27 Jul Personal Growth Books That Helped Me Grow and Succeed
Personal Growth Books – Where to Start?
My personal growth journey started when I decided to run my own business full time. I knew that if I wanted to do that, I need to change my mindset and to grow. I just didn’t know where to start. Grow what? What do I even want?
I asked a good friend and a team member to suggest some readings. She sent me the “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” by Tim Ferris. I was very skeptical, I don’t like to read anything that sounds pushy and has “success” or “rich” in the title. I could not imagine reading some boring books full of obvious advice. Besides that, I never in my life read anything else besides Stephen King!
What I didn’t know back then, was that it was the last time I ever read Stephen King.
Gaining confidence
With the first personal growth book, I managed to change my mindset and improve a lot of my processes. I finally started to have a vision of where I want to be in the future. But it wasn’t clear yet, how I am going to do that. So I started to read more.
Then with the book “The Power of Self-Confidence: Become Unstoppable, Irresistible, and Unafraid in Every Area of Your Life” by Brian Tracy, I was able to clearly see my missing skills and I knew which steps I had to take to achieve my first goals. I needed to gain the confidence to say “I am an expert”.
Success only lead me to more and more books.
Learning never ends
Today, I can finally say that I am happy and where I wanted to be. I found my happiness and success with my family, friends, work, and myself.
Currently, I’m reading 2-4 books per month and I haven’t touched Stephen King in a long while. There is always something I could improve and I am loving to watch my own transformation.
To look back, I wanted to share with you the 10 books that helped me step out of my comfort zone and keep moving. You don’t (and probably shouldn’t) need to read them all. Instead, pick just one or two books that seem to fit the situation where you are at now.
Personal Growth Books That Helped Me Grow and Succeed
#1 “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich”, Timothy Ferris
This book is where it all started for me. If I was to read it today, perhaps, I would roll my eyes from time to time. While it is possible for everyone to do the jump from 9-5, I believe that it is a little more complex than what is described there. But this book is a perfect gift if you want to change someone’s mindset about growth and working on your own business. When I was at the beginning of my growth journey, I needed something simple and convincing. I needed a book that would snap me out of my 9-5 mindset. And it worked. The book is all around the idea of “escaping the 9-5 life, living anywhere and joining the newly rich.” I found the most useful chapter about outsourcing and delegating tasks. It helped me to understand that if I want to be serious about my own business I need to stop doing it all by myself. I also enjoyed the exercises at the end of each chapter that helped me to think about what do I really want from my life? Is money really happiness?
You can get the book here.
#2 “The Power of Self-Confidence: Become Unstoppable, Irresistible, and Unafraid in Every Area of Your Life”, Brian Tracy
I read it once I had my first child and I felt completely lost on where I want to be. This book helped me to discover my strengths and gain confidence. It was very important in my transformation to step out of my comfort zone. My favorite quote from this book: “The tragedy of the comfort zone is that it, first of all, starts off by being comfortable, but it leads rapidly to complacency. Complacency eventually leads to boredom, to the question, “Is this all there is?” Instead of life being an exciting adventure, it becomes merely a boring repetition of what happened yesterday.” Moreover, the book has a few simple exercises that help you find your strengths and help you define an action plan to get where you dream to be. It is an easy read for someone to gain confidence and start setting up goals with action plan. You can get this book here.
#3 “7 Strategies For Wealth And Happiness”, Jim Rohn
This is an old classic, from 1996, yet many modern books are still based on this one. Jim Rohn talks about taking responsibility for your own life and how to find wealth and happiness. The 7 concepts are easy: Goals, Seek Knowledge, Learn How To Change, Control Your Finances, Master Time, Be Around Winners, and Learn the Art of Living Well. It helped me to reevaluate my goals and focus on what matters the most for me. Perfect for someone who already has a growth mindset, to try to apply their knowledge into building a happier and wealthier life. You can buy the book here or you can listen to the audiobook for free here.
#4 “The Compound Effect”, Darren Hardy
Darren Hardy talks about how the small decisions you make every day in your life can contribute to your success or disaster. This book helped me to move forward with my one year of illustrations project. The result was brilliant. I went from drawing stick figures to getting paying clients and drawing for brands like Pampers. A very easy read that helps you to find the motivation to do your best with what you have and keep moving even during the hardest times. This book is great for people stuck at home because of the pandemic, without motivation to do something new. It also works well for mums who have just very little precious time every day. My favorite quote: “The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not.” You can buy the book here.
#5 “Start with Why”, Simon Sinek
“Start with Why” falls between personal growth topic and branding. Once you have your mindset set for growth, you could pick this book to find your “why”, meaning the purpose behind your work. It helps you to find the inspiration behind what you do and to wake up on Monday morning with a smile. It helped me to define what work I want to do, for who, and where I can add the most value. Everyone has a “why”. You have it too and this book helps you to find it. You can buy the book here, but you could also get the whole idea just from this TED Talk below.
#6 “Becoming”, Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama shares her story of becoming First Lady of the United States of America – the first African American to serve in that role. Besides getting a sneak peek at the life in White House, I loved to read about her struggles of finding herself and balancing the demands of motherhood and work. It felt good to hear that even such a wonderful and accomplished woman was struggling. I highly recommend this personal growth book for busy moms who want to do something beyond motherhood. You can buy the book here.
#7 “The Courage To Be Disliked : How to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness”, Michelle Obama, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
This was my favorite personal growth book. The author challenges us to think about what happiness is and how to find it. It makes life simple and it helped me t understand how to leave in a moment. At the moment, I feel it was the last book I needed to fully understand happiness and leave by it. You can buy the book here.
#8 “Mindset” Carol Dweck
Just when I thought I won’t learn anything new about mindset, I found this book. It helped me to learn about the differences between growth and fixed mindset and how to stay on the growth side. Great book for entrepreneurs but also parents! You can find it here.
#9 “Dare to Lead” Brene Brown
If you want to become a brave and empathetic leader this book is for you. You can apply it in your own business as well as when rising to managerial roles. An essential read for being a good human. You can find the book here.
Personal Growth Books – What to Pick?
You can find many recommendations online on where to start your personal growth journey. I believe that all those books are good and you just need something that is suitable for your personality and where you are at the moment of your life. Whatever you pick, it’s a good choice. You just made your first step to becoming the best version of yourself. Congratulations!
If you are not sure which one to pick, feel free to get in touch and I can guide you.
One lesson I learned, while reading books about personal growth is that I need to stop reading them at some point. If I feel like I need more, it means that the previous one didn’t work or perhaps I didn’t implement it well enough. Now I am onto a new adventure, learning about leadership, and mastering branding strategy.
Whenever you make a purchase of the above books, I get a small commission from the affiliate program at no additional cost to you.
Would you recommend any other personal growth books? At which stage of growth are you now?
Check also:
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