Self-improvement? What is that? Why should I do it?
Self-improvement, also known as personal development, is one of the best things that anyone can go through. It involves taking time away from the distractions of the modern world to focus on levelling up on one or more aspects of your life, whether that be physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, or socially.
Sometimes people focus on improving in all these areas at the same time! The beauty of self-improvement is the feeling of immense fulfilment you get when you look back at your old self and you get to be proud of the progress you have made.
It is often said that “If you improve yourself by 1% each day, you would have improved 365% by the end of the year”, which is extremely true. Just a little bit of learning and self-development every day can accumulate into you transforming your life for the better in the long term.
You become a version of yourself that you never would have imagined. People respect you more, you get more attention from the opposite gender, you can impress friends and family with what you’ve learnt, you can achieve financial freedom, and the list goes on.
Personal development isn’t just a one-time task, it’s a whole lifestyle. The healthy habits you develop during the process such as exercise, reading and meditation are to be maintained for the rest of your life. I would urge you to at least consider trying it out for yourself.
Self-improvement is such a broad topic. Where do I start?
Try not to get overwhelmed by the amount of choice you have for ways to improve. Understandably, it is difficult to find the specific path you want to take amongst all the noise. Hence why I have decided to make your life easier by giving you this guide of 10 self-improvement book recommendations to help you get started.
There are some obvious must-reads out there, but my aim is to also give you slightly more obscure book recommendations that discuss very important, specific, yet overlooked, topics. Here we go:
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck – Mark Manson
Reviews
One of the best books available. So far, I have read half of it and it’s amazing. Recommend everyone to try this book.
One of the best books available. So far, I have read half of it and it’s amazing. Recommend everyone to try this book.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck – Mark Manson: Many people have claimed that, when they read this book, they acquired life-changing insight. One of the most important insights that the author highlights is the importance of understanding that you will be a life-long problem solver, given that no matter what path you choose in life you are going to experience hardship. One must not make choices based on the advantages they want out of each option but based on the problems associated with each option.
Deep Work – Cal Newport
Deep Work – Cal Newport: Due to all the distractions in the modern world, given the access to the internet and social media that we all now have, most of us in this generation are doing very shallow work. This is not just in terms of the pointless tasks we choose to do, but also our lack of attentiveness when carrying out these tasks.
The book discusses how deep work will result in the best work that you ever produced in your life, which puts you at an advantage above the rest of the world who does shallow work. Shallow work consists of the nonsensical tasks that we choose to waste our time doing to occupy ourselves and delude ourselves into believing that we are being productive. The book explains this in incredible detail before telling you how to incorporate deep work into your daily life.
How To Win Friends and Influence People
How To Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie:This book is the Bible of social skills, giving you quite a unique perspective on how to navigate everyday social interactions in a way that allows you to get what you want out of people (not in a manipulative way) and make people warm up to you quickly.
Atomic Habits
Reviews
Great book which emphasizes on making small changes but consistently to have Big Improvements. Do read as it would help in day to day life.
An excellent book that goes beyond the subject of developing habits by explaining a lot about human behavior itself. Highly recommended to be read and re-read.
Atomic Habits – James Clear:This is a popular book that was hyped up by many all over the world. It was even number 1 New York Times bestseller. It discusses easy (and scientifically endorsed) methods on how to develop new healthy habits and destroy old bad ones using small incremental, daily routines which eventually accumulate to significant positive change over time.
Can’t Hurt Me
Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins:This is quite a standard, but very popular book for developing your discipline. The value of the book comes, not from specific discipline tactics, but from hearing the extremely inspiring story of the author (David Goggins) who went through a lot, overcame many obstacles, and consequently developed a mindset and mental models that he used to push himself harder even when it hurt, which he relays to you, the reader.
The Way of The Superior Man
Reviews
This book contains hidden mysteries of feminine and mescaline energies. How they are interconnected with each other? I recommend this book to everyone, it has helped me in understanding my life in very simple way.
Strong book really this is change every view of you, your attitude and the way you lived
The Way of The Superior Man – David Deida:This book is for the men out there, so I won’t spend to much time on this one. According to many, it’s actually a very interesting read because after each chapter you can’t help but sit there and contemplate regarding how the information you just absorbed can be applied to your life.
You will be educated on every aspect of masculinity and how to improve yours from breathing and speaking properly to semen retention, how to view and love women and much more. You’ll like this one, I promise.
The Oxygen Advantage
Reviews
Within the first few days, I have not had to use my asthma inhaler for two days. That’s a big deal for me. I will be using this book consistently. I am grateful for this book.
This book is amazing! I cannot believe how important this book can be to your life. Extremely educational and helpful.
The Oxygen Advantage – Patrick G. McKneown:This is a slightly different one. It is a book based on the correct way you are supposed to be breathing, which is very different from the way most of us breathe.
If you are a “mouth-breather”, or someone who does not sleep very well due to their breathing, this is a book that will definitely change your life as it completely challenges your outlook on something as simple as breathing which you’ve thought you were doing right your entire life.
Poor posture and poor diet in the modern day has resulted in a lot of people breathing through their mouth instead of through their nose. This book uses a lot of surprising empirical data to shock you into breathing the correct and healthy way.
The 10X Rule
The 10X Rule – Grant Cardone:This book talks about expanding your horizons. It discusses some very important laws that one must live by to become successful.
Firstly, you should try to set yourself targets that are 10 times greater than what you believe you can achieve.
Secondly, you should take actions that are 10 times greater than what you believe are needed to achieve the goals you set. Many people make the terrible mistake of not setting high enough goals for themselves.
The 4-Hour Work Week
Reviews
The book gives insight from existing stereo type working to new age of working. To break the cycle, it’s important to be read this book and implement the learning.
I thoroughly enjoyed most sections of the book. It teaches the reader how to D-E-A-L with life. Would recommend it to all employees/entrepreneurs.
The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss (A book about entrepreneurship)
The Power of Now
Reviews
Everyone should read it. To make sense of it, read more than once. I only understood to remain focused at the moment all the time in 1st read. Iam reading again.
The one who feels why I am in this situation, why it always happens to me…and so on should read this book .It will definitely helps you.
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle (A book about being present)
The best type of investment really is self-investment. Start your self-improvement journey by reading these books (reading has some of its own benefits too). Note that many of the principles you learn through reading these books, once internalized, will give you the foundational characteristics necessary