport discusses the implications of deep work for professional advancement, offering insights into how it can lead to mastery, innovation, and competitive advantage in the knowledge economy.
• Deep Work offers a compelling framework for rethinking one's approach to work and productivity, empowering individuals to achieve more meaningful and impactful results through sustained, focused effort.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World is your guide to developing your ability to focus, working deeply, and achieving more than you ever thought you could.

In a world filled with distractions, it is difficult to achieve a deep sense of focus in order to accomplish tasks that require intense concentration.

But with this book, you’ll be presented with a training regimen that teaches you how to cultivate “deep work,” which includes quitting social media and embracing boredom.

Carl Newport’s book gives you the opportunity to develop a rare skill that helps you achieve a sense of fulfillment in everything you do.

28. Ikigai by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles

• The concept of Ikigai centers on finding purpose and meaning in life, emphasizing the pursuit of activities that bring joy, fulfillment, and a sense of contribution.
• The book explores the intersection of passion, vocation, profession, and mission, encouraging individuals to seek activities that align with these elements to achieve a sense of Ikigai.
• It delves into the lifestyle and mindset of the residents of Okinawa, known for their longevity and well-being, offering insights into their habits and values that contribute to a fulfilling life.
• Ikigai emphasizes the significance of mindfulness, gratitude, and connection to nature and community as essential elements of a purposeful and contented life.
• The book provides practical guidance for individuals seeking to uncover their Ikigai, offering exercises and reflections to help readers align their daily pursuits with their deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment.

29. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg delves into the science of habits, explaining how they form and influence individual and organizational behavior.
• Duhigg introduces the habit loop—cue, routine, reward—and emphasizes its role in shaping and changing habits.
• The author illustrates how companies and individuals can harness the power of habits to drive productivity and success, using real-life examples and case studies.
• The book explores the concept of keystone habits and how identifying and modifying these pivotal behaviors can lead to widespread positive changes.
• Duhigg offers practical strategies for changing habits, emphasizing the importance of belief and willpower in the process of habit transformation.

30. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

• The subconscious mind has immense power and can influence our thoughts, behaviors, and outcomes, often without our conscious awareness.
• By harnessing the power of positive affirmations and visualization, individuals can reprogram their subconscious mind to manifest desired changes and goals.
• The book emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive mental attitude and avoiding negative thoughts, as these can shape our experiences and circumstances.
• Murphy discusses the role of faith and belief in unlocking the potential of the subconscious mind and achieving personal growth and success.
• Understanding the connection between the conscious and subconscious mind can lead to greater self-awareness and the ability to overcome limitations and achieve transformation.

31. Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King

• Self-love is the foundation for personal growth and fulfillment, and it involves accepting oneself and prioritizing mental and emotional well-being.
• Cultivating a positive mindset and practicing gratitude can lead to a more fulfilling and joyful life, as highlighted in the book.
• The author emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries, practicing self-care, and surrounding oneself with supportive and uplifting individuals to enhance overall well-being.
• Good Vibes, Good Life promotes the idea that embracing change and learning from challenges can lead to personal empowerment and transformation.
• Vex King encourages readers to embrace a holistic approach to self-love, incorporating physical, mental, and spiritual well-being into their daily lives for a more balanced and fulfilling existence.

Final Thoughts on the Best Personal Development Books

The journey to becoming the best version of ourselves is as diverse as it is rewarding. Each book on this list offers a unique perspective, a fresh approach, and invaluable wisdom to guide us along the path of personal growth.

Whether you're seeking to enhance your leadership skills, cultivate better relationships, or simply find inner peace, there's a book here that speaks to your aspirations.

But the true magic of personal development lies not just in the pages of these books, but in the actions we take inspired by their insights. Whether it's practicing gratitude, setting boundaries, or cultivating self-compassion, every small change has the potential to create a ripple effect of positive growth.

Be curious, be courageous, and most importantly, be kind to yourself along the way. Embrace the process of growth, celebrate your progress, and trust in your ability to create the life you desire.

With these books as your companions, may you continue to embark on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and transformation.

Also, if you'd like to discover more books that you can check out, then I suggest you check out some of the lists we've compiled:

• 9 Best Books to Read About Life
• 29 Books for Changing Habits
• 20 Motivational Books to Read
• 15 Books on Procrastination
• 27 Books on Productivity and Time Management
• 17 Best Leadership Books to Advance Your Career
• 22 Personal Finance Books
• 18 Happiness Books

Finally, if you want to take your goal-setting efforts to the next level, check out this FREE printable worksheet and a step-by-step process that will help you set effective SMART goals .

Are there books missing from this list? Are there books that shouldn't be here? Do you find this list useful? Do you have any favorites? Make sure to let me know in the comments on the main page of the 250+ Best Habit Books List

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Top 13 Best Self Improvement Books to Win at Life (2023 Edition)

We all want to be happy and win in this life , and self improvement books can be a vital catalyst for many such victories.

Self-help books contain precious nuggets penned by experts and people who love to share strategies that worked for them. You can glean wisdom from them to catapult you to your next level in life.

Whether it’s a battle with depression, a marriage in the doldrums, parenting challenges, or a dilemma over a career choice. Name it. A therapeutic self-help book will prove almost as valuable as a life coach.

With so many books in print, choosing the right self-help book can be a problem added to the one you’re trying to solve. But don’t worry. We’ll help you navigate through the maze of multiple publications and offer you the finest selection of the best self improvement books for men and women alike.

How we picked the best self improvement books

Type in “the best self-help books” on Amazon. What do you get? Pages and pages of books promising to help you help yourself. At this point, you’re probably spoilt for choice. And rightly so. There are so many options to pick from, right?

Unfortunately, not all the options are great reads. Some are a collection of recycled information regurgitated in a non-inspiring way. Some promise but deliver air. And some are more demoralizing than they are empowering.

Related Reading: How to Make Friends as an Adult

Thankfully, we’re here to help you sift the wheat from the chaff.

• Picking a self-improvement book depends on the problem you’re trying to solve. There are texts dedicated to solving money problems, others offer guidance on love matters and some speak on family issues among other areas. So before you make your purchase, ascertain that the self improvement book addresses your concerns.
• Next, conduct a background check on the authors to verify their experience, background, or professional expertise on the subject matter. For instance, a book authoritatively promising to make you a millionaire, authored by a person reeling from bankruptcy should be a red flag.
• Lastly, pick a book written in a style suitable for your consumption. Grasp a book whose content delivery is easy to understand, relatable, and the examples or principles applicable. Look out for content that’s actionable, fluff-free, and that has valuable reviews from an authentic audience.

Top Self Improvement Books

Here’s our list of the top 13 proven confidence boosters from some of the best self-help authors. Sit back, read and enjoy.

#1 – If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? – Raj Raghunathan

This mind-opening book is based on research. Research that attempts at answering the time-honored question, if you’re smart, why aren’t you happy.

Raj analyzed his old MBA classmates’ lives fifteen years after their graduation to find out whether their academic success translated to career success . The results showed pretty little correlation between the two.

He went further to investigate whether career success led to “life success” or happiness. He discovered the relationship here was even more dismal. Hence begging the question, “Why are men so successful in business yet not happy?”

People generally presume that intelligent people are capable of making better decisions in life. Decisions that should lead to a happier life. But the reality, according to Raj’s findings, was proving otherwise.

He delves into seven common tendencies that successful people need to be wary of and proposes seven alternative habits they need to embrace.

The author concludes that generosity and appreciating uncertainty can go a long way in boosting your happiness. He also asserts that success rarely determines one’s level of happiness.

Get this self improvement book for fresh perspectives on how to enjoy a happier life today.

#2 – Make Your Bed – Admiral William H. McRaven

The book sprung from a Texas University graduation speech that hit the social media scene like a wild bushfire.

Admiral Willian H. McRaven is a retired navy seal who makes a passionate argument drawn from accessible and relatable examples on the building blocks to a successful life.

He emphasizes how the little conquest through the mundane tasks of everyday life builds up to your holistic success.

The book’s approach is compassionate and realistic. He encourages you to conquer the little things, like making your bed, to step out in confidence on the path to success. The approach demystifies success as an unattainable ideal in the distant future making it accessible to everyone who dares to try.

The book lists 10 simple tasks that can change you and possibly impact the world. You can change the world one step at a time, with the first step at your bedside.

A good read for anyone seeking inspiration and victory in everyday life.

#3 – Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones – James Clear

Old habits die hard. But not so hard for James Clear .

In Atomic Habits, he draws a clear roadmap to breaking free from old habits and establishing a successful routine.

A proven expert in habit development, Clear employs scientific reality sprinkled with a generous amount of humor to help you understand how to break free from old habits.

He provides practical tips for breaking free from a toxic habit and how to adopt a more desirable habit.

Embracing a new mindset towards the habit you intend to obliterate from your life is crucial. Whether it’s the need to adopt a new diet, fitness routine, or to quit drinking or smoking, he proposes a better way at attaining a breakthrough.

His approach is both practical and persuasive.

It’s not that your goals are unattainable, or that you’re incapable of reaching your desired peak performance. It’s the system you’re using to reach them that needs fixing.

James Clear makes a compelling case for his strategy using an assortment of case studies from accomplished olympian sportsmen, global business magnates, successful comedians, and world-class physicians.

Read with caution; you might never be the same again.

#4 – How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie’s masterpiece How to Win Friends & Influence People has sold over 45 million copies since it was published in 1936. There must be a compelling case for the text to remain so popular ever since.

Carnegie’s main point is to be good to people and you’ll be likable and have influence over them. Sounds rather pedestrian. Doesn’t it?

He goes ahead to demonstrate how that actually works. That’s where the rubber meets the road. In this text that concentrates classical wisdom, Dale unlocks principles for creating influence and impact that seem hidden in plain sight. He encourages people not to criticize, condemn, or complain in order to be likable.

Dale furnishes you with 6 rules that will make people like you and 12 tips on making people follow your way of thinking. He then suggests 9 ways to influence people to do what you want them to do willingly.

By changing your habits, happier life at home, in the office, managing a team, in business, or politics is within reach.

Warren Buffet is one of the beneficiaries of Dale’s wisdom which he credits for success in his life and business.

Dale’s admonitions were brewed in the pot of real-life experience as a successful businessman. He was a proficient speaker and a prolific salesman.

This book is one of the greatest bestsellers of all time ; a must-read.

#5 – Declutter Your Mind – S. J. Scott and Barrie Davenport

A masterpiece on how to dispel negative thinking and create room in your mind for positive vibes.

This book is best suited for those whose lives are typified by endless worrying. Scott and Barrie draw their reasoning from a scientific backdrop to conclude that your anxieties are offsprings of a cluttered mind.

The authors prescribe practical steps you can take to declutter your mind. You begin by focussing on those aspects of your life that deserve your attention; set your priorities right. You proceed to declutter your mind by waving off your mind those thoughts that do not warrant your concern.

The reason you’re bogged down in thought, worry, and stress is because the mind is cluttered with unnecessary items that need to be hurled over to the trash bag. By learning to apply these principles, you free up “free” space in your mind for inner peace. With such a mindset you can stay calm and make better decisions in life.

An essential resource to teach you how to eliminate the unnecessary mental load of worry and anxiety…together with its accompanying emotional consequences.

#6 – Beyond Mars and Venus – John Gray

“ Beyond Mars and Venus ” is John Gray’s follow-up book to his 1992 classical book on relationships, “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. The book stands out as one of the best self improvement books ever written on relationships.

Although the mainstay of the book is romantic relationships, the understanding of how women and men uniquely communicate has found application in formal business communication.

Over time, relationships have evolved. The traditional definitions of men and women in relationships have undergone certain levels of change. This book by John Gray attempts to make updates on these changes.

Women are learning to optimize their masculine capabilities while men are also learning to tap into their feminine potential. These complexes bring with them fresh challenges as partners in a romantic relationship are no just seeking a “role mate” but a “soul mate”.

A man will learn the art of being better at romance while being more thoughtful and dependable to his partner.

#7 – Awaken the Giant Within – Tonny Robbins

Tonny Robbins is a world-famous motivational speaker, author, coach, and philanthropist. He is a self-help master wizard.

Robbins has a way around provoking you to greatness. That’s why his books are hot cake. Wildly popular. Among the best self improvement books you could ever read.

The pages of this book are an invitation to greatness by calling you out from a slumber of mediocrity. A proven peak performance guru, and internationally sought speaker, Tonny demonstrates what you need to do to have the steering wheel over your emotions, finances, body, and relationships.

The techniques to unlocking the best that you can be are practical and effective. In this step-by-step guide, you will discover what you’re here for, and you’ll take charge of your life, and be an active participant in your destiny.

Take hold of life NOW.

#8 – Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds – David Goggins

David Goggin ’s very life is inspirational having come from a background of extreme poverty and painful abuse. He has emerged from the shadows to become a powerful motivational speaker and author who not only tells us it can be done but demonstrates how in this read that’s perhaps one of the best self-improvement books.

David is a bundle of endurance, resilience, and motivation. He’s a great marathoner and a retired navy seal. The virtues he exhibits seem contagious as you devour the contents of this inspirational book.

This book will shock you off any self-pity cocoon and stretch you up to overcome the limitations of a twisted-world.

#9 – Get out of Your Own Way – Dr. Mark Goulston and co-author Philip Goldberg

Deal a death blow to your self-limiting habits. Here’s the weapon.

Dr. Mark Goulston , a psychiatrist, and Philip Goldberg hand you actionable tips that have been tried and tested.

Through the pages of this self improvement book, they help you overcome 40 self-defeating behaviors and come out victorious. By tackling common issues that we all face on a day-to-day basis, the text is practical, relevant, and relatable.

Some of the vices that the book helps you confront include fear, procrastination, lethargy, self-pity, anger, guilt, obsession, rebellion, jealousy, and many more.

#10 – The Man in the Mirror: Solving the 24 Problems Men Face – Patrick M. Morley

This award-winning book has remained a timeless gem since it was first published in 1989. With over 4 million copies in print, it’s definitely an indispensable resource worth reading.

Drawing many of his lessons from Biblical references, Patrick M Morley urges men to have a look at themselves in the mirror with a view of fixing whatever areas fall short. As you look into the mirror and make amendments, you become a better man in the family and society.

Patrick zooms in on 24 specific problem areas for men. With insightful wisdom and practical tips, he helps men confront wide-ranging issues that are common landmines for men; finances, making choices, accountability, temperamental challenges, and handling broken relationships.

As you read this book, you’ll appreciate why it’s appeared on the bestseller list close to 20 times with over 4 million copies in print.

#11 – You are a Badass – Jen Sincero

Jen delivers this refreshing 27- chapter-guide spiced up with humor. As you get entertained, you’re getting made into this awesome person who takes charge of their lives.

The book digs deep touching on insecurities and their root causes.

Create the kind of life you’d like to live. Learn to embrace with humility the things that you can’t change while working on those things you’d rather not live with.

At the end of the day, the book, one of the best self improvement books in the market, will help you realize more personal success and satisfaction, as you boost your earnings. Who wouldn’t want that?

#12 – Who Moved my Cheese? – Spencer Johnson

A fun-filled golden-oldie with an interesting twist on managing change. Anyone going through any major change in life must have this book .

The simple story brings out profound revelation about change. It revolves around 4 characters living in a maze, which depicts our world. They’re busy chasing around for cheese to stay happy. The cheese is an equivalent of the daily necessities we seek after; money, power, relationships, job, status, and the like.

The gist of the story is based on their reaction when unanticipated changes deprive them of their cheeses. Profound lessons can be learned from their reactions to help us cope wi8th changes in our everyday lives.

The only thing that’s constant in our fast-paced world is change. The book provides an excellent lesson in change management.

Rather than dwell on the past, identify change and prepare for it so that you make the most out of it with less stress.

#13 – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey

A timeless classic by Stephen R. Covey buttressed on solid principles that have stood the test of time.

You’ll thank yourself for getting the insights propounded by Covey for confronting and solving personal and professional challenges.

The book centers on an inward quality that produces a positive habit. The focus is on increasing an individual’s effectiveness thus making them more successful in life.

Covey lays down seven habits that if well employed can propel any individual to success. The principles are: be proactive; begin with the end in mind; prioritizing first things first; embracing a win-win mindset; endeavoring to understand others first than to be understood; synergizing; sharpening the saw.

It’s a step after step roadmap to living a dignified life characterized by fairness and virtue.

Parting words

While merely reading a book cannot automatically change you and make your life better, the best self-improvement books have a way of stirring within you the urge to get up and take action to improve yourself.

Have you read any of these books that we’ve listed above? How did it impact your life? Share with us in the comment section below. And feel free to recommend any other great self-help book we may have missed on our list.

You’re right. That Atomic Habit is a powerful book. I ended up here reading your comment just after I finished reading the book, and plan to continue my reading habit in the future

He mentioned good books. But, there is no place for Brian Tracy’s books in this list. Eat that frog Time Management

At the moment, I’m reading Atomic Habits book, by James Clear. I’ve also decided to make reading a habit and researching for books to read led me here.

Mostly I wanted to leave a comment so I can thank you for this perfect article. It was exactly what I was looking. A list of great self improvement books with explanation on how you come up with the list and what each books focuses on.

So thank you for doing hard work and researching this instead of me, Catherine Nyorani, and thank you thecoolist!

Very good article. The Aware Self: A Compendium Of Conscious Living is another great self-help book. Different from the rest.

Have you read my recently released book, “I’m Old, I’m Wise & I Know My Sh*t”? I was an agony aunt for 7 years as part of my duties as magazine editor. The tear-stained letters I received 20 years ago are still relevant today. Which was why I wrote this book and rewrote it 21 times. Could you vet my book? ISBN 9789390924769. Published in India by Amaryllis, English wing of Manjul Publishing House, which has signed a contract with me to publish a Hindi translation.

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Psychology » Self Help

The best self help books of 2021, recommended by emma gannon.

(Dis)connected by Emma Gannon

Lockdowns have forced many of us to pause and consider the way we are living our lives, says the podcaster and bestselling author Emma Gannon . Here she highlights five of the best self help books published in 2021, with a special focus on creativity and setting better boundaries to safeguard our time and energy.

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles by Beth Pickens

Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab

The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self by Martha Beck

Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection by Julia Cameron

1 Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

2 make your art no matter what: moving beyond creative hurdles by beth pickens, 3 set boundaries, find peace: a guide to reclaiming yourself by nedra glover tawwab, 4 the way of integrity: finding the path to your true self by martha beck, 5 seeking wisdom: a spiritual path to creative connection by julia cameron.

I ’m really glad that you’ve agreed to recommend the best self help books of 2021, because this is the time of year when everyone is thinking of their new year’s resolutions. Was it a particularly good year for self-help and self-improvement, do you think?

Listening to audiobooks has been on the rise too—I know lots of friends, and friends of friends, who have started listening to books as they go for walks, and enjoying listening to memoirs which to me are a form of self help or life guidance to the reader. According to Publishers Association, audiobook sales soared in the first six months of 2021, up 71% on the same period in 2019 which is an incredibly steep increase, so that’s really interesting.

When you were putting together your list of 2021 self help books, did any particular themes become obvious?

Yes. Two big things that came out of it were setting boundaries around your time, and creativity. At the end of the day, creativity feels to me very much synonymous with spirituality and the broader themes of self help . I think when people say they want to change their life, they often mean they want to find more time, more money, be more confident, have more space, or more joy, I feel like a lot of it always comes back to creativity. Not so much the ‘side hustle’ chat—more: What will bring you joy? What would you want to be making even if no one sees it?

“Self-help books can enable us to feel inspired again”

One of the big frustrations at the moment is to do with work. We are constantly working, in an era of constant distraction, we are on our phones more than ever, and we don’t know when to stop. So people want to make time for their creativity and their hobbies, basically. Self-help books can enable us to feel inspired again.

Absolutely. And while that is an evergreen problem, I think that’s become a particular issue for people newly working from home. They found the boundary between work and life increasingly blurred. And they spend a lot of time online, for work and play both. I think this ties into your new book, which is just about to be released. Could you tell us a bit about (Dis)connected ?

We’ve had two years now of more screen time that we have ever had before. And I think a lot of us were already at breaking point even before that. When everything’s behind a screen it can feel a bit robotic. So I wanted to write a book about that, but not a digital detox book. I’ve read a lot of well-meaning articles telling you to go cold turkey—just stop looking at your phone. But I always find that anxiety inducing, and it makes me feel even worse about myself—that I can’t be that person who can switch off.

Thanks. Let’s talk about your first book recommendation. This is Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks . I have had a lot of conversations about this simple yet profound book.

I love this book so much. He’s an amazing writer. He was the productivity guru for The Guardian, so every single week he would try out a different productivity hack. He was obviously someone who was quite obsessed with productivity—but realised that ‘inbox zero,’ smashing deadlines, so that you can produce more and more is a trap. This book is all about his realisation that it’s all a bit of a scam: there is no finish line, no trophy for doing the to-do list every day.

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The title of the book is roughly the span of a human life. It’s meant to be quite arresting and shocking; it’s not that many weeks if you really think about it. The book is about life being finite, and how a lot of our daily stresses are quite pointless. He’s trying to remind us that we’re obsessed with something that just doesn’t need to be obsessed over.

Completely. Our philosophy editor Nigel Warburton selected this as one of the top five philosophy books of 2021 ; I think people won’t necessarily recognise this as a philosophy book, as that’s not how it’s been marketed, but it smuggles quite a lot of philosophical discussion in there.

Next you’ve chosen Beth Picken’s Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles.

This is a really great book about being an artist, and making art, no matter the outcome. Her book is really rebelling against that idea that if you don’t quit your day job and make money from your art, you shouldn’t bother. No: it’s OK to keep your day job, and it’s OK if things don’t immediately start making money. Your art is worth something. The time you spend making it is worth something. Beth says we should all make art, even in our spare time. It really reminded me of reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert back in 2015. It’s really encouraging—a person reminding you that making art can bring you joy. It doesn’t have to be about other people.

It’s really a sort of manual, a bit of a guidebook. It covers absolutely everything. It really looks about the hurdles that people face. She talks about fear of self-promotion and fear of marketing. Dealing with the pain of rejection. I love that she busts a lot of myths. For example, one thing that people think is that you need a lot of time to make something. People will say: if I only had six months, I would write a novel. Well, actually, if you had six months of doing nothing, I actually think that might be worse for your writing. You’ll just say, ‘oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow.’ For me, my books aren’t written in week-long staycations by the sea or months away from other work, but in short regular pockets of time e.g. 1 hour in a cafe or in bursts of 25 minute Pomodoro sessions. The obsession with wanting long stretches of free time can get in the way.

That’s an interesting point. Over the years I’ve undertaken a few writing residencies. They are all about finding the ‘time and space’ to write—they feed you, take care of housekeeping. I’ve achieved plenty in those periods, but all the same conversations between residents often revolve around a sense of guilt—that we have all this time, but there is still a fairly low ceiling on how much creative work it’s possible to achieve during a working day. If you strip everything else away, then yes, you write more than normal, but you don’t write all day. You end up taking long walks. Having baths. Luxurious time wasting, in other words.

Exactly. Having too much thinking time hasn’t been great for me. If I sit around, I can reflect on the problems with what I’ve just written. But if I’m busy, I can’t dwell on it too much.

Similarly, some people think that if they had all the money in the world, you’d write the great American novel. But she breaks down why that isn’t the answer. For example, someone she knows has a big inheritance and a lot of time, and the woman has been trying to write this novel. But the grief from this death in the family is causing problems. There are other examples of this: people who, on paper, have a perfect environment, but it just hasn’t worked. So it’s very uplifting. I reminds you that no matter what you have, you can do something with it.

I’m not sure I could do what Jessie did. But I do agree that, when working during bursts of inspiration, you can produce a lot in a short space of time. Let’s talk more about how we might demarcate time and energy: you’ve chosen Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself  by Nedra Glover Tawwab.

Yes, I love this book. It’s a beginner’s guide to boundaries, which has become a bit of a buzzword. People who have had a lot of therapy will be familiar with this word, but I only came across it quite recently.

Nedra has been a therapist for nearly 15 years. She’s very good on Instagram, but having a physical book of her knowledge is very useful. She describes how having bad—or what she’d call ‘porous’—boundaries impacts your whole life. You might not like your friends, because you’ve let people in who aren’t right for you. You say ‘yes’ to events that stress you out. You’re drinking on nights out when you don’t want to. Basically, if you’re someone who feels like you’re getting pushed around your life, this book is just amazing. It helps you get under the skin of why you’re doing that, and perhaps without even realising it.

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I’ve got so much from it. It’s across family, work, romance, technology. For example, some people want to please their parents too much, even as an adult. She explains that if you don’t have good boundaries you will burn out much more quickly than someone who does.

There are practical quizzes and scenarios in the book. And it’s really, really interesting once you’ve noticed what you’re doing. Eye opening.

Burnout is definitely something I hear a lot of people talking about. And, more recently, people like Elizabeth Day have been talking about ‘people pleasing,’ which must reflect these so-called porous boundaries—when you bend yourself and your life to the demands of other people, in the hope of making them like you more.

Yes. There’s another book out called Please Yourself by Emma Reed Turrell, which is all about that. I think a lot of people feel like that—wanting to please everyone around us, and make sure they like us all the time.

But by setting boundaries, as advised in Nedra Glover Tawwab’s book, it allows the reader to find more energy for their own projects.

Definitely, it’s all about realising what’s not serving you any more. It can be really difficult. I found it quite confronting, because there are some relationships that probably would change if you start putting boundaries up. As she describes in the book, there are a lot of people unfortunately who quite like it if you’re that person who says yes to everything. Especially in a work context.

I found that once I learned to say no to things I didn’t want to do, some people would be quite shocked, because I used to say yes to everything. But it’s freeing me up to say yes to things I want to say yes to. It’s an amazing feeling to look at my calendar and know deep down that I do want to do everything on it. That’s shifted everything completely. Although obviously I have more agency than some, that comes with being self-employed.

Saying no is very difficult. I don’t know why it is, but it is. Or, it is to me.

It’s scary, but it’s amazing when you put it into practice. One thing that really helped me is having ready-made templates. I bought a book, a self-published book by Natalie Lue of the podcast Baggage Reclaim, which is like four hundred ways of saying no . I remember copying and pasting some of them into an email, and saving them to use whenever I needed them.

I think this brings us to Martha Beck’s The Way of Integrity. Can you tell us about this book?

Martha Beck accidentally became a life coach after doing, I think, a sociology PhD at Harvard. She was going down a very intellectual, academic route, but realised that she wanted to help people by putting all of that science-based knowledge into helping people. She was famously Oprah Winfrey’s life coach for a while. She’s amazing.

I pre-ordered this book as soon as I heard about it, a year before it came out. It’s all about the meaning of integrity. This book isn’t about being a really good person who always gets things right. It’s more about being your whole self and not cutting yourself into pieces to please everyone. I think we all do that to some degree, because we are different with different people. But she encourages you to just be you, and not shapeshift all the time.

“It’s an amazing feeling to look at my calendar and know deep down that I do want to do everything on it”

At the beginning of the book, she says that this all came from this period where she decided not to tell a single lie for a whole year. Not even white lies. So if someone rang her up and asked her, ‘do you want to come to my birthday party,’ and she didn’t, she’d say, ‘no, I don’t want to.’ It’s quite amazing to see that in action. From there, she realised that her life got better.

She left her family of origin, who were Mormon , came out as a lesbian, got married. Basically her life became amazing. But it was really scary. She had to throw away her old life. She calls it an ‘integrity cleanse’, when you don’t tell any lies. But she also says that you don’t have to be so extreme. Even by telling slightly fewer lies, it impacts your life and health. The science backs that up.

The structure mirrors Dante’s Divine Comedy . So it’s really geeky, but also really accessible and really good.

I imagine one of the long term benefits of forcing yourself to tell the truth is that you have to work out what the truth is. I think that’s not always obvious, even to ourselves. And we spend so much obfuscating how we really feel, we make it even harder to understand what that is.

Definitely. There are lots of exercises in the book around that—asking yourself: are you are feeling what you really feel, and saying what you really mean? Are you doing what you really want? Because, yes, sometimes we get confused. But what I took from it was that whenever you are in intergrity, you feel relaxed.

For example, I was organising a big party for next year. Every time I thought about it, I was stressed. It just didn’t feel right. So I sent an email to everyone that said ‘I’m really sorry, but I don’t want to do it any more.’ And everyone said, ‘oh my god, it’s fine.’ And my body just relaxed. I felt relief. There was just the feeling that, yes: that’s the truth. I don’t want to do it any more. That’s a really random example, but it’s real life.

I often think about a Five Books interview I did with a sports psychologist who works with high performing athletes in the US. He said he does a lot of deep work around finding purpose, which in turn drives motivation. I suppose it’s a similar exercise to this search for ‘integrity’ in Martha Beck’s formulation. I suppose I didn’t expect baseball players to have much need for this kind of soul searching, but if you’re training very hard, day after day, then of course knowing what you’re doing it for must be quite important.

Yes. And once you realise what you actually want, you have a lot of clarity on what you need to have a really nice life. I think we’re often conditioned to want certain things like a big home, lots of money, and so on. But actually, when we think about it, a lot of us don’t actually care about that stuff so much. So you might be striving towards something you don’t even want in the first place.

Finally, we should talk about your final book choice. It’s Julia Cameron’s Seeking Wisdom. You read this in 2021, but strictly speaking it is a 2022 book as it is only just out. Julia Cameron is very well known for her earlier, legendary book on creativity, The Artist’s Way .

I love Julia Cameron. I read everything she ever puts out. She’s just so comforting, I think that’s the best word to describe her. I think I’ve also been seeking that sort of maternal, grandmother’s wisdom. She’s in her late seventies, I think.

Julia’s work, across all her books, is about helping artists become unblocked. It’s really interesting, because I think Julia Cameron’s books are like Trojan horses. She talks about intense topics, through quite a broad lens. And she’ll use words like ‘God’ in her books, but prefaces it with the statement that she’s talking about ‘creative energy’, which I think appeals to younger people who might not be religious.

I think at this time in history, so many of us feel lost because we don’t have anything to believe in. Most of us don’t have a religion, or it’s fading away. We might not have a strong sense of community, especially if you live in the city. Julia Cameron is asking the reader to believe in something again. For her, it’s speaking out loud. You don’t have to believe you’re praying for something, it’s just manifesting your hopes and dreams by talking outwardly about what you want.

She’s very into journaling, and putting things out there. Even if you don’t know where those things are going out to, I think she’s just asking you to believe in the world again.

I know a number of people who I definitely would not have had down as Julia Cameron fans who have taken many of her lessons to heart. Her ‘Morning Pages’ exercise , in which a person free-writes three pages first thing every day, has become very popular.

There is something about her that really seems to capture people. I think it’s because she’s so honest and vulnerable about her own journey. In the new book, she recaps on her alcoholism. Her life was going one of two ways, and thank God it went this way, where she got sober. The thing that got her out of the grips of that was her Morning Pages. And the ‘seeking wisdom’ she talks about in this book is seeking help not only from people around her in her physical form, but more widely, from people who have passed away. Not in a woo-woo way, but by writing them letters or speaking out loud to them.

That’s an interesting thing about her. It could turn a lot of people off. But weirdly, she brings everyone in. Her book Floor Sample is one of my favourite memoirs. It’s about her alcoholism and being married to Martin Scorsese, and how she nearly ruined her career—but got it back again. So I just find her endlessly inspiring and I have interviewed for my podcast three times now!

January 5, 2022

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

©Eva Schwank

Emma Gannon

Emma Gannon is a  Sunday Times  bestselling author, speaker, novelist and host of the award-winning creative careers podcast in the UK,  Ctrl Alt Delete , which has reached almost 10 million downloads. She has blogged since 2009 podcasted since 2016 and is the author of five books including her award-winning debut novel Olive . Her new book ( Dis)connected will be published in 2022 in the UK and US.

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Top 10 books about self-improvement

In time for new year resolutions, a cultural historian chooses some of the best guides to making a better life, dating back to some of our earliest literature

I t is easy to dismiss self-help books and those who read them. But not only do we need serious self-help, we must also take self-help more seriously. Valued at $11bn (£8bn) worldwide, self-help is a major global industry. It both reflects and generates many of our prevailing ideas about the self and about the cultures in which we live. The self-help industry not only seeks to shape the way in which we think, feel and behave, but also provides many of the core metaphors on which we rely to talk about our inner lives. Many of those metaphors, not least that of the mind as a computer that might require reprogramming, are at best unhelpful.

Critics of self-help believe that its current popularity is part of an all-pervasive neoliberal imperative to maximise efficiency. They see it as a sinister plot to direct all responsibility for our wellbeing back upon ourselves. Self-help, they feel, casts all our problems as personal, and our failures as owing to a lack of willpower and resilience, when they are in fact caused by the politics of capitalism. But while this may be true of some self-help, the idea of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending back to ancient wisdom traditions. The wish to improve ourselves is bound up with our need for self-knowledge, for mastery and for transformation. It is a timeless desire and an essential part of what makes us human.

And some self-improvement literature really can help us to become better people. I mean better not in a competitive but in an ethical sense: the improved self is more able to direct attention outwards, towards projects, other people and the communities of which we are a part.

1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (AD 121–180) believed that all suffering is in our minds. Suffering is caused not by external events but by our reactions to those events – by faulty judgments and unrealistic expectations. Given that most external events are beyond our control, Aurelius argues in his Meditations that it is pointless to worry about them. Our evaluations of these events, by contrast, are completely within our control. It follows that all our mental energies should be directed inwards, with a view to controlling our minds. The key to a happy life, then, lies in adjusting our expectations, because “only a madman looks for figs in winter”.

2. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D Burns (1980) The science underpinning Burns’s book may no longer be cutting-edge, but its core message remains a powerfully relevant one. A more down-to-earth version of Stoicism, it is based on the premises of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Feeling Good illustrates how our feelings are shaped by our thoughts, and contains some great techniques for training our minds to question negative thinking about ourselves and others.

3. The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris ( 2007) We are, of course, not purely rational creatures. Sometimes our attempts to control our thoughts can become counter-productive. Here, Australian psychologist Harris explains the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). He invites us not to try to control our negative thoughts or uncomfortable feelings, but simply to de-fuse with them, to accept them and then to let them go. That way we have more energy to commit to value-based action.

4. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu Spiritual self-cultivation through the art of letting go is the central theme of the Tao Te Ching (the classic study of “The Way and Virtue”, usually dated to the sixth or fourth century BC). In Daoism, letting go centres on the idea of offering no resistance to the natural order of things. It promotes a sophisticated form of submitting our will to cosmic forces, by accepting what is and loosening our attachments to our desires and expectations of specific outcomes. The Tao suggests that we can improve ourselves by returning to a simpler, more authentic and intuitive way of life. A key concept is wu wei – “non-action” or “effortless action”. Wu wei can perhaps best be described as a spiritual state marked by acceptance of what is and the absence of selfish desires.

5. The Power of Now: A Guide Book to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle ( 1998 ) We are not our thoughts, argues Tolle in this bestselling book. Most of our thoughts, Tolle writes, revolve around the past or the future. Our past furnishes us with an identity, while the future holds “the promise of salvation”. Both are illusions, because the present moment is all we ever really have. We therefore need to learn to be present as “watchers” of our minds, witnessing our thought patterns rather than identifying with them. That way, we can relearn to live truly in the now.

6. Altruism: The Science and Psychology of Kindness by Matthieu Ricard ( 2015) In many theologies and wisdom traditions, altruism is the highest moral and spiritual value. More recently, psychologists have shown that altruistic acts not only benefit the recipient but also lead those who perform them to be happier. Moreover, practising altruism, the French Buddhist monk Ricard argues, is the key not just to our personal happiness but also to solving our most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. Altruism enables us “to connect harmoniously the challenges of the economy in the short term, quality of life in the mid-term, and our future environment in the long term”.

7. Walden by Henry David Thoreau ( 1854) The American transcendentalist philosopher Thoreau famously withdrew to a cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, where he sought to live simply and “deliberately”. It was there that he developed the intriguing notion of “life cost” – the perfect antidote to unthinking materialism and the toxic Protestant work ethic to which so many of us are still enslaved. Most of us find it normal to trade our life time for goods, believing that productivity and success are secular signs of grace. Thoreau saw paid work as a necessary evil to which we should dedicate as little time as possible. His aim was not to work a single minute more than was necessary to cover his most basic living expenses, and to spend all his remaining time doing what he truly cherished.

8. Grit by Angela Duckworth (2017) According to the psychologist Angela Duckworth, grit tops talent every time. That is music to the ears of anyone inclined to identify with Aesop’s plodding tortoise rather than the effortlessly speedy hare. “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another,” she writes. Here grit is a drive to improve both our skills and our performance by consistent effort. Gritty people are always eager to learn and are driven by an enduring passion. They learn from their mistakes, have direction and live more coherent lives.

9. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri ( 1308–21 ) This 14th-century poem chronicles the gradual overcoming of the middle-aged and burned-out Dante’s spiritual weariness. Guided by his mentor Virgil, he journeys from Hell to Paradise, where he is eventually reunited with his beloved Beatrice. The epic can be read as a cautionary Christian tale or as an extended revenge fantasy in which many of Dante’s personal enemies get their gruesome come-uppance. But we can also read it as an archetypal story of spiritual growth and self-overcoming. The doubting Dante is systematically re-educated by his many encounters in Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The inhabitants of Hell show him how not to live his life, and the costs of their bad choices. In the end, purged of his own weaknesses, Dante reaches a higher spiritual plane and glimpses the divine.

10. The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100–1200 BCE) Almost all forms of self-improvement resemble a quest narrative or a heroic journey. Such narratives show the hero or heroine venturing into the unknown – a dark wood, an underground kingdom or the belly of a beast. There they encounter obstacles and often have to battle with an enemy or a temptation. Having overcome these challenges, they return from their adventures transformed and ready to share what they have learned to help others. The oldest surviving narrative of this kind recounts how the formerly selfish Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh returns from the wilderness bearing the plant of eternal life. Rather than eating it himself, he shares his boon with his people.

Anna Katharina Schaffner is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Kent. Her book The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths is published by Yale University Press .

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14 best new self-improvement books of 2023

I only share books I know and love. If you buy through my links, I may earn a commission (learn more).

One of the best ways to boost your motivation and get out of a rut? Reading a good self-improvement book .

There have been so many inspiring self-help books and productivity guides published in the last few years, but I especially love the new releases of 2023.

In this collection of the best new self-improvement books of 2023 , I’ve curated both the popular bestsellers and hidden gems that I’ve been reading, recommending, and re-reading lately.

Including new non-fiction releases from authors including Kevin Kelly, Oprah Winfrey, and Peter Attia, I think these are the best books for self-help, personal development, and transformation right now.

P.S. Looking for the latest bestsellers? You might also like…

• 11 best new personal growth books to read in 2024
• 5 books to help you set your resolutions in January

The best new personal development books of 2023

Hidden potential: the science of achieving greater things by adam grant.

Read Hidden Potential for… the thought-provoking new self-improvement book by Adam Grant, the bestselling author of Think Again .

In a world that’s obsessed with talent and natural “gifts”, what about the skills we can learn and nurture over time? And what if anyone can rise to achieve incredible things?

Hidden Potential is a reminder of the skills and opportunities we have access to if we commit to improving . Tennis champion Serena Williams has shared about the book : “I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would’ve helped me find a more joyful path to progress.”

Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Read Be Useful for… a motivational must-read inspired by the extraordinary journey of the world’s greatest bodybuilder, highest-paid movie star, and Former Governor of California.

A personal development book by Arnold Schwarzenegger should be incredible. Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life absolutely is. This inspiring book brings together seven rules to bring you to your true purpose in life , starting with 1. Have a clear vision and closing with 7. Break your mirrors .

Although the book is concise at 257 pages, it’s brimming with insights. If you prefer to listen to self-help books, the audiobook is excellent (and narrated by Arnold).

Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey

Read Build the Life You Want for… one of the best new self-help books of 2023, penned by two powerhouses of self-transformation.

If you’re at a turning point in life – or ready to make big changes in the months ahead – Build the Life You Want is a wise and inspiring guide to your next steps. With insights from Harvard’s Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey, this new self-help book invites you to set out on your journey toward greater happiness, peace, and purpose .

You can also complement this with Arthur Brooks’s 2022 book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life .

The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life Today by Lewis Howes

Read   The Greatness Mindset  for… encouragement and tools to transform your mindset and your life.

You might’ve heard of Lewis Howes and his podcast,  The School of Greatness , especially if you’re interested in optimizing your mindset and focus. His new self-help book for 2023,  The Greatness Mindset , is a fantastic starting point to wake up the ideas, dreams, and potential inside you  and step closer to the life you dream of living.

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia MD with Bill Gifford

Read Outlive for… a refreshingly accessible overview of the latest science-backed ways to get your body and mind in the best shape for longevity.

If you want to live better – and longer – I’d wholeheartedly recommend Outlive , Peter Attia’s groundbreaking new manifesto on the science and art of longevity. It’s one of the best new self-improvement books of 2023 to transform your health (and I can especially vouch for the audiobook narrated by Peter Attia).

Like Peter’s popular podcast , this book will challenge conventional medical thinking and reveal a new approach to health. Learn how to prevent chronic disease and extend healthspan , not just lifespan.

Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly

Read Excellent Advice for Living for.. easy-to-read and inspiring snippets of wisdom in one of the best personal development books of 2023.

If you hang around in tech circles, you’ve probably heard of Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired, author, and technology thinker. But that said, his new bestseller about living well, Excellent Advice for Living , is fantastic for all readers.

Pick up the motivational book for a collection of ideas and proverbs that started on Kevin’s 68th birthday, when he began to write down for his young adult children what he wish he knew earlier about life . If you’re anything like me, your copy will soon be covered in highlights, annotations, and Post-it notes.

The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work by Simone Stolzoff

Read   The Good Enough Job   for…  a refreshing look at the alternatives to being chained to our jobs, working long hours, and putting work ahead of life.

What would it take to  reframe work as a part of life , rather than the centre of existence? What could we gain by striving for a “good enough” job? Is it even possible?

That’s what Simone Stolzoff asks in this new non-fiction book for 2023 , looking closely at Wall Street bankers, overwhelmed teachers, and others to expose what we lose when we expect work to be more than a job – and to show how things can be different.

The Half-Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World by Pico Iyer

Read   The Half-Known Life   for….  a mesmerizing investigation of the different ideas of paradise and what they can teach about living well.

Sitting at the boundaries between philosophy, travel, and personal development, this book of journeys by Pico Iyer – many of them inwards – upends conventional ideas of genre.

As you read The Half-Known Life , you’ll follow the author’s exploration of  the paradoxes of paradise  and get a chance to reflect on what utopian living means to you.

Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within by David Goggins

Read Never Finished for … the motivation to stop making excuses and get in the right state of mind to achieve big things.

David Goggins’s first book, Can’t Hurt Me, is one of the most popular self-improvement books of the last few years, offering unbeatable motivation to push harder and find more resilience.

For more tough love and harsh truths about why you’re not where you want to be (and how to change that in record speed), read Goggins’s new book from December 2022, Never Finished .

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Read The Creative Act for… the best new book about creativity, written by legendary music producer Rick Rubin.

If, like me, you adore books about creativity , add The Creative Act to your reading list. As with Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic , you’ll discover ponderings on the more spiritual nature of creativity, but there’s also plenty of actionable advice on building a more creative life .

As Rick Rubin shares in the book, “ I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.”

Finding Your Way: Meditations, Thoughts, and Wisdom for Living an Authentic Life by Sharon Salzberg

Read Finding Your Way for… a gently inspiring illustrated book (and perfect gift for the holiday season) that’s packed with wisdom by the world-renowned meditation teacher.

If you love Sharon Salzberg’s quietly transformative writing, her new book for October 2023 should absolutely be on your reading list. Finding Your Way is a wonderful collection of bite-sized tidbits of wisdom and life advice from the beloved meditation teacher to read in small moments and share with loved ones.

The Well-Lived Life: A 102-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age by Gladys McGarey M.D

Read The Well-Lived Life for… an excellent overview of how to honour your body, health, and time on earth from a woman who knows this better than anyone.

Here in one of the best new self-help books of 2023, 102-year-old Dr Gladys McGarey shares what she’s learned about transforming the health and life of her patients.

The Well-Lived Life a book that will not only change the way you think about health and longevity, but also what it means to live a life full of joy and satisfaction .

Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control by Ryan Holiday

Read Discipline is Destiny for …  philosophical wisdom to inspire your next step on the path to self-mastery, upon which all the other virtues depend. 

Discipline is Destiny is Ryan Holiday’s September 2022 addition to his bestselling Stoic Virtues Series, inspired by the stories of historical figures we can emulate to live our best lives.

With this new book from one of the best personal growth authors, make 2023 the year you become laser-focused on your goals and the deep work you need to reach them, inspired by those who mastered the power of self-control to live incredible lives.

The Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change

Get your copy of   The Productivity Planner  for…  the best productivity journal I’ve come across to guide your focus and prioritise what’s most impactful each day. It’s so wonderfully  simple .

After reading stacks of productivity books, what really matters is  taking action . This bestselling planner from Intelligent Change is an indispensable tool for keeping your time, focus, and priorities on track.

You might have also heard of their bestselling  Five Minute Journal , which I was given years ago and still use every morning and evening. With the coupon code TOLSTOYTHERAPY, you can enjoy 10% off any purchases on  Intelligent Change .

Looking for more of the best self-improvement books about personal growth and transformation? Complement these books with:

• 28 best self-improvement books of all time
• 15 best productivity books for 2023 (& all time)
• The most inspiring books that will change your life
• The best books about living well and being a good human

Lucy Fuggle is a professional writer, reader, and creator of Tolstoy Therapy. Drawing on her love for books and a degree in English Literature, she started Tolstoy Therapy in 2012 and has shared the most feel-good, cozy, and beautiful books for over a decade. After working as a content specialist with leading companies for nearly 10 years, she now focuses on her own websites and books ( Mountain Song , Your Life in Bloom , and Simple Business ). She grew up in England and now lives in Denmark with her husband. For more book recommendations, subscribe to Tolstoy Therapy's weekly email to inspire your reading list.

Best self-help & self-improvement books 🧘‍♀️

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FRIDAY 17th MAY, 2024

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natalie bears

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Press Start: A Gamer's Guide to Leveling Up in Life

Taylor Byte

An easy to use guide on how to turn life into the ultimate role playing fantasy game of your dreams.

Reviewed by Ian Cox

The Power of Trauma-Informed Yoga: Mind-Body Techniques to ...

Worthwhile for yogis, therapists, or those wanting to heal through yoga.

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Humble: Reflections On the Power of Humility and Its Place ...

A concise, well-crafted guide on humility, including its application into everyday life

Reviewed by Alice Bennett

How to Talk To Your Enemies: 101+ Ways to Turn Hostility in...

Alicia Dunams

A must-read for anyone who desires a comprehensive toolbox to build healthy relationships, break down walls, and enjoy peaceful...

Reviewed by Vida Li Sik

The Mindful Path: Combining Psychotherapy and Buddhist Pra...

Michael Jones

The Mindful Path is a true awakening into how our mind operates and how to recalibrate our cognitive behavior influences our we...

Reviewed by Niko Taylor

A Path to Excellence: The Blueprint to Achieving Your Great...

Tony Jeton Selimi

humble, authentic, riveting voice that declares each of us is "born to be divine” and make every choice count! A MUST Read!

Reviewed by Majonka Herlikofer

Step Back and LEAP: 9 Keys to Unlocking your Life and Maki...

patrick mork

Simple, very powerful read of 9 chapters with 2-3 exercises each bring the reading to life.

Swipe: The Science Behind Why We Don't Finish What We Start

Tim Vandehey

Anyone can enjoy reading this book on how to identify and fight the "Swipe," a troubling human behavior in our culture

Reviewed by E.J. Robison

Unleash The Magnificent You!

Chris Bradbury

I found this book more effective than most therapy services! Bursting with practical advice and friendly guidance on wellbeing ...

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Awesome on Your Own Terms: Intentional Practices to Help Yo...

Nicole Lance

Powerful book of overcoming our own inner challenges to uncover our inner brilliance

Reviewed by Catherine Hawes

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Meditation

Shai Tubali

The only book you need for your spiritual practice! It will be my handy guide for a long time… 💫

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Doorways to Transformation: Everyday Wisdom for the Creativ...

Karen Kinney

Offering bite-sized ways to make significant improvements, this is the perfect self-help book for creatives, big and small

Act Before You overThink

The reader can look forward to a wealth of shared narratives & scientific explanations that reflect on the psychology of action...

Reviewed by P Reefer

Conscious Coping

Laurie Sharp-Page

Great self help guide that is easy to read and understand. Lots of useful tips and exercises to practice.

Reviewed by Emily Thompson

The Voice in my Head is an Asshole

Darryl Blake

A near irreverent voice and solid psychological research combine to provide insight on how to beat the worst of all critics: yo...

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Coming to Canada: The Ultimate Success Guide for New Immigr...

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A frank discussion about successfully migrating to Canada as smoothly as possible.

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Raising mentally and emotionally strong women

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A must-read for anyone taking part in the life of a young girl. Find out how you can be the figure you once needed!

Reviewed by Fatima Aladdin

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Karel Bakkes

A guide for anyone who wants to learn how to leave the status quo behind and live a much happier life than they are living now.

The Power of Therapy: How to Navigate Change, Transform Tra...

Joshua Newman

Excellent guidebook to the process of therapy. Perfect for beginners or those pondering counselling for themselves or possibly ...

The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscov...

Julia Paulette Hollenbery

It is a scream to put an end to demonizing physical and emotional pleasure.

Stepping Beyond Intention

Daniel Mangena

A relatively short read with MANY excellent "gems" for the reader to help them on their journey in personal growth.

Reviewed by Christina S

Lazy Creativity: The Art of Owning Your Creativity

Kyle Bernier

A fun self-help book mixed with inspirational and funny passages. Perfect for every creative mind.

Reviewed by Rachel M. Patterson

Mindscaping

Donovon Jenson

A logical and practical approach to maintaining life-long happiness. This is a no-nonsense approach to emotional health.

The Networking Playbook

James DiNanno

The Networking Playbook is a no fluff, get right to the point, collection of networking secrets.

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Catherine Hawes

Self-help & self-improvement.

I am an avid reader dedicated to emphasizing independent authors. As a business proprietor devoted to social and environmental advocacy, we redistribute tangible books. I believe that literacy is a quintessential aspect of education and authors are an indispensable element of our communities.

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Mardene Carr

Mardene Carr is from the beautiful Island of Jamaica. She is a trained Librarian, doctoral student, blogger, author, journal reviewer, proofreader, and editor. She has authored several journal articles and blog posts. Mardene is also a motivational speaker and international student coach.

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19 Best Books on Self-Discipline and Self-Control

It helps us stay focused, deal adaptively with distractions, and accomplish what we intend to do, among many other things.

Some researchers have linked self-discipline with accomplishment, others with well-being, and still others argue that it’s a precious finite resource.

If you’re interested in learning more about what self-regulation looks like and how you can improve it, this article includes some of the best books on self-discipline and self-control to help you make your own informed decision. Some fall into the “personal development” category, while others give a slightly more academic coverage of the concepts involved.

Read on to find something that tickles your fancy, and let us know of any personal recommendations you might have in the comments below.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Productivity Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients become more productive and efficient.

This Article Contains

4 best books on self-discipline and self-control, 5 best books on self-regulation, a list of top audiobook recommendations, other good recommendations, a take-home message, frequently asked questions.

Since Mischel’s Marshmallow Test in the late sixties, we’ve learned a lot more about how willpower works and what it looks like. It’s created a very bustling market of evermore (and more) self-help books designed to equip readers with useful tactics, motivation, and insight into their habits.

In this section, a combination of popular self-help books on the topics of self-discipline and control is provided. We’ve made these recommendations with the average ‘you and I’ in mind, and they are not overly academic in any way unless specified otherwise.

Perfect for a summer read or a less tedious morning commute. In addition, after selecting a great book, head on over to Self-Discipline Exercises for even more inspiration and encouragement.

1. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol S. Dweck

Professor Carol Dweck is highly respected in the positive psychology field for her vast contributions to the scientific literature on motivation, intelligence, and mindset, among other things. In this straightforward but very insightful read, is an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to learn about fixed vs. growth mindsets.

Dweck’s work on the latter is highly relevant for all those who are interested in the role of hard work, effort, and practice in personal growth. In this sense, it’s not focused exclusively on self-control, but gives a more holistic overview of its importance in achieving what you set out to do.

Mindset is based on solid psychological science, but it’s digestible and a pleasant read for mainstream readers who aren’t keen on slogging through mountains of data. It explains the concept in-depth and uses plenty of anecdotes to flesh out key ideas.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play – Neil Fiore

This book is full of techniques to help anyone who tends to procrastinate – and perfectionists who want to improve their productivity. It’s a clear and straightforward read and offers plenty of help for people who – let’s be open here – can’t understand why they are procrastinating.

By delving into root causes, Dr. Neil Fiore invites his readers to get a better grasp of their unique difficulties and deal with them in the most appropriate way.

By offering to help you do things ‘Now,’ make a positive habit out of it, and break old, unhelpful ones, this is a powerful book. Perhaps not compelling enough for some very intense procrastinators, but a highly recommended read for anyone who wants to get things done and move on, minus the anxiety.

Find the book on Amazon .

3. No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline – Brian Tracy

It is divided into three main areas: financial and business goals, personal goals, and general well-being, and these, in turn, are broken down further into domains such as leadership, relationships, friendship, personal excellence, responsibility, health, and time-management.

Concerning specific approaches, he emphasizes nine disciplines in particular, such as daily goal-setting, hard work, persistence, and similar. The ‘tone and flavor’ of this book is best described as motivational—it’s not a heavy read at all, and it’s easy to jump back and forth between chapters as you feel like covering certain topics.

4. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg

Charles Duhigg is a business reporter for the New York Times, who wrote this book on habits after observing collective habits at play in rioting mobs overseas.

He became intrigued by human behavior and began digging further into the research on the “loops” that our brain gets into to conserve effort.

It is an insightful look into the deep-seated way in which habitual behaviors often sabotage the best intentions, and how they guide our behaviors in more ways than we may realize.

Duhigg considers some of the findings on how habits work at the brain level and discuss the 3-stages of cue, habit, and reward that can shape our actions. Throughout the book and more so toward the latter parts, he introduces specific strategies for changing habits and regaining self-control.

The terms self-regulation, self-control, and self-discipline are often interchangeably used in everyday conversations. The first, however, is the term most commonly used by behavioral psychologists to refer to a specific set of mechanisms.

The books in this particular section are either:

• Written by professional psychologists or therapists;
• Based mainly on psychological research; or
• Strongly recommended by/for therapists.

They also make great reads for anyone who’s looking for a slightly different, perhaps more scientific take on self-control. If you’re interested in reading more about the psychology of emotional and behavioral self-regulation, our article What is Self-Regulation ? (+95 Skills and Strategies) also looks much closer at the topic.

In this article, we’ve put together a list of some of the best books on the topic.

1. Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength – Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

One of this book’s fundamental premises is that willpower is a finite resource. Along with IQ, the authors argue, it is one of life’s most important determinants of whether we succeed or not.

This book lays out how willpower is linked very strongly with happiness, emotional well-being, social support, physical health, and more.

At least in part, then, self-control is about consciously managing how we channel our energy—what depletes our willpower, replenishes it, and even when we should leave things (like critical tasks) until another time.

Cited over and over by myriad other self-development authors, Willpower is probably one of the seminal texts on self-discipline and self-control. It’s a 316-page read and professionally written by psychologists, so it touches on some fascinating experiments to make its strong and convincing arguments.

2. The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit – Amy Johnson PhD and Mark Howard PhD

Popular with counselors, therapists, and other helping professionals, it’s heavily focused on recovery but also touches on how we can reverse our tendency to think in certain ways.

There are useful insights for those struggling with anxiety or anxiety-related disorders, and may at times be a little heavy for reluctant readers.

Some highlights include Dr. Johnson’s approach to breaking down habitual behaviors to get a better grip on them, and tuning into your internal narrative. Psychologists will find it useful for its potential relevance in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

3. The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control – Walter Mischel

During the second half of the ‘60s, he conducted his first studies with preschoolers—offering them either “a single marshmallow now or two marshmallows in ten minutes.”

He followed up these children’s later development to look at their academic performance, obesity rates, and other variables, paving the way for many more researchers to build on his findings.

This book is more than a useful overview of how to enhance your self-control; it also gives the reader an absorbing look at one of the most eye-opening experiments in modern psychological history.

4. The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It – Kelly McGonigal

Readers who are curious about the impacts of willpower on our physical health, cognitive capabilities, and emotions will enjoy this informative read, in which McGonigal consistently references relevant studies.

It considers the roles of mindfulness, nutrition, mindset, and self-compassion in self-discipline, and includes practical advice regarding productivity, habits, and procrastination.

5. The Science of Self Control – Howard RACHLIN

This is a textbook; an academic read for big fans of solid data, and it includes a lot of experimental research to examine various key principles of self-regulation – how it relates to decision-making, behavior, and more.

Because it is admittedly a textbook, you will find charts, diagrams, and – on occasion – numerical data. Nonetheless, Professor Rachlin somehow does an excellent job of making this quite a fascinating read for anyone with interest in behavioral science.

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Audiobooks are a great way to stay up to date with the best reads. Here we have a couple of great suggestions.

1. Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time – Brian Tracy

This runs for approximately 2 and a half hours, and focuses predominantly on workplace productivity, introducing logical (some might argue rather commonsense) tactics for improving the aforementioned.

Examples include:

• The Pareto efficiency concept – prioritizing and focusing on the 20% of tasks which yield the most valuable outcome;
• Breaking down seemingly overwhelming items into manageable steps;
• Setting time limits – creating personal deadlines for achieving your goals; and
• Making a conscious effort to reduce distractions.

Tracy digs slightly into the fact that as individuals, we have different reasons for procrastinating. In this sense, there’s a technique for everyone in this audiobook.

Get Eat That Frog! in audio format from Audible .

2. Smart but Scattered Teens: The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential – Richard Guare PhD, Peg Dawson EdD and Colin Guare

It draws on psychological research to provide practical, science-based strategies for helping teenagers deal productively with issues such as procrastination, lack of focus, and impulse control.

It offers an executive skills-based approach for adults to tackle common difficulties which youths experience – such as lack of organization and forgetfulness – in a more effective way than micromanagement or punishment. In this sense, it considers concepts such as working memory, self-control, and how these can be developed with the right approaches.

Two points to note: the print copy comes with more resources, such as quizzes, worksheets, and activities, and it may be slightly tricky for educators to implement, as it’s geared specifically at parents.

Smart but Scattered Teens is available from Audible .

3. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Daniel H. Pink

Its central premise is that three things underpin intrinsic motivation: a sense of purpose, autonomy to go about achieving our goals a certain way, and mastery – we are driven to get increasingly better at things.

Self-discipline doesn’t need to be about struggling tenaciously against the odds for the sake of it; when we are intrinsically motivated, we move toward achieving our goals much more naturally in spite of the odds.

At least, this is Pink’s premise, and he provides copious amounts of scientific research to support it. It’s approximately six hours long and peppered with plenty of corporate and scientific examples to keep the listener entertained.

Get Daniel Pink’s Drive from Audible .

Teaching children self-control is important. As any parent or early childhood educator knows, it can be just as much of an exercise in emotional self-regulation for the grown-up involved. It’s why we’ve also included some recommendations in this last little section – for kids.

Books for Children

Here are a few suggestions that will hopefully make things a little easier and keep those little ones entertained at the same time.

• My Mouth Is A Volcano! by Julia Cook ( Amazon ) – Louis is a boy who has a hard time not interrupting others. In this colorful book for 5 – 8-year-olds, he learns about the good things that happen when he tries listening and being patient instead.
• A Grand Bed Adventure: Developing Habits of Self Discipline for Children by A. M. Marcus ( Amazon ) – Little Ted asks his granddad some common questions about daily routines that lead him to do a bit of deep (kid) thinking about self-discipline. An illustrated book for 4- 10-year-olds.
• Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelmann ( Amazon ) – Katie the dog’s overwhelming enthusiasm about some cute little kittens, makes them scared, and she can’t understand why. She learns to control herself in this beautiful, relateable picture book for 3 – 8-year-olds.
• What Were You Thinking? by Bryan Smith ( Amazon ) – playful Brayden makes a few suboptimal jokes and ends up regretting his actions in this storybook for 4 – 8-year-olds. His teachers and mother try to help him learn how to make better decisions and control himself.

Related Concepts

There are also a few more great books that touch on self-control but which – because they aren’t exclusively focused on it – we’ve put in this section.

1. Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert

Professor Daniel Gilbert has won multiple awards both for his psychological teachings and as a researcher, including the 2007 Royal Society of Science Prize for this best-selling book.

His look at habitual behaviors, thought patterns, and happiness makes it a good read for those curious about cognitive biases and mental patterns, and how we might start controlling them.

2. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance – Angela Duckworth

Angela Duckworth argues for the learnability of valuable psychological assets – that through hard work and self-discipline, we can accomplish what we set out to achieve despite not being ‘born’ with particular talents.

She credits her success in large part to passion, deliberate practice, and grit.

For those curious about how grit and self-control differ – despite being positively correlated – Duckworth and Gross (2004) have written a lovely paper on the topic entitled: Self-Control and Grit: Related but Separable Determinants of Success .

3. Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman, Patrick Egan and Random House Audio

The Nobel Prize Winner’s core argument is that we can think in two separate ‘modes’ – a rapid, emotionally-driven mode, and one which is more rational and controlled.

This is something which anyone struggling with emotional self-regulation will likely find valuable, and some would argue quite profound. This and other EQ books have been reviewed more thoroughly in our article: 26 Best Emotional Intelligence Books (Reviews + Summaries).

The book’s central thesis is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: System 1 is fast, instinctive and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The book delineates cognitive biases associated with each type of thinking, starting with Kahneman’s research on loss aversion.

Find the book on  Amazon .

17 Science-Based Productivity & Efficiency Exercises

Arm yourself with these 17 Productivity & Work Efficiency Exercises [PDF] and use positive psychology to increase flow, engagement, and goal achievement in the workplace.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

The market is chock-full of self-development texts that claim to help you improve your focus, productivity, and happiness, and they are a dime a dozen. To dismiss them all as fluff would be frankly imprudent because you never know where your next great inspiration might come from – so we’ve included some popular self-help titles in this article.

Hopefully, you will also find some of these science-based reads as enjoyable as we have. To improve and enhance our abilities at anything – self-control included – expert help is never a bad idea!

What books have we missed, in your opinion? Do you have more suggestions or recommendations that we can include? Let us know in the comments, and happy reading!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Productivity Exercises for free .

Self-control and self-discipline are closely related but distinct concepts. While self-control refers to the ability to resist immediate temptations, self-discipline involves taking consistent action toward achieving long-term goals (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005).

According to the theory of ego depletion, there are four main types of self-control (Hagger et al., 2010):

• attention control,
• emotion regulation,
• impulse control, and
• performance control.

Yes, self-control can be improved through practice and training (Hofmann et al., 2012), such as:

• cognitive-behavioral therapy,
• mindfulness meditation, and
• regular exercise.
• Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of self-regulation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50 (2), 248-287.
• Duckworth, A., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Self-control and grit: Related but separable determinants of success. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23 (5), 319-325.
• Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents. Psychological Science, 16(12) , 939-944.
• Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2010). Ego depletion and the strength model of self-control: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(4) , 495-525.
• Hofmann, W., Schmeichel, B. J., & Baddeley, A. D. (2012). Executive functions and self-regulation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(3) , 174-180.

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You’re doing the same things over and over, wondering why nothing is changing. You haven’t put a full, conscious effort into getting yourself out of your situation. You say you’re trying, that nothing is working, that maybe it’s a problem with who you are as a person. That’s not really true; the thing is, you’re just not facing your problems. You don’t really want to change. You’re letting your life happen to you instead of taking control and leading yourself. If this is you, then hopefully this comment helps. If not, maybe you can still find something of value.

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Just take out a piece of paper, something to write with, and make a list of what you need to do. And then, write what you need to do to change that.

For example:

Problem: Being late to work Solution: Go to sleep earlier so you can wake up at 5am. Things to do: – turn off your TV, phone, music, whatever at 7-8 pm. Put away your screens. Let your mind slow down in preparation for sleep. – be in bed by 8:30 or 9 pm, so you can give yourself time to fall asleep. Try to be asleep by 9. You’ll get a full 8 hours of sleep and probably won’t need an alarm to wake up the next morning. If you usually sleep less, you might wake up earlier. – And there, you’re up at 5am, ready to start the day. It’s really that simple. – Get out of bed immediately (none of the “5 more minutes” or hitting the snooze button). It helps to have a set routine that you can just go through as you fully wake up, so you don’t waste time just doing nothing. (as an example, for me, that’s brushing my teeth, making and drinking tea as I plan out my day, working out, showering, making a protein shake, then going to school)

A quick tip that helps with this: If you find yourself hesitating, wondering if you should procrastinate or do the really hard thing you need to do, just tell yourself this: “I’m going to count from 5, and when I get to 1, I’m going to DO this thing. 5 4 3 2 1 Go.” And then you do the thing. What this does is that it gives you 5 seconds to really thing about the decision you’re making, and by the end of it, you’re prepared to work. And get your life together.

You don’t belong with the homeless, you aren’t a pretender in the working class, and you don’t need an extreme conditioning to change your very being.

All it takes are some simple steps, a little bit of planning, and action to go through with that planning. This whole time, you’ve been looking for a shortcut. A magic pill, a fast past, a quick, effortless solution to get what you want. That’s not how it works. That’s not how life works. That’s not how people work. To get what you want, you have to work for it. You have to take action. And the small actions matter. What you choose to do with 10 minutes matters.

You’re the only one in your life that has the power to bring you up. Not a book. Not an article. You.

The more you make these hard decisions, the easier it’s going to get. And everything, every little action you take, takes you one step further or one step back. If you hold yourself accountable, you’ll become someone you want to be, someone you respect.

And remember: It’s always a choice before it’s a habit.

What if some of us are just lazy ? Not lazy in a sense of not giving 100 percent when we perform but slothful in a sense of lack of motivation. Myself for example a very hard worker whenever I work. I perform to my very best. However ‘ getting ready to get to work is my problem. I hate to be late yet I’m always late. Though I know I need to be at work at 7 and I know I need to start getting ready by 5 which I do most times, still there are times that I procrastinate. My greatest enemy “procrastination”. Why do I wait until the last minute to get everything done. Most times there are deadlines yet I will wait until the last minute. Then if I come across any troubles which will prevent me from meeting this deadline I will surely attempt to concoct the perfect excuse why I’m late. Lying, that is what I’m good at. You wouldn’t believe if I tell you I despise lying but I’m top class at it when I’m forced to. I am filled dreams and aspirations. Oh the things I wish to accomplish ‘ so far none of my goals have been met. I have been in this country for 20 years yet I have achieved nothing but debts and bad credit. A complete embarrassment to myself and my countrymen. There are others who have only been in this country for 5 yrs, Yet they have surpassed me in everything except my indolence. Why do I only dream and not act? Why I’m always late for everything.? Why I’m I not motivated? I have ambitions but I’m I ambitious? No. This habitual lateness since I was a child. It’s as though punctuality does not exist in my world. I cannot keep a job because I am always late or miss work too much. Often I ponder if I belong with the homeless and I’m just a pretender trying to fit in with the working class. Do I need to go through some sort of extreme condition for me to wake up and make something of myself? If death were to take me will I be reborn as a better person? These are the thoughts I often find myself with . Like days when I miss work or worried if I’m terminated. I’m I insane to think if I take my life I will revive a new? This is the thought that shadows my head everyday. Though I know this cannot be. My responsibilities are too great. I am here on the web searching for a book hoping to self treat myself. No I am looking for empathy but a solution

Kay – I once was in the very same situation as you- just know that there is plenty of good ahead. IF you take the appropriate action going forward. Ultimately, the best way to describe what you must do is take the same approach to your work, that hard working mentality, and use it towards working on yourself.

You see, the objective is not to fix yourself from being lazy and showing up to work on time etc… The objective is to find out WHY that is, understand that its okay for it to be that way- and now to work on what it has caused in your life. The objective is to look at the things surrounding your poor habits and to work on improving them, day after day.

Reading all of the books, articles, watching all of the videos, listening to all the podcasts- wont do you any good until you’ve done what each one of them has provided to you. Take action.

Its not as intimidating as it seems – the word ACTION might come off to you as this uncomfortable big bold thing that you’ll have to tackle head on. At least it did for me. Look at the small things you can do. Turn off the TV, shut off the phone early. Shower and read before bed. Re-set your eternal clock. Make sure you have a job/ career your happy doing.

There is a boundless amount of things you could change in your life and things i could tell you to do and type out for you to read. But the sad reality is its all up to you.

You have to read the knowledge necessary to fix your shitty habits, you have to do the things necessary for your subconscious mind to adjust to. you have to make sure your mind is right and your eating healthy, exercising everyday – maybe practice mindfulness meditation so your more aware of your actions and you can stop yourself from making the same mistakes.

Its not easy – its hard. That’s the truth. It will never be easy to change. That uncomfortable feeling inside of you… You must face it head on for your OWN growth.

Read Tony Robbins : Awake the Giant Within Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit James Clear: Atomic Habits Every self help book relative to you.

Realize you have to MAKE the reality. The reality doesn’t come to you. YOU are in control of your actions, your thoughts, your habits, your REALITY is controlled by YOU !

Hoped this helped- the solution is within you. No-one can give you anything that will magically change things. You have to make the action of change in order to change.

small thing = “Make sure you have a job/ career your happy doing” Maybe I just had a rough ride, but I feel like most people this takes about a decade of sustained effort.

Try getting checked for ADHD, you sound a lot like the rest of us that have it. I wasn’t diagnosed till I was 36.

Why on earth do you identify Mischel as the “Jewish-American …”? I did not see you make any reference to any other author’s religion or nationality. I would truly love to see you answer on this.

Hi IslandOwl, Excellent observation and question — I’m unsure and now intrigued myself! I will do my best to get hold of the author for an answer, but in the interim, I’ll remove the reference as it is definitely not our intention to cause any disrespect or ambiguity. – Nicole | Community Manager

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The 12 Best Self-Improvement Books

It is the tried and tested, timeless models from which we have most to learn..

Posted December 30, 2021 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• We have much to learn from ancient models of self-improvement that have survived the test of time.
• These texts contain timeless wisdom that remains relevant across the centuries and in different cultural contexts.
• Ancient wisdom traditions place more emphasis on virtues, humility, purpose, and altruism.

It is easy to dismiss self-help books and those who read them. But not only do we need serious self-help, we must also take self-help more seriously. Valued at $11 billion worldwide, self-help is a major global industry. It both reflects and generates many of our prevailing ideas about the self and about the cultures in which we live. The self-help industry not only seeks to shape the way in which we think, feel and behave, but also provides many of the core metaphors on which we rely to talk about our inner lives. Many of those metaphors, not least that of the mind as a computer that might require reprogramming, are at best unhelpful.

Critics of self-help believe that its current popularity is part of an all-pervasive neoliberal imperative to maximize efficiency. They see it as a sinister plot to direct all responsibility for our wellbeing back upon ourselves. Self-help, they feel, casts all our problems as personal, and our failures as owing to a lack of willpower and resilience , when they are in fact caused by the politics of capitalism. While this may be true of some self-help, the idea of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending back to ancient wisdom traditions. The wish to improve ourselves is bound up with our need for self-knowledge, for mastery and for transformation. It is a timeless desire and an essential part of what makes us human.

And some self-improvement literature really can help us to become better people. I mean better not in a competitive but in an ethical sense: the improved self is more able to direct attention outwards, towards projects, other people, and the communities of which we are a part.

1. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) believed that all suffering is in our minds. Suffering is caused not by external events but by our reactions to those events — by faulty judgments and unrealistic expectations. Given that most external events are beyond our control, Aurelius argues in his Meditations that it is pointless to worry about them. Our evaluations of these events, by contrast, are completely within our control. It follows that all our mental energies should be directed inwards, with a view to controlling our minds. The key to a happy life, then, lies in adjusting our expectations, because “Only a madman looks for figs in winter.”

2. David D. Burns, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy (1980). The science underpinning David Burns’s Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy may no longer be cutting -edge, but its core message remains a powerfully relevant one. A more down-to-earth version of Stoicism, it is based on the premises of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Feeling Good illustrates how our feelings are shaped by our thoughts, and contains some great techniques for training our minds to question negative thinking about ourselves and others.

3. Russ Harris, The Happiness Trap (2007). We are, of course, not purely rational creatures. Sometimes our attempts to control our thoughts can become counterproductive. In The Happiness Trap , the Australian psychologist Russ Harris explains the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). He invites us not to try to control our negative thoughts or uncomfortable feelings, but simply to de-fuse with them, to accept them, and then to let them go. That way we have more energy to commit to value-based action.

4. Lao-Tzu, Tao te Ching (ca. 4th century BCE). Spiritual self-cultivation through the art of letting go is the central theme of Lao-Tzu’s Tao te ching (The Classic of the Way and Virtue). In Daoism, letting go centers on the idea of offering no resistance to the natural order of things. It promotes a sophisticated form of submitting our will to cosmic forces, by accepting what is and loosening our attachments to our desires and expectations of specific outcomes. The Tao suggests that we can improve ourselves by returning to a simpler, more authentic and intuitive way of life. A key concept is wu wei – “non-action” or “effortless action.” Wu wei can perhaps best be described as a spiritual state marked by acceptance of what is and the absence of selfish desire. It is also a subtle but highly effective mode of soft power.

5. Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide Book to Spiritual Enlightenment (1998). We are not our thoughts, argues Eckhart Tolle in his bestselling The Power of Now . Most of our thoughts, Tolle writes, revolve around the past or the future. Our past furnishes us with an identity , while the future holds “the promise of salvation.” Both are illusions because the present moment is all we ever really have. We therefore need to learn to be present as “watchers” of our minds, witnessing our thought patterns rather than identifying with them. That way, we can relearn to live truly in the now.

6. Matthieu Ricard, Altruism: The Science and Psychology of Kindness (2013). In many theologies and wisdom traditions, altruism is the highest moral and spiritual value. More recently, psychologists have shown that altruistic acts not only benefit the recipient but also lead those who perform them to be happier. Moreover, practicing altruism, the French Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard argues, is the key not just to our personal happiness but also to solving our most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. Altruism enables us “to connect harmoniously the challenges of the economy in the short term, quality of life in the mean term, and our future environment in the long term.”

7. Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854). The American transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau famously withdrew to a cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, where he sought to live simply and “deliberately.” It was there that he developed the intriguing notion of “life cost” — the perfect antidote to unthinking materialism and the toxic Protestant work ethic to which so many of us are still enslaved. Most of us find it normal to trade our life time against goods, believing that productivity and success are secular signs of grace. Thoreau saw paid work as a necessary evil to which we should dedicate as little time as possible. His aim was not to work a single minute more than was necessary to cover his most basic living expenses, and to spend all his remaining time doing what he truly cherished.

8. Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust (1946). According to the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, our most important task in life is to furnish it with meaning. Indeed, we must find meaning even in our suffering. In his deeply moving book, Frankl observes that those who managed to do this when they were interned in Nazi concentration camps had a much higher chance of survival. If there is a powerful “why” that drives us, he writes, we can tolerate almost any “how.” While meaning making can take many forms, including loving, creating and contributing to the well-being of others, Frankl insists on one limitation: meaning has to be situated in the world rather than in our own psyches. Our life’s purpose cannot just be the desire to become our best possible self, for the self is a very poor site for meaning.

9. Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy (1308–21). This fourteenth-century poem chronicles the gradual overcoming of the middle-aged and burned-out Dante’s spiritual weariness. Guided by his mentor Virgil, he journeys from Hell to Paradise, where he is eventually reunited with his beloved Beatrice. The epic can be read as a cautionary Christian tale or as an extended revenge fantasy in which many of Dante’s personal enemies get their gruesome comeuppance. But we can also read it as an archetypal story of spiritual growth and self-overcoming. The doubting Dante is systematically re-educated by his many encounters in Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The inhabitants of Hell show him how not to live his life, and the costs of their bad choices. In the end, purged of his own weaknesses, Dante reaches a higher spiritual plane and glimpses the divine.

10. Anonymous, The Epic of Gilgamesh. Almost all forms of self-improvement resemble a quest narrative or a heroic journey. Such narratives entail the hero(ine) venturing into the unknown — a dark wood, an underground kingdom or the belly of a beast. There they encounter obstacles and often have to engage in battle with an enemy or a temptation. Having overcome these challenges, they return from their adventures transformed and ready to share with others what they have learned, the true function of the hero(ine) being to help others. The oldest surviving narrative of this kind recounts how the formerly selfish Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh returns from the wilderness into which he ventured, bearing the plant of eternal life. Rather than eating it himself, he shares his boon with his people.

11. Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936). Written during the Great Depression , How to Win Friends and Influence People is still in print for a reason, teeming with sensible and practical tips for making the best of human relations. Key to Carnegie’s method is the art of mentalizing — stepping into the shoes of others and trying to see the world from their point of view. Very few of us master this art, because it requires the ability to imagine what lies beyond our own cognitive maps. As Carnegie argues, however, this beyond is not exactly complex: Human beings are above all defined by their unquenchable thirst for attention, sympathy and respect. For others to like us, we simply have to find ways of giving them what they most need.

12. Angela Duckworth, Grit: Why Passion and Resilience are the Secrets to Success (2017). According to psychologist Angela Duckworth, grit tops talent every time. That is music to the ears of anyone inclined to identify with Aesop’s plodding tortoise rather than the effortlessly speedy hare. “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another,” Duckworth writes. Grit is a drive to improve both our skills and our performance by consistent effort. Gritty people are always eager to learn and are driven by an enduring passion. They learn from their mistakes, have direction, and live more coherent lives.

A slightly shorter version of this post appears in The Guardian .

I discuss these and many other texts in greater depth in The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths .

Anna Katharina Schaffner, Ph.D. is a burnout and executive coach and the author of Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary .

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