Whether you call it personal growth or personal development, self help or self improvement; the goal is the same. We want to grow and develop into the kind of person we know we can be. There are many books out there promising to help you be more, do more, be less, do less. How do you know which ones you should invest in? Which personal growth books are worth your money and your time? Which personal development books will help you with what you are struggling with most right now?
Well, I have compiled another amazing list of some of what I think are must read books for personal growth and development and I am confident you will find a few on this list that you’ll love and that will change you. If you haven’t read my previous post on the 10 Must Read Books For Personal Growth, you may want to check that out as well, and then dive in here.
This post contains affiliate links.
I know I have had many people ask me how I have the time to read as a busy mom, and I explained it a little while back. That is still the case. I love reading and will always be a reader. I also use my Audible membership almost daily, which really helps me get my personal development in each day. I can listen to a book while I am folding laundry, doing dishes, or even driving in the car. I highly recommend trying it out – right now, you’ll even get two free audiobooks when you sign up for a free trial!
PREFER TO LISTEN TO PODCASTS? HERE IS A GREAT LIST.
MUST READ BOOKS FOR PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:
THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
Powerful Lessons in Personal Change – who couldn’t use that? Quoted as “one of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written,” The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has transformed the lives of many leaders, parents, and educators over the past 25 years. It doesn’t matter your age or occupation; this is one book that will stretch and grow you in powerful ways.
GIRL, WASH YOUR FACE
You may be living in a cave if you haven’t heard of this book. Girl, Wash Your Face shows you how to live with passion and hustle–and how to give yourself grace without giving up. Rachel is entertaining and uplifting, but also has ‘an in your face’ mentality to make sure you will be convinced to do what it takes to become who you were meant to be.
DARE TO LEAD
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG
Brown writes, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.”
If you’ve read any of Brene’s books before, you know you’ll love this one too. She shows that we can dare to lead and not pretend to have all the answers. We stay curious and we ask the questions that are needed. We don’t avoid difficult situations; we lean into our vulnerability when necessary to do good work.
ATOMIC HABITS
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day.
Clear draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.
Learn how to:
* make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
* overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
* design your environment to make success easier;
* get back on track when you fall off course;
…and much more.
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
MAKE TIME
So many of us thrive on being busy…it’s almost a badge of honor. But what if the exhaustion of constant busyness wasn’t mandatory? What if you could step off the hamster wheel and start taking control of your time and attention? That’s what this book is about.
Make Time isn’t about productivity, or checking off more to-dos. Nor does it propose unrealistic solutions like throwing out your smartphone or swearing off social media. Making time isn’t about overhauling your lifestyle; it’s about making small shifts in your environment to free yourself from constant busyness and distraction.
A must-read for anyone who has ever thought, If only there were more hours in the day…, Make Time will help you stop passively reacting to the demands of the modern world and start intentionally making time for the things that matter.
THE FIRST 90 DAYS
Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for getting up to speed faster and smarter —no matter where you are in your career.
By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You’ll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation.
LEADERS EAT LAST
Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort–even their own survival–for the good of those in their care. Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled.
In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?
Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a “Circle of Safety” that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside.
BETTER THAN BEFORE
If habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know is: How do we change our habits?
Better than Before answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits—and to change them for good.
Answers to some of the common questions:
• Why do I find it tough to create a habit for something I love to do?
• Sometimes I can change a habit overnight, and sometimes I can’t change a habit, no matter how hard I try. Why?
• How quickly can I change a habit?
• What can I do to make sure I stick to a new habit?
• How can I help someone else change a habit?
• Why can I keep habits that benefit others, but can’t make habits that are just for me?
Whether readers want to get more sleep, stop checking their devices, maintain a healthy weight, or finish an important project, habits make change possible.
HIGH PERFORMANCE HABITS
THESE SIX HABITS WILL MAKE YOU EXTRAORDINARY. After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s highest-paid performance coach, Brendon Burchard finally reveals the most effective habits for reaching long-term success. Based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on high performers, it turns out that just six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed. To become a high performer, you must seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence, and demonstrate courage. This book is about the art and science of how to practice these proven habits. HIGH PERFORMANCE HABITS is a science-backed, heart-centered plan to living a better quality of life.
START WITH WHY
INTERESTED IN WORKING FROM HOME?
Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?
Successful people realize that people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it.
START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
THE POWER OF HABIT
In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains why habits exist and how they can be changed. Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.
THE 4 HOUR WORKWEEK
Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.
This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
• How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
AWAKEN THE GIANT WITHIN
Wake up and take control of your life! From the bestselling author of Inner Strength, Unlimited Power, and MONEY Master the Game, Anthony Robbins, the nation’s leader in the science of peak performance, shows you his most effective strategies and techniques for mastering your emotions, your body, your relationships, your finances, and your life. He provides a step-by-step program teaching the fundamental lessons of self-mastery that will enable you to discover your true purpose, take control of your life, and harness the forces that shape your destiny.
THE ONE THING
The ONE Thing has made more than 400 appearances on national bestseller lists and was voted one of Top 100 Business Books of All Time on Goodreads. People are using this simple, powerful concept to focus on what matters most in their personal and work lives. Companies are helping their employees be more productive with study groups, training, and coaching. Sales teams are boosting sales. Churches are conducting classes and recommending for their members. By focusing their energy on one thing at a time people are living more rewarding lives by building their careers, strengthening their finances, losing weight and getting in shape, deepening their faith, and nurturing stronger marriages and personal relationships.
THE 12 WEEK YEAR
Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your “year” to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn’t enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff gets done and the impact on results is profound.
THE 10X RULE
While most people operate with only three degrees of action-no action, retreat, or normal action-if you’re after big goals, you don’t want to settle for the ordinary. To reach the next level, you must understand the coveted 4th degree of action. This 4th degree,also know as the 10 X Rule, is that level of action that guarantees companies and individuals realize their goals and dreams.
It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions and how to move into making the 10X Rule a discipline. Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve Massive Action results.
INFLUENCE
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings.
You’ll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.
THE GREATEST SALESMAN IN THE WORLD
What you are today is not important . . . for in this runaway bestseller you will learn how to change your life by applying the secrets you are about to discover in the ancient scrolls.
“I will persist until I succeed.
I was not delivered into this world into defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep.
The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.
I will persist until I succeed.”
—From the ancient scroll marked III in The Greatest Salesman in the World
WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?
Most people are fearful of change, both personal and professional, because they don’t have any control over how or when it happens to them. Since change happens either to the individual or by the individual, Dr. Spencer Johnson uses a deceptively simple story to show that when it comes to living in a rapidly changing world, what matters most is your attitude.
Exploring a simple way to take the fear and anxiety out of managing the future, Who Moved My Cheese? can help you discover how to anticipate, acknowledge, and accept change in order to have a positive impact on your job, your relationships, and every aspect of your life.
THE ART OF ASKING
Amanda has lead the world’s most successful music Kickstarter, after learning the art of asking.
So many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, Amanda explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of THE ART OF ASKING.
Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. THE ART OF ASKING will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.
NO MORE DREADED MONDAYS
No More Mondays will show you that meaningful work really is within your grasp. And once you’ve opened the door and seen all the exciting career opportunities that await you—whether you decide to revolutionize your current job or launch a new career altogether—you’ll find you can’t go back to the old way of working.”
No More Mondays’s practical, inspirational advice speaks to people looking for guidance on how to launch a new career or business, those who want to stay in their current jobs and give the old 9-to-5 model a twenty-first-century makeover, and managers desperate to understand the way people want to work today. For all of them, Dan Miller’s message is loud and clear: If you’re one of those people who dread going to work on Mondays, do something about it!
THE POWER OF LESS
With the countless distractions that come from every corner of a modern life, it’s amazing that were ever able to accomplish anything. The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better.
The Power of Less will show you how to:
- Break any goal down into manageable tasks
- Focus on only a few tasks at a time
- Create new and productive habits
- Hone your focus
- Increase your efficiency
By setting limits for yourself and making the most of the resources you already have, youll finally be able work less, work smarter, and focus on living the life that you deserve.
DRIVE
Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. In this provocative and persuasive new book, Pink asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.
Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.
THE NEW ONE MINUTE MANAGER
With more than two million hardcover copies in print, The One Minute Manager ranks as one of the most successful management books ever published. Now, you can listen and learn the strategies of one-minute management to save time and increase your productivity whether it be in your business, your home or even managing your children. You will learn to use three easy-to-master management techniques that have already changed the lives of millions; One minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Redirects, the NEW third secret. This book will help you find meaning in your work and make your life better.
HOW TO BE BETTER AT ALMOST EVERYTHING
Think about those people who somehow manage to be amazing at everything they do—the multimillionaire CEO with the bodybuilder physique or the rock star with legions of adoring fans. How do they manage to be so great at life? By acquiring and applying multiple skills to make themselves more valuable to others, they’ve become generalists, able to “stack” their varied skills for a unique competitive edge.
In How to Be Better at Almost Everything, Pat Flynn shares the secrets to learning (almost) every skill, from marketing and music to relationships and martial arts, teaching how to combine interests to achieve greatness in any field.
Discover how to:
- Learn any skill with only an hour of practice a day through repetition and resistance
- Package all your passions into a single tool kit for success with skill stacking
- Turn those passions into paychecks by transforming yourself into a person of interest
To really get ahead in today’s fast-paced, constantly evolving world, you need a diverse portfolio of hidden talents you can pull from your back pocket at a moment’s notice. The good news? You don’t need to be a genius or a prodigy to get there—you just have to be willing to learn. How to Be Better at Almost Everything will teach you how to make your personal and professional goals a reality, starting today.
Remember, there is no ceiling to your potential, except the one you set for yourself! Focus on growing and challenging yourself and you will be amazed at what is possible. If you are still looking for that work from home opportunity, I would love you to consider applying to my next apprenticeship program.
23 Comments
ShootingStarsMag
January 7, 2019 at 9:56 amThanks for sharing these. I loved Better Than Before; I still need to read The Four Tendencies. And I own The Art of Asking and hope to read that soon.
-Lauren
susie liberatore
January 7, 2019 at 10:44 amI really enjoy this.. I added a few to my reading list, thanks!
Mackenzi
January 7, 2019 at 2:08 pmI deff want to read girl wash your face i’ve heard sooooo much about it! But I have to give credit to The Success Principles by Jack Canfield because that was the one book that truly changed my life. I haven’t read many books like this though
Anne-onedeterminedlife
January 7, 2019 at 2:44 pmThis is a great list. My husband has read a few of these, but I have yet to add any development books to my read list. It is one of my 2019 goals to read more books that will help me grow.
Brooke Bolen
January 7, 2019 at 7:33 pmI have read a few of these books and they are definitely great books for growth and development! I will have to try reading some of the others. Thanks for the great suggestions!
Nicole Kauffman
January 7, 2019 at 9:09 pmI have not read ANY of these but almost ALL of them are on my list for this year! We just got the 7 Habits for Christmas and can’t wait to start it!!
Alexandra
January 7, 2019 at 10:10 pmThank you for these recommendations! This year, I am determined to grow and improve myself as a human being. I will definitely be reading some of these!
Crystal // Dreams, etc.
January 8, 2019 at 12:25 amStart With Why is a great book! I need to start digging into Brene Brown’s books.
TERRYN
January 9, 2019 at 9:06 amYes, I love Brene’s books!
Candy
January 9, 2019 at 7:37 amI have not read any of these books. Time to start and see what I can learn
Courtney Kramer
January 9, 2019 at 8:38 amSo many great book suggestions. In high school, we had to read the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. I still think back on things I read about in that book and try to apply them.
TERRYN
January 9, 2019 at 9:06 amI think that is so fabulous they had you read that in high school! My son has the Habits of Highly Effective Teens and it’s great.
Lisa
January 9, 2019 at 8:44 amThere are so many great books listed here, each with definite potential to help readers live the life they dream of! Thanks for compiling this list, I found a couple new titles I’m excited to read.
Karen
January 9, 2019 at 1:26 pmGreat list! Amanda Palmer’s TED talk about the Art of Asking literally changed my life. I never knew she had a book! Must go get it from the library.
Michelle
January 9, 2019 at 8:09 pmI have heard of several of these books, but must admit that I’ve read none of them. Perhaps I need to start!
Blue DeBell
January 10, 2019 at 8:49 amSuch a great list! So many I have never heard of before!
Rebecca
January 10, 2019 at 9:28 amI’m always on the lookout for the next great book. I LOVED Girl Wash Your Face…can’t wait until the next one comes out. Have you read Big Magic? Excellent Read too!
Bailey
January 10, 2019 at 10:32 amI’m so intrigued! I haven’t read any of these yet but am definitely adding a few to my “to-read” list.
Kayla
January 10, 2019 at 5:20 pmI desperately want to read girl wash your face. I’m going to make it a priority to get my hands on a copy one way or another.
Rachel Lee
February 7, 2019 at 12:34 pmI gotta say, most of these I’ve not even heard about. And I’ve only read one of them- The Greatest Salesman. But the Power of Less looks like my kind of book! Oh, and I really want to read Rachel Hollis’ book too, even though there’s been some controversy revolving around that one. 😉 Thanks for these recommendations! I’m always on the lookout for good reads!
robyn@thiswesternhome
February 14, 2019 at 9:10 pmThis is a great list – I pinned it for later. And I love your site – it is so beautiful. I just started my blog and now I appreciate all the hard work that goes into it!
Bhumika Gyanani
April 19, 2019 at 5:58 amGreat list! I have added some of them to my reading list.
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