10 Self-Help Books that Actually Changed My Life
10 Must-Read Self-Help and Personal Development Books to Read in 2022.
Today we are talking about 10 Self-Help Books that Actually Changed My Life.
Books are the best containers for information and they've changed my mindset for the better. I compiled all my favorite self-development books into one article and separated them into 4 categories: Productivity, Socializing, Confidence, and Awakening.
Transforming my mind one book at a time. that helped transform my mindset, each one of these books has improved the quality of my life and I hope that they change your life too.
Probably have tons of self-help books in your home. While many of the books are well written and have great advice, one skill that many self-help books lack is originality.
A lot of the most successful self-help books of all time have one thing in common: they were written by people who really knew what they were talking about. They made a point to be original and they stuck to their own advice and beliefs.
Table of Contents
10 Self-Help Books that Actually Changed My Life
Most life-changing self-help books are a lot like a textbook. They tell you what you should do, but don’t really go into detail about why you should do it, or how to do it.
A self-help book is a type of book that is intended to be a source of practical advice and guidance. They are written for people who have a need or want to improve their lives.
However, self-help books can be very beneficial and helpful if applied correctly.
Hey everyone welcome back to the blog. today I will be going over every single book that transformed my mindset for the better so let's get cracking. so the first category I want to tackle is productivity.
Here are my top ten self-development books that changed my mindset for the better.
1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Here I have the seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen covey. This is a book that I have been shoving down people's throats since 2017. this has changed my life in such a positive way my boss's bible is seven habits of highly effective people.
I believe this book goes beyond efficiency and productivity, it genuinely inspired me to be a better and more expanded version of myself. so I love this quote that he highlighted by Aristotle we are what we repeatedly do excellence then is not an act but a habit, yes I think for so long.
I thought that excellence was only reserved for the elite or insanely gifted but this reminds me that excellence is available to anyone that is willing to put in the work every single day you become what you repeat and off the jump, the seven habits are here:
- Be Proactive
- Begin with the end in mind
- Put first things first
- Think win-win
- Seek first to understand then to be understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the saw
I'm not gonna expand on them because that could be a whole separate article and also it just hits differently when you're reading it and you're applying your own examples. it is such a transformative book and I could not recommend it enough so please go check it out.
2. Atomic Habits
Moving on to book number two we have atomic habits by James clear. I think that this book is a really great follow-up to seven habits. I feel like they stack really well on top of each other James clear.
Describes a habit as a routine or behavior that happens so regularly that it occurs automatically like the quality of your life depends on the quality of your habits. so let's say you start by doing something extremely small for yourself every single day.
Maybe it's like going on a walk for 15/20 minutes a day, during that day it doesn't seem like a big deal. like it's probably improving your life maybe one percent but what happens when you keep doing that every single day, for a month, a year, two years. this my friends are the compound effect time that magnifies your results and if you do something so small every single day even though it's just a drop in the bucket.
If you zoom out you'll see, we just filled up a gallon baby and I feel like with self-improvement and productivity. these are things that require delayed gratification. They don't happen overnight success doesn't happen overnight, it requires patience and time and putting in the work every single day.
So he breaks down how to create a good habit in four ways, which make it obvious, make it easy, make it attractive, and make it satisfying again this will make a lot more sense once you read it so just read it.
3. How to win Friends & Influence People
So now let's tackle socializing, I would say that I am a people person but it took me years and years to get to this social person that I am today.
I'm naturally quite introverted all the social skills that I've learned have been taught and learned and I would say that the biggest book that gave me a jump start to refining my social skills was this one it's called how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie.
I know it's not the sexiest name but let me tell you this is the best book that will teach you how to communicate with others, and how to have fulfilling relationships with other people.
this book is now more important than ever it's sad to say that socializing is a dying art even though we are the most connected digitally. I would say emotionally we're just not very connected with each other and it's so sad to see because we are naturally like social beings you know.
unfortunately, this culture is all about me-me-me, show-show-show, and not about curiosity and genuine interest. I urge you to check out this book. if you want to hone in on your social skills I feel like reading this book gave me the confidence to be able to talk to whoever I want to.
4. Rising Strong
Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
So this category is confidence and self-love, so this book is called 'rising strong' by Bréne Brown. I would say that her research on vulnerability and shame has really given me the courage to be proud of my work and to be proud to be me and to be okay with being uncomfortable without being vulnerable you are not growing you gotta be outside your comfort zone in order to expand and I would say that this book really gave me the confidence to open up, especially with this blog.
opening up and zooming in at the ugly parts of your life that you're not proud of is absolutely terrifying people mostly just kind of fast forward to the part where like they rose above it and they conquered but I think it's important to highlight both.
If you are trying to share your experience this book also gave me the confidence to shrug off haters and trolls a lot easier, I think in the past when I would get a negative comment it would really sink down and I would see it as truth but Bréne Brown always shares this quote by Theodore Roosevelt.
I'll leave it here because it's quite long it talks about how criticizing is really cheap, it's really easy. if you are not in the arena if you are not creating and trying and trying to do the same thing then quite frankly your opinion doesn't really matter. it's really giving me the confidence to shrug things off a lot easier and uh it's giving me a thicker skin.
5. What I Know For Sure
My next book is by someone who needs no introduction Oprah yes the queen herself. I absolutely loved her book I know for sure this is an accumulation of all her life lessons in one book.
It's like a hug in your soul like it's incredibly inspiring because she's lived such a rich life with just soaring highs and devastating lows she has gained so much wisdom and reading this book always makes me feel so good inside if there is one person on earth that I would like to meet it is her just putting it out there.
6. The Mastery of Love
The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship: A Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz
My next book is the mastery of love by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book taught me how to recognize the old emotional wounds that I've been carrying in the past and how to address them he condenses the foundation of love into one concept which is to love yourself.
I feel like this is a concept that's thrown in our faces all the time like self-love take a bath do a mask but it's not a quick band-aid-like that at all, yes those do help sometimes but it's not gonna be the antidote for you to love yourself.
Reading this book helped me open my eyes to how much I was focusing on these materialistic and superficial flaws that were weighing me down when in reality I am worthy just as I am right now and if you can accept yourself as you are right now then you can truly have a fulfilling relationship with anyone.
7. Breaking Free from Emotional Eating
If you have ever struggled with your relationship with food and body image, I highly recommend this book which is called breaking free from emotional eating by Janine Roth.
I would say that I have always had a really healthy appetite, I love to eat, it's one of my passions but last year my relationship with food became a little bit distorted, I was developing a tendency to binge eat, I was seeking all my comfort in food and I would just cram food in me until I couldn't breathe multiple nights a week it was like I didn't know how to stop.
I was eating each meal like it was my last one and after I would feel absolutely horrendous about myself so much self-loathing, so much disappointment and shame and so the next day I would try and rectify that by exercising furiously or restricting it was just becoming a vicious cycle that I absolutely hated.
This book gave me so many tips on how to eat more mindfully and to be present when I'm eating and it just helped me regain that healthy relationship with food again.
8. The Untethered Soul
So now we are tapping into a deeper category awakening. Here I have the untethered soul by Michael singer, this is the first book that taught me what consciousness was and how we should process the millions of thoughts we have running in our heads.
Now I have been a chronic overthinker for as long as I could remember and for so long I believed that these thoughts were my truths now. I believe that everybody is born with different brain chemistry and I would say that I was born with a naturally more blue disposition my brain just likes to lean more into the negative side of things the more pessimistic, the more realistic end and as a result, my thoughts were more negative and judgmental.
It really painted the way I looked at the world it shaped the way I react to things the way I look at situations and overall it was disintegrating the quality of my life and I didn't even realize it after reading this book.
so this book has given me the tools to calm myself down when I am overthinking or if I'm in a fit of you know negative self-talk.
9. A New Earth
So now moving on to of course 'a new earth' by Eckhart Tolle. I feel like your heart has to be in the right place for it to really hit. He particularly really dives deeper into the ego, now the ego is the voice that tells you that you are the accumulation of your successes.
The size of your body matters if a certain picture gets x amount of likes, it will make you worthy it's that voice that always tells you that once you have this you will be complete.
We all have an ego and it's incredibly dysfunctional. Michael singer calls the ego the roommate and no matter what you want to call it, the more you attach yourself to this ego and the more you believe that the ego is telling you truths the further and further away you fall from consciousness.
Reading this book gave me a deep sense of calm because it reminded me that my purpose here is it's just to be it's to be here now. it's not to be anxious about the future, it's not to dwell on the past, it's literally to be present and to focus on what I'm doing at any given moment and right now.
10. How to Change Your Mind
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
Moving on to my next book, I have how to change your mind by Michael pollan. now this book is all about psychedelics baby we've got psilocybin we've got LSD he talks about the origin of how societies in history have used it and he even goes on to explain and describe each one of his trips from mushrooms to ayahuasca
it is extremely thorough I loved it he mentions that in order to have an optimal trip you got to make sure that you have your set and your setting on lock, so the first is your mindset like what is your intention from this trip like what do you want to get out of it and then you've got the setting like where are you doing it, what's the environment like who are you doing with are you doing it at home are you doing it at like a festival like these things really matter psychedelics
put your brain in a state of wonder and awe like you're looking at the world for the very first time and if dosed properly and done correctly. it has the potential to transform your life he goes on to explain that psychedelics have improved people who suffer from addiction, anxiety, and depression.
in the late 1950s and the early 1960s scientists actually regarded these two chemical compounds as miracle drugs because they were helping people who suffered from mental rigidity so as we get older the way we think becomes more and more ingrained.
I feel like I have always struggled with self-loathing for decades. I've told myself that I'm not good enough that I don't deserve things and this becomes a pattern of thought, it's just a mental groove that my brain just goes through but when someone is on psychedelics it has the potential to completely disrupt these negative patterns of thought.
he calls it the snow globe effect like if your mind was a snow globe it's like you shaking up these negative patterns of thought and you seeing it as a clean slate it's like all the snow has fallen it gives the mind the space for more flexibility and openness I guess this is where it leads to my experience.
