Self Help Books You Must Read
A Review of 5 Self Help Books
Self help books are totally different in comparison to the regular murder mystery fiction books I enjoy reading. I can take weeks or even months to complete a self help book. However, there is a lot of deep content in these books. When reading these books it’s important to truly absorb the information so that it becomes a valuable asset to your life. The purpose of self help books is to make positive changes in your mindset, character, business, relationships, or life in general. After reading a chapter, try to implement the suggestions the author made and participate in the activities/assignments.
Today I’m reviewing 5 self help books. I will be attaching links to the books so that you too can immerse yourself into some enlightening content. If you’d like to follow the authors on social media to see what these people are all about first, then I’ll be linking that information too!
The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes
I first heard of Lewis when my sister told me about his podcasts. She found them really inspiring, motivating, and eye opening. I caved in and decided check out his interviews of successful people from all aspects of life. He interviews people who are successful experts in a specific area. They all seem to have a few main traits in common: success, building a brand/business for themselves, and achieving ultimate happiness and greatness through their ventures in life. After listening to a few interviews, I was hooked. I then decided to purchase Lewis’ book because I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed, and I was definitely correct.
Lewis refers to a lot of successful people and their amazing stories from nothing to something. A lot of the lessons in the book can be applied to just about everyone’s life. He talks about business, mindset, pursuing your visions, developing hustle, practicing positive habits, living a life of service, mastering your body, and turning hardships into success. The School of Greatness is an easy read, very relatable, and written by someone who once lived on his sister’s couch and now hosts interviews with some of the most inspiring, successful people. I enjoy the fact that Lewis is close to me in age, so I feel like I can connect to his thoughts and advice in his book. I highly recommend that you not only read Lewis’ book, but follow him on social media and listen to his podcasts for more motivating content.
Twitter: @LewisHowes
Instagram: @LewisHowes
YouTube: Lewis Howes
Of the 5 books I am reviewing, Do Over is by far my favorite. This one single book made such a significant impact in my life over the past few months. I would get on the bike on the gym and read this and it was as if I needed to hear those specific words in that moment. I have tons of little sticky tabs flagging pages that I love in the book. The ideas that Jon Acuff shares are very eye-opening and beneficial especially for anyone struggling with where they are in their career life. The book is primarily considered a career book; however, a lot of the lessons can be applied in relationships and the general way we live our lives.
I love when books have pictures or infographics because I’m a very visual person. Jon uses a lot of these throughout the book, so it helps to understand the ideas he brings up in each chapter. There is one chart he refers to frequently in the book called “The Do Over Chart”. It basically shows the 4 areas of career transitions people face: career ceiling, career jump, career bump, and career opportunity. He then goes on to discuss what will help each of those career transitions whether it be skills, character improvement, relationships, or hustle.
I think a lot of us just settle when it comes to income, jobs, careers, and sadly even everyday life. It doesn’t have to be this way. Because of the lessons I learned from this book, I decided to take the risk of applying to get my MBA and start to pursue a different path. Sure, it was scary, but Jon wrote a lot about fear. It hinders us to the point that we are more comfortable with settling versus pursuing what might really fulfill us.
I could honestly talk about this book for days, but seriously you should just buy it and read it. So instead of write a dissertation on how amazing this book is and why you should read it, here’s one of my favorite excerpts:
I discovered Preston Smiles via a Lewis Howes interview. It was one of my top favorite interviews on Lewis’ podcast. Just the vibe you feel from Preston as he speaks is so radiating. He’s the person you would always want to hang around because he has such an apparent and uplifting personality. While I was killing time in Michigan before checking into my hotel (went to see my friend’s get married), I went to Barnes & Noble. I had a few gift cards and decided I’d browse the self help section. I decided I’d support Preston and check out the 33 ways to amplifying life in his Love Louder book. Just like The School of Greatness, this book is an easy read. The chapters are quick, but deep. I love that Preston includes pages of quotes and challenges within each chapter (#lovelouderchallenge). He really gets you thinking and analyzing your life. You can see why he is such a happy, kind, and inspiring person because he lives a very “glass is half full” type of life.
Twitter: @PrestonSmiles
Instagram: @prestonsmiles
YouTube: Preston Smiles
Ever since I was in high school I admired 50 Cent (yes, the rapper). It wasn’t so much that I thought he was some amazing rapper with wonderful content. He does have quite a bit of good quality songs, but a lot of them of course are still the commercial garbage that rappers put out. Anyway, that’s not the focus here. The real reason I like 50 Cent is because he came from an extremely challenging childhood to success and a brilliant business mindset. This book was technically my first self help book I bought one Summer while I was in college.
Because of the fact that 50 had to struggle, he has so many lessons to share. This book is primarily written by Robert Greene with bits by 50 Cent and focus on a lot of events that occurred in his life. The book talks about taking control, gaining power, overcoming fear, and having the right mindset to achieve success. This book has longer chapters and is more of a read than some of the other self help books, so it’s one that I definitely recommend reading slowly in oder to process all the information.
Twitter: @RobertGreene and @50Cent
Instagram: @RobertGreeneOfficial and @50cent
This very well known book was written in 1936. It’s insane that even til this day it is read by many people. Even though 75 years have passed since Carnegie wrote this book, the lessons can still be applied and are timeless. I recently just started this book and read it on my cardio days at the gym. Unlike the other books it is a very challenging read for me. Due to the fact that Carnegie refers to a lot of historical events and figures, it makes the book a little harder to relate to even though the content is great.
For me, there are too many references to those events and figures so sometimes I have to really force myself to dig into the lesson or moral at hand. I do like the ideas he shares about creating and nourishing relationships (especially business ones) so that both parties win. To me it’s almost like studying sociology or business psychology. That type of stuff, the why to what people do, feel, and say, is fascinating to me. So even though it might take a bit more effort to understand and truly appreciate the book, the knowledge is very valuable.
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