The 29 Best Self Help Books of All Time (2024)

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie is a classic self-help book that offers practical tips for better communication and relationships. It teaches key principles for handling people, making friends, influencing others, and becoming a respected leader. The book highlights the importance of empathy, respect, and appreciation.

Why should you read it? The book is filled with timeless wisdom on how to build meaningful relationships and influence people positively. It's not just about making friends but also about becoming a better communicator and leader. I found the real-life examples and practical tips incredibly useful in both my personal and professional life. You should definitely read it to enhance your social skills and become more effective in your interactions.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is about becoming more effective at reaching our goals and leading others. Stephen Covey says his teachings are based on timeless principles like personal responsibility, empathetic listening, and treating others with fairness.

Why should you read it? This book teaches 7 key principles that you can apply to almost any area of life, kind of like a Swiss Army knife for personal development. Stephen Covey shifts focus from the surface-level pursuits of busyness and status to the character ethic - which says true success is about who we are, not just what we achieve. After all, being busy isn't a personality trait, no matter how much we pretend it is on social media. 🤷‍♂️

Atomic Habits by James Clear is about how small 1% improvements in our daily habits can lead to remarkable results and change your life. This is a practical guide to building good habits and breaking bad habits. The Four Laws of Behaviour Change say to make good habits: obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.

Why should you read it? When I picked up "Atomic Habits," I didn't expect much. I've read tons of self-help books for my website over the last several years, and they often say the same things. But this book was different. James Clear basically summarizes ALL the best strategies on habit formation in a way that is incredibly... well, "Clear." Best of all, he focuses on making tiny improvements, not big leaps, showing how small daily changes can really add up. I was surprised how much I liked it. It's a book I plan to read again every few years. 📈

The Four Agreements shows how to love yourself more, not take things personally, and heal your relationships. Don Miguel Ruiz shares wisdom from the indigenous Mexican Toltec culture to help us stop living in this false "dream" of social rules, expectations and judgments.

The Body Keeps the Score is about fascinating new trauma treatments based on the latest research, like eye movement therapy and neurofeedback. Van der Kolk says many of us carry traces of trauma from childhood adversity or neglect. Emotional healing can happen through practices like mindfulness, yoga, play and more.

The Power of Now is about living in the present moment so you suffer less and have more inner peace. It's really about reconnecting to your physical senses rather than being lost in thinking. Eckhart Tolle says past and future are only mental simulations because your life always happens Now.

The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest is a guide to stop self-sabotage and build the life you want. It shows how to change emotional habits blocking growth, let go of the past, imagine your future self, and separate good intuition from bad intrusive thoughts.

12 Rules for Life is about putting your life in order and taking responsibility for what happens. Jordan Peterson begins each chapter with a simple Rule like "Stand up straight" then he launches into thought provoking lessons from science, religion, history and psychology.

Man's Search for Meaning was written after Viktor Frankl survived the concentration camps of WW2. He noticed that his fellow prisoners who could find purpose and meaning in their suffering found the strength to survive, while others perished. This book is also a guide to finding meaning in your life.

Deep Work is about focusing deeply so you can thrive in your professional career. Cal Newport says reducing distractions and increasing our ability to concentrate will allow us to learn new skills faster and produce higher quality work.

Why should you read it? In a world where the siren song of distractions is almost impossible to resist, Cal Newport's "Deep Work" emerges as the lighthouse guiding us back to productivity and meaningful work. Newport champions the invaluable skill of deep work: the ability to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks. He teaches us that in the age of superficiality, the depth of your focus determines the depth of your success. 🏆

Ikigai is about finding our life purpose and living longer, according to wisdom from Japan where people do live longer than average. The key ideas include: doing activities that make us feel 'flow', nurturing enjoyable relationships, keeping busy after retirement, and daily light eating and exercise.

Why should you read it? This book sends you on a heroic quest to uncover your life's secret mission—minus the tights and cape. Your ultimate purpose is *spoiler alert* probably not binge-watching the latest series, but finding that sweet spot where your passion, mission, and other people's needs intersect. Sounds intimidating? You don't need to cure cancer. It's just about finding a reason to jump out of bed in the morning, even if it's about feeling joy in the little things with a community you belong to. 🕺

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** is like your smart but impolite friend explaining some great lessons from philosophy. Mark Manson shows how to live by your values so you can act with less hesitation, do what's most important to you, and stop worrying what people think.

The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg is a deep dive into the science of how habits work. If you want to change your habits but don't know where to start, this book can help you. It provides a simple 3-step formula called "The Habit Loop" to break bad habits and build better ones.

Why should you read it? Charles Duhigg's book first popularized the habit loop - the idea that all our habits follow a cycle of "cue-routine-reward." More importantly, he gave practical ways we can "hack" the steps of this loop to take back control of our habits and our lives. Before Atomic Habits, this was THE go-to book on habits and it is still well worth reading. (For psychology nerds, the habit loop was actually based on the psychologist B.F. Skinner's work that described a 3-step process of stimulus, response, and reinforcement. Basically, his theory explains why your dog turns into a slobber machine the second you rustle their treat bag. 🐶

Can't Hurt Me is a guide to building mental toughness, and it's also the motivational life story of David Goggins. When he was young David survived abuse and racism, but later he transformed himself into a Navy SEAL, ultramarathon runner, and world record holder.

Thinking, Fast and Slow explains how people make decisions using two mental systems: "fast" thinking is instinctive and emotional, while "slow" thinking is deliberate and logical. Daniel Kahneman helps us understand our when our mind fall into common biases and irrational shortcuts, so we can make better decisions in the future.