Life-Altering Reads You Can’t Miss
22 Must-Read Self-Help and Personal Development Books to Read in 2023.
Books are the best containers for information and they’ve changed my mindset for the better. I compiled all my favorite self-help 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 the self-help 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 books 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.
Here are my top 22 self-help Books that changed my mindset for the better.
Psycho-Cybernetics
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
I can recommend number six psycho cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. I read this book in 2012 when I was doing a fitness competition and this is a great book that really teaches the power of visualization in the subconscious mind and how so much of our reality can be manifested based on what we visualize here our self-image is what he calls it and the story that I remember the most is he shares how we all have the self-image.
I think Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon or at least he references one where he was doing rhinoplasty on a patient so getting a nose job and what he noticed through plastic surgery even though that person’s physical looks would change the self-image of their self wouldn’t change and that we all have a fixed self-image of how we perceive ourselves and not until you change your self-image that your life and everything else changes as a result of that so this book goes heavily into visualization and you know the human mind it can’t tell the difference when you visualize something that is vividly happening in your mind versus something that’s actually happening in reality.
and so the power of your subconscious mind when you visualize in my case a fitness competition I’d visualize myself and change my self-image to see myself having the body that I wanted to have been fit being healthy or being successful or being a confident speaker visualize and see that again and again and as a result of that the reality and the changes on the outside world would manifest as a result of my self-image changing so fantastic book psycho cybernetics is a classic highly recommend it.
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age by Dale Carnegie
the next one is How to win friends and influence people man that’s a classic book must-read for everybody learning how to make friends basic communication and social skills are really what this book’s about and how to influence people.
and I guess persuade them not in a manipulative way but in a way that influences people to go for more choices in their life and to create a better quality of life so it’s a great book for building rapport relationships with people connecting with people developing friendships and communication skills.
and if you’re into sales and marketing that’s also great because they’ll teach you some elements there that can help you in the marketing of your business or your products.
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives by Dan Millman
okay, the next one is The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. This is a great book but there’s a great movie that goes along with it I watched the movie first and then I read the book the movie is fantastic the peaceful warrior highly recommend it it’s a true story of Dan Millman and it’s kind of a bit of a spiritual book but dan Millman was a popular good-looking guy in school he’s a gymnast you know.
an athlete competing to go into the Olympics high achiever you know good family life has girls in his life I mean he’s got everything that you would think you would want as someone who’s young in university everything you can want but he’s not happy with himself and he’s not happy in his life and he meets this man that he calls Socrates which is a wise man and he starts embarking a lot of wisdom for him in his life and helps him to realize that he’s been chasing, for example, the destination and not appreciating the journey.
you know a simple principle like that is really well articulated in the book and in the movie and that he’s got so much mind chatter he’s living up in his head worrying what people think of him so much that Socrates helps him learn how to be present in his life and to live in the now and that the now is the only thing that exists and that he’s so attached to things and he lives in his ego and Socrates helps him dissolve the ego.
and to not live his life just for significance all of these valuable changes he’s changing him from the inside and as a result, the outside changes for him as well I don’t want to spoil the book or the movie but he goes through a huge tragedy which often happens in our lives that you think you know you’re on this path and everything’s going your way and you’re making.
you know progress momentum and the unthinkable happens when adversity shows up and it’s got a lot of valuable wisdom there on how to overcome that adversity and challenges that show up in your life so I highly recommend the book and the movie there are some follow-up books too and I also really enjoy the writing of Dan Millman.
The Alchemist
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho
Okay, number nine is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It amazing classic book you know this was originally written in Portuguese but it’s such a great story it’s a story you know I read this book when I was young and I can definitely relate to this book.
if you’re lost in your life if you don’t know what your purpose is you’re trying to pursue your dreams because it’s the story of a boy Santiago who follows his heart and tries to discover his path in life and his purpose in life and it’s just so much wisdom in that and I think we can all relate to that because we’re all trying to find our path and trying to find our calling and you know trying to follow our hearts desires.
so it’s a really really well-written story a fictional story and it’s a book that’s you know different type of self-help book that’s not just like the factual information and the steps and the knowledge but its wisdom embedded in a story that takes you on the journey that helps you really reinforce it and really you know enjoy the process of reading the book so that’s a fantastic book that I can recommend.
The War of Art
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
the last one I’ve got is The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield not to be confused with ‘The Art of War by Sun Tzu a very different book but ‘The War of Art’ is a book that helps you overcome procrastination fear laziness whatever prevents you from taking action in your life.
he calls it resistance and identifying that resistance and how to deal with that resistance is what allows you to get past it and so every single day every morning when you wake up resistance is right there you know right there and it’s trying to prevent you from doing the things that you know you should do for yourself and for that day to get better in your life and to achieve what you want.
so this is such a great book that helps you get past that resistance and be free from it in many ways but to take more action especially if procrastination was a big issue for you when I dealt with a lot of procrastination in my life this book was a book that really helped me a lot so highly recommend that book as well.
50 Self-Help Classics
50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life from Timeless Sages to Contemporary Gurus by Tom Butler-Bowdon
it’s a book the author’s name is Tom, Bowden. the book is 50 self-help classics and basically what this guy did is he’s a great writer and great researcher but he compiled a book of 50 of the best self-help books of all time and in each chapter, he goes into each book and maybe writes a few pages on it it’s more of a summary of it but what I really enjoyed about reading this book is one it gave me a lot of great ideas for what books that I’d be interested in reading
and so just by reading the summary of the top 50 books on self-development, you get a lot of pieces from each one as you read the summary of it but you get to pick which ones you might be motivated to actually pick up and read and go deeper through but also a lot of them I had already read and it’s been many years since I read some of these self-help books.
so just by going through this again and reading the summary, it brought back a lot of memories that had kind of faded of some really incredible books and the messages of that fantastic book.
50 Philosophy Classics
50 Philosophy Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon
I actually found him through another book that he has called 50 psychology classics and at that time I was really diving deeper into psychology and wanting to know what the best psychology books are and really learn as much as I could about the different schools of psychology and the history of it.
and so this book he kind of broke down the top 50 psychology books and then that led me to read some of the other ones he’s got one 50 self-help classics, 50 psychology classics that I’ve read 50 success classics the top books on success and 50 spirituality classics the topmost spiritual books of all time and it’s a really fantastic book.
so that’d be a great one if you want more ideas for books and want kind of a summary of the top 50 books in the self-help world that I could recommend.
