Although some people find them a little cliché, there is nothing wrong with a good self-help book. After all, books are full of knowledge and, when it comes to self help, what better knowledge than that which can benefit you?
The right book can make everything better, imparting the right words of wisdom and generally changing or improving your life. With this in mind, here are five books that will definitely help you turn your life around for the better. Most of these share common motifs or themes, such as being outgoing,selling your stuff to make money and avoiding over materialistic behaviour or simply thinking things through before you do them.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff–and it’s all small stuff by Richard Carlson
If the title alone doesn’t convince you, the structure of this book certainly gets the point across. There are 100 chapters, all of which are only a few pages long. As such, this book is perfect for light reading, flicking through relevant chapters. Breaking everything down into such small chapters reinforces the book’s title. After all, it’s only small stuff.
Making Habits, Breaking Habits: How to make changes that stick by Jeremy Dean
Whilst learning various life lessons and creating goals is important, arguably filling a large portion of self-help books, motivation is still needed. Without it, you’ll fall short of ever actually achieving or sticking to your goals. Jeremy Dean offers plenty of advice in this aspect, making sure any resolutions and achieved. More than just making goals and priorities, this book will help you make the vital steps to motivate yourself and stick with the course of action.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
In this book, author Don Miguel Ruiz goes into analysing life through what he chooses to define as agreements. It may sound strange, but the choice of wording here does certainly ring true. Nothing is accepted as fact unless you have, on some personal level, agreed to it.
Ruiz takes this concept and applies it to how people view themselves and other aspects of life. This includes tips on how to be careful of new agreements and how to work around/break loose of ones currently holding you back.
This is How by Augusten Burroughs
If there was ever a self-help book for those who aren’t sold or convinced of self-help success, this is it. To use its full title, Help for the self: proven aid in overcoming shyness, grief, molestation, disease, fatness, lushery, spinsterhood, decrepitude and more, for young and old alike, is for the candid reader who has various troubles, but not the worst lot in life. The text is surprisingly straight forward, not sugar coating any issues or dancing around the subject. A perfect read for when something needs to be said bluntly, not softly.
How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Sometimes a best-selling book is a best-seller for a reason. Dale Carnegie’s classic book has already helped many and continues to sell. The various chapters in this book break everything down into numbered lists, tackling any issue one at a time to resolve any problem. Although good for light reading, each chapter as a whole is a progressive journey; great for tackling larger issues, such as self-confidence and various aspects of social life.