Despite the tremendous benefit that we get from reading self-improvement books, they are still not part of our top resolutions for the New Year.
At the beginning of each year, we have a big desire to improve our lives. That’s why the top resolutions are typically losing weight, exercising, saving money, and traveling more. It’s okay to plan for that. I even want to achieve them too, but let’s not forget to add a few books to our list too.
And, to make it easier for you, here is a list of great books to help you have a better year and life.
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19 Self-improvement books to read this year
1. Girl, Wash Your Face
This book first caught my attention after seeing so many pictures of women reading this book. Now, I understand why. How many times do we believe things about ourselves and our lives that are simply not true? The problem is that we keep repeating those lies to ourselves for months or even years until those lies end up affecting our decisions and ways of life. This book focuses on lies that the author believed and the ways that she suggests you can use to overcome them.
2. Make Your Bed
This book is based on a very inspiring speech given to a graduating class at the University of Texas at Austin. In this case, the author shares ten important principles that he learned during the Navy Seal training. Now, the question is, do you make your bed in the mornings? I personally like to make my bed in the mornings because it already puts me in a positive mindset. I feel that it’s something simple but powerful. This book shows you how doing little things helps you change your life, or who knows, maybe the world too, as he said.
3. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done
How many projects do you still have pending? Completing tasks, projects, and goals is satisfying but we still fail to do so. Many times, we want to believe that certain people have special super powers allowing them to be successful. The truth is that if we truly want to change our lives for the better, we must take action. And the sooner, the better. Fortunately, this book has different strategies to help you get things done.
4. The Slight Edge
This book shares simple practices that you can use to improve your way of thinking and eventually, your life too. And that’s the interesting part because many times, we skip those simple changes thinking that they are too simple to work. If you are ready to follow these steps, then this book can help you create the results that you want in life.
5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Having things organized, definitely helps you have a better life. Because of that, here is another popular book that I discovered throughout other people’s feedback. The book is based on the KonMari Method which teaches you how to declutter and organize your home in a new and different way, using categories.
6. Atomic Habits
Because I am a firm believer of habits, I love creating, implementing, and tracking new habits that can help me achieve things in life. But, I also know how hard it is to break bad habits. In this book, the author goes over the strategies that you too can use to overcome challenges and achieve your goals.
RELATED TOOL: A pretty way to track your habits
7. The Happiness Advantage
Sometimes, we say, if I can buy that home or get that job, I would be happy. This book tells us that happiness doesn’t work like that. It’s actually the opposite way. You probably have noticed that when you are happy, everything else is better and easier. The book explains that it happens because happiness causes the rest of the positive things in your life including success. The author shows you how to retrain your brain to be more positive and how to work on small tasks to achieve your big goals. This book can be applied to your professional and personal life.
8. What to say when you talk to yourself
We are constantly talking to ourselves consciously and unconsciously even if we don’t realize it. Unfortunately, those words that come from our mouth or mind are usually infected by negative thoughts. I feel that most of us would benefit from learning how to talk to ourselves the right way. This book helps you replace the negative self-talk with a better and positive one, so you can start transforming your life.
9. Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy
The author of this book is an Engineer and former Google executive who pretty much had what many people would wish for: high salary, great job, expensive cars, etc. Despite all that, he was still unhappy. That’s the reason why he was determined to fully understand the process of achieving happiness. After extensive research and many hours of work, he created what is known as the happiness equation something that he decided to share after the sudden passing of his son.
10. The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
This is another book that can be applied to your business or personal life. I liked how the author was very direct explaining why we fail and how to get out of it. It’s like the tough love that we all need from time to time. The book motivates you to push yourself to get results and shows you how to apply the 10X Rule to achieve massive results.
11. Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness
As I said at the beginning, every year, we have a list of resolutions that we want to accomplish. Even though we have the best intentions in achieving those resolutions, by February, we have already dropped most of them. Many times, we don’t accomplish what we want just because we haven’t been consistent in the process. This book teaches you how to create one daily routine where you can manage multiple ones. And, the best part is that the routine would only take you about 15 to 30 minutes. It’s a very small amount of time to invest compared to the benefit of completing your goals and living a happier life.
12. The gifts of imperfection
As a mom of two girls, I feel that we need more of these types of books. I always like to remind my daughters the importance of loving themselves for who they are, and not based on TV stars, social media, or popular kids at their school. This book is here to motivate and inspire you. It’s time to love yourself, accept any imperfection, and be happy with who you are.
13. The success principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be
It’s a book that helps you have more confidence in yourself, embrace any challenge, and follow your purpose. In this way, you can be prepared to go as far as you want to go. This book was first released years ago, and due to its success, the author has published a 10th-anniversary edition with updated information including a whole new section focused on the digital age.
14. The compound effect
This book shows you a plan of action based on six strategies that are explained step-by-step, so you can multiply your success. In order to improve your life, you need to learn, understand, and implement what the book teaches. Once you are done with that, you need to be consistent with your actions.
15. Grit: The power of passion and perseverance
The author of this book started a research project because she believed that success was based on a combination of passion and perseverance, rather than an IQ score. There are always things that we want to do in life but for some reason, we don’t feel that we have what it takes to accomplish them. This book shows you how long-term perseverance can take you a lot farther and how it can change your life for good.
16. 10% Happier: How I tamed the voice in my head
An anchor from Nightline TV show kept having a voice in his head assuring him that he wasn’t good enough. After having a panic attack on national television, he realized that he needed to improve his self-talk. And, even though he was skeptical at first, he turned into meditation for help. In this book, he shares his story and journey to help you improve your life too.
17. Declutter your mind
We spend a great amount of time in our lives searching for the secret formula to success without realizing that our main problem may be ourselves. Often times, we are the ones getting in our way to reach that success because of negative thoughts, distractions, worries, etc. This book helps you understand and manage the internal and external factors that are causing the clutter in your mind.
18. The complete book of home organization
If you are more interested in how to improve your organization skills, this book can help. With more than 200 tips and projects, this book covers how to declutter, store, and organize every space in your house. And if you are like me, you will love to know that this book also includes checklists, step-by-step instructions, and even a 15-week home organization challenge.
19. Your money or your life
Since saving more money is a very common goal, I wanted to include this book to help you improve your financial skills. This book has been around for more than twenty years and due to its popularity, it has been fully revised and updated. Follow its nine-step program to improve and transform your relationship with money.
What should you do next?
Now, that you have the list of self-improvement books, it’s time to take action:
√ Action Step #1 – Get the self-improvement books
Determine which self-improvement books from the above list you will be reading first. Then, get the books and be ready to improve your life. With this list, you can easily read one book per month and still have a few more available.
√ Action Step #2 – Schedule some reading time on your calendar
It may sound like a simple tip, but it will help you to stay consistent. If you don’t make time for it on your calendar now, eventually you will either forget to do it or use that time for something else.
√ Action Step #3 – Take notes and follow up
We usually ask ourselves, why our situation didn’t change after reading the books. And, sometimes, we even blame the book for it. The truth is that many times, we don’t follow the strategies that we learn. It’s easy to read the books and leave it aside “for later”. To improve that, take notes and keep using them as a reference until you master the new process.
Let’s do it better this time!
Take notes and implement any strategy, tip, or suggestion that can help you improve your life and achieve your goals. And, even if you are skeptical, give it a try. After all, the results may surprise you. It’s up to you when you implement the strategies. You can wait until the end of the book or you can do it right away. But either way, make sure to do it and follow up with it.
You can transform your life
Don’t forget to be patient. We normally want our problems to be solved immediately and when that doesn’t happen, we don’t hesitate to give up. Changes take time, so give it a chance.
Be patient, work on it consistently and wait a reasonable amount of time for it to work.
Ok, that’s it!
You got all you need to get started: a list of great self-improvement books with action steps. Get ready to read, take action, and be happier!
In the meantime, which book will you read first? Is there any other book that you would recommend that didn’t make the list? Let me know in the comments!
Additional resources for a successful year:
- Set a short-term goal with success!
- A simple tool to increase happiness
- Are you ready for the challenge? Plan for what you really want in life
- Why (and how) you should choose a guiding word for the year
- 25 Ways to be happier in your life
a Wonderful collection of recommendations. Make your bed is really good and I highly recommend looking up his full speech on youtube. I also enjoyed the success principles.
I agree; William McRaven’s speech is very inspirational.
I’ve read severAl of these and Finish is my fave!
I read Girl wash your face and loved it.
I coMpletely agree! Takung action takes planning when reading self-Help books!
Love the list. I was able to read #4 and #7 already and I am very much interested to read the 10X Rule book. Will try to look for a copy. Thank you for sharing this wonderful list.
I really enjoyed reading the 10X Rule. Hope you like it too!