Self Improvement

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.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my disclosure for more info.

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

Set short-term goals to change your life. They help you stay focused on what is important, keep you on track towards your bigger goals, and moves you closer to achieve your long-term goals. If you don’t know where to start setting your short-term goals, you are not alone.

The process of setting short-term goals is important but it can be complicated too. The good news is that if you are ready to set your goals, I’m ready to help you!

In this post, I’m sharing with you six simple steps to help you identify, plan, and set your short-term goals. If you don’t have time right now, pin this post for later and join the Free Goal Setting Challenge.

This post contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure for more info.

More than 40% of new year’s resolutions fail by the end of January. It’s a high percentage of failed resolutions in a short period of time.

But, why most resolutions fail?

Resolutions fail for a number of reasons. The most common reasons are because those resolutions are too complicated, don’t have a focus or purpose, doesn’t provide enough motivation, or doesn’t include a clear plan to follow.

When I used to make resolutions, I would create a pretty but long list of things that I wanted to achieve during that year. Print it. Tape it to my bedroom’s door. And review it again at the end of the year. 

Now, when I look back, I can easily see some of the mistakes I made during the process:

• Trying to accomplish too much within a year
• Not setting time aside to work on my list
• Had no focus at all
• Didn’t create an action plan
• Wasn’t tracking my progress

There are differences between resolutions and short-term goals

In order to better understand the process of setting your short-term goals, let’s talk about the similarities as well as the three main differences between resolutions and goals. 

But first, let me go quickly over their definition. The word resolution refers to solid, firm plans that are hard to adjust or change, while a goal focuses on desired results that are more flexible, personal and positive.

There’s one thing that resolutions and short-term goals have in common. When you make resolutions or set goals, you are actually trying to change and improve something that is currently making you unhappy or not fully satisfied.

Three main differences between resolutions and goals:

• Timing
• Details
• Planning 

Let’s start with timing. As you know, resolutions are associated with the New Year. For that reason, your motivation often lasts until the season is over. That’s why, by the end of January, more than 40% of the resolutions have already been forgotten.

Short term goals are different. They are not associated with any season or special holiday. Because of that, your desire to change motivates you to set a short-term goal at any time of the year.

The second major difference is details (or lack of them). Resolutions are vague in nature which creates confusion and difficulty to understand what direction to take. However, short-term goals are specific and provide detailed information on what needs to happen next. It eliminates the guessing part by providing clarity and guidance to the process. Instead of saying “Losing weight”, say something more specific such as “Lose 12 pounds within the next three months”.

Planning is the third major difference. Since resolutions lack details, there’s not much information available to plan. Going back to our previous example of “Losing weight”, it doesn’t specify the number of pounds to lose and doesn’t have a deadline. That makes it difficult to track your progress and you won’t know how close (or far) you really are from your desired result.

As you can see, setting short-term goals have far more benefits to your life than making resolutions. A goal gives you purpose, clarity, and reminds you what you want to achieve. Then, you just need to specify the actions to take.

Six Simple steps to set short-term goals

One important factor when setting short-term goals is to keep the process simple. That will help you stay focused, energized, and motivated.

Let’s discuss the simple steps to set short-term goals. In order to make the process easy to remember, I’m going to use the acronym simple:

Now, let’s go over each step…

Step 1:  Set the right mindset

You definitely need to set the right mindset to achieve your short-term goals. Keep in mind that there are two types of mindsets: fixed mindset and growth mindset.  

People with a growth mindset believe that any person has the opportunity to do anything because the abilities can be developed. They are always looking for something to learn and most importantly, they don’t let failures stop them. Instead, they learn from those mistakes and keep moving forward.

On the other side, those with a fixed mindset believe that they don’t have control of their future. Pretty much, they are who they are and there’s nothing they can do to change it. They even believe that failure defines them.

The good news is that there are ways to develop a growth mindset. To get you started, after step 3, I’ll tell you how you can get a list of 10 Tips to Develop a Growth Mindset.

So, let’s move on…

Before moving to the next step, check out this fixed and growth mindset video about the power of yet from the researcher Dr. Carol Dweck’s.

Step 2: Identify your short-term goals and personal development needs

This second step is pretty much the cornerstone of setting short-term goals.

In order to identify your development needs, you first need to picture your desired life. Notice that I said *your* desired life. Because after all, for this process to be successful, you need to focus on yourself and on the changes that you want to achieve. 

A quick way to identify your short-term goals is to ask yourself the following question:

What changes do I need to make in my life to be happy, or happier?

You can answer that question through a brainstorming session. Don’t worry. It actually sounds more serious than what it takes.

Set aside 15 to 30 minutes to think of all those possible short-term goals you would like to achieve. Since this is just a session and not your final plan, write every single idea that comes to your mind.

While trying to come up with ideas for development, think of all the areas in your life. A great way to start is by focusing on the seven areas of life identified by Zig Ziglar’s Wheel of Life. Those areas of life are family, spiritual, financial, career, social, physical, and intellectual.

With that in mind, start thinking about your desired changes or needs and make a list. Warning: Don’t skip a change just because it seems too big. Challenge yourself! (Come on, I know you can do it 🙂 )

Step 3: Make it a priority by prioritizing your short-term goals

Now, evaluate your list of short-term goals because it’s time to prioritize them.

Which changes would you like to work on first? The answer to that question will give you a better idea of what you should be working on first. But, keep your list short even if you are an overachiever.

Choose your top 5 goals. More than that will probably be too overwhelming and difficult to manage. Assign a number to each of your top goals based on its importance, urgency, and estimated impact in your life. Put them in order from 1 to 5.

Your top three goals are your final short-term goals. The goals that you will work on. Refer to them for the rest of these goal setting process.

Having only three final goals lets you direct all your energy, time, and attention to your most desired changes. Just by doing that, you are increasing the probability of achieving your goals. Don’t forget to keep those goals clear and specific. 

Step 4: Prepare an action plan based on your short-term goals

The fourth step is all about commitment. It sounds pretty easy but it has a domino effect. If you don’t commit to your short-term goals, you start missing deadlines, getting off track, and not achieving your goals. After failing several times, I can assure you that just taping the list of goals to the door is not a commitment.

Set a deadline to complete each of your top three short-term goals. Make sure your deadline is realistic, achievable, and challenging at the same time. Keep in mind that not all changes or needs are the same.

Some changes may need simple steps while others may require more time and dedication. For example, a goal related to “quit smoking”, may require extra time, effort, and involvement from a doctor, or even joining a specialized program.

To avoid future frustrations, take all those aspects into consideration while setting a deadline. When you look at your short-term goals from different angles, you are able to make a detailed list of action steps required to achieve those goals.

Going over the action steps for your top three goals will help you visualize the whole picture, plan better by not overlooking important steps, establish a time frame for each action step, and set a more realistic deadline to commit to.

Focus on one main goal at a time

When you start working on setting deadlines, make sure to set aside enough time to focus on one goal. For example, work on your:

• goal #1 during the 1st quarter
• then, goal #2 during the 2nd quarter
• and last, goal #3 during the 3rd quarter

Another scenario may be to work on:

• the first goal during the 1st quarter
• your second goal during the 2nd and 3rd quarter {a complex goal that requires more time}
• the third goal during the 4th quarter

Work on one short-term goal at a time so you can give it your full attention. Don’t move on to the next goal until you complete the goal that you are working on.

Focusing on one goal at a time increases your chances to achieve it. That being said, whenever you feel the need to multi-task, step back and continue with your original plan.

Related resource: The book The One Thing shows how important it is to stop multi-tasking and the benefits of focusing on one thing at a time.

Step 5: Let your actions speak loudly

Do you know what’s the secret to achieving your short-term goals? Taking action.

To see any positive change in your life or to achieve any goal, you have to take action. And the faster you start taking action, the better.

The first step in taking action is to get organized. No matter how good you are at remembering things, don’t rely on your memory skills. Add the dates of your action plan to your calendar. Go even further by setting alerts and notifications, too.

Follow a tracking system to help you remember your top goals, the action steps you need to take, and when to complete them. There are different options to use such as planners, desktop calendars, wall calendars, computer software, and even apps.

The key here is to use a system that you like and works for you. That will make it easier for you to use on a regular basis. For example, in addition to my paper planner, I like to use Google calendar where I set alerts, reminders, and organize my responsibilities by color.

Be prepared for the unexpected.

Getting prepared and organized ahead of time will always help you. You can have the perfect plan and the best motivation but unexpected things will still occur and might even get you off track. I agree that’s life. But when you have a plan, it helps you get back on track faster because you know exactly what to do next. Stay focused on your short-term goals and continue working to achieve them.

In the process, be flexible enough to make adjustments to your action plan (step 4) whenever those unexpected situations occur. After adjusting your plan, regain focus and keep moving forward.

Step 6: Evaluate your progress

Evaluating your progress is as crucial as taking action. That’s the only way to know how close you are to achieving your short-term goals.

Decide how often you should evaluate your progress. Take into consideration your personality, type of goal, and action steps. For example, if my main goal is to lose 12 pounds by the end of the first quarter, I can think of few options to evaluate my progress such as to check my weight:

   a) at the end of each month to make sure I lost 4 pounds

   b) every two Saturdays to make sure I lost 2 pounds

   c) every Saturday to make sure I lost 1 pound

In my case, I prefer the option “c”. Because if for some reason, I do not lose any weight that week, it will be easier for me to make adjustments to my plan for the following week.

Evaluating your progress on a regular basis will keep you on track to complete your short-term goals.

Bonus step: Reward yourself for achieving your short-term goals

Rewarding yourself is as important as the previous steps. Unfortunately, this step is frequently overlooked or forgotten for different reasons. Some people perceive it as a selfish act while others feel it’s a waste of time.

After all your effort, time, and energy invested to achieve your goals, it is perfectly fine to celebrate your accomplishments. It helps you feel more positive about your life and about yourself, increasing your motivation to achieve more dreams.

How should you celebrate?

Well, that’s a question that only you can answer. What motivates me would not necessarily motivate you. There are no right or wrong answers here. But, your reward has to be good enough to motivate you towards achieving your short-term goal.

Some ideas to reward yourself would be going to the movie theater, buying your favorite dessert, getting a massage, or something as simple as staying at home watching Netflix.

It’s also important to mention that you don’t always have to leave the reward for last. Let me explain it. After setting your quarterly goals, you don’t have to wait until the end of the three months to get your reward. Getting smaller rewards after successfully completing your weekly action steps, may motivate you more than waiting until the end of the month or even the quarter.

It’s your turn to set your short-term goals

That’s it! You have learned the benefits of setting detailed goals than vague resolutions. Now you have six simple steps to set your short-term goals. 

Easy and doable steps that helped you set the right mindset, identify what changes to focus on, prioritize short-term goals, establish realistic deadlines, prepare an action plan with their required steps, take action, track your progress…and why not, celebrate your achievements too!

Take a deep breath and let’s work on your goals. You already have all you need to succeed. Remember that you can also join the free goal setting challenge if you prefer.

Now, it’s your turn. What short-term goals do you have in mind? And, which one do you want to achieve first?