5 self improvement books that I’d love to introduce to you…
I am often asked for recommendations of best self improvement books to read. Rather than refer to the following 5 books as “the best” self improvement books, I prefer to say that these are excellent books for you to read.
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” -Charlie Tremendous Jones
Whether you consider a book to be “the best” or not, depends largely on where you are along your life journey and self growth path.
This short list has a few of my favorites and would be the selection I’d include in a bundled gift for friends. They’re great books with which to start if you’re at the beginning of exploring your personal development.
As well as a quick description of each of the following five books, I will add some of my favorite lines from each.
These books are not listed in any particular order, so the placement of any book near top or bottom is random.
1. Mastering the Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success by Andy Andrews
In reading this book you will spend time thinking about your values and goals. In detail, Andy discusses 7 decisions that can change how you view and deal with the world, which in turn changes how the world responds to you.
Those decisions include the Responsible Decision, the Guided Decision, the Active Decision, the Certain Decision, the Joyful Decision, the Compassionate Decision and the Persistent Decision.
Quotes from this book:
The past will never change, but you can change the future by changing your actions today. It is really a very simple process. We, as humans, are always in the process of change. Therefore, we might as well guide the direction in which we will change.
Decisions are an outward expression of our thinking. If you want to create a pathway to the success you’ve dreamed of rather than the reality you’re currently experiencing, change your thinking.
When the tiger is charging you, two choices arise: stand motionless in fear to be mauled, or attack the tiger and see what happens. In standing motionless your fate is certain.
2. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
This book is very logical and delivers simple solid information. It is simple to read and has applicable content that can be used immediately.
The basis of Darren’s book is that little decisions definitely do add up over time. It also lays out various action plans that you can utilize to improve your work and personal life.
Quotes from this book:
The problem is that the payoff or instant gratification derived from bad habits often far outweighs what’s going on in your rational mind concerning long-term consequences.
We need an extra level of vigilance to prevent our brain from absorbing irrelevant, counterproductive or downright destructive input.
I know the mind continues to process the last information consumed before bedtime, so I want to focus my attention on something constructive and helpful in making progress with my goals and ambitions.
3. Infinite Self: 33 Steps to Reclaiming Your Inner Power by Stuart Wilde
This book is entertaining as well as thought provoking. If you are willing to embrace some discipline in a geniune attempt to completely change your whole existence, then this book is for you.
It’s a spiritual “how to guide” in a subtle way. It doesn’t tell you, it gives you ideas and thoughts to ponder that can hit you immediately or prickle you to make sense years later.
Quotes from this book:
The harder you try, the harder you struggle. It’s wiser to let things come naturally. The power you have is like a magnetic force. You can pull to you whatever you want. In pushing, you tend to move things away from you!
If you want to flow down the eternal river of perception toward your infinite self, you’ve got to let go of the branch you’re hanging on to and let the river take you. That means facing your insecurities and fears and really looking at yourself.
It’s important to become self-disciplined, inventing ways to challenge or control one’s personality. It puts you in the driver’s seat, assisting you to detach from negative emotion.
4. The Right Questions by Debbie Ford
Debbie presents revolutionary questions that, when answered with complete honesty, change the way we see ourselves and make decisions and ultimately moving us toward the life we desire.
Each day we make large and small choices. When we consciously assess the consequences of each, we may make different decisions.
Quotes from this book:
If you make a list of some of your past choices in an area of your life where you haven’t gotten the results you desired, you’ll undoubtedly discover that you have been asleep at the wheel.
A hundred small choices in the wrong direction can add up to a lifetime where our dreams are always one step in front of us.
Take the time to become aware of what you are consciously and unconsciously committed to, and then make sure the decisions that you make, your choices, are really choices that will lead you to your desired destination.
5. Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life by Maxwell Maltz
Maxwell discusses in depth his discovery that the self-image we have of ourselves is more important than the physical reality.
This is an easy and enlightening read and includes many exercises to complete at the end of each chapter and useful follow-up resources are added at the end of the book.
Quotes from this book:
Your present self-image was built upon your own imagination pictures of yourself in the past which grew out of interpretations and evaluations which you placed upon experience.
The answer to aggression is not to eradicate it, but to understand it, and provide proper and appropriate channels for its expression.
Your creative mechanism can respond appropriately and successfully to present environment only if you have your full attention upon present environment and give it information concerning what is happening now.
BIO: Listen to Thea Westra’s FREE 50-minute audio titled 100 Forward Steps Life Power Tips. You also get a FREE PDF ebook of “179 Forward Steps” life power tips, to accompany the MP3. In fact, you get 50 free self improvement ebooks!
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