17 Life-Changing Books that Everyone Should Read
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.”
― Steve Maraboli
Reading is important for me because it develops the mind. I find it’s healing and inspiring to read at least part of one book a day to make better choices and take positive actions more often.
Here are the 17 books that will inspire you, motivate you, and show you how to take action and go change your life!
1. Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity
About this book -
“Productivity is the name we give our attempts to figure out the best uses of our energy, intellect, and time as we try to seize the most meaningful rewards with the least wasted effort.”
Motivation is more like a skill — it can be learned and honed.
Making good choices relies on forecasting the future.
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
About this book-
Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking
3. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B Peterson
One of the main themes of this book is: Personal change is possible. There’s no doubt you can be slightly better today than you were yesterday. Because of Pareto’s Principle (small changes can have disproportionately large results), this movement towards the good increases massively, and this upward trajectory can take your life out of hell more rapidly than you could believe. Life is tragic and full of suffering. But there’s something you can start putting right, and we can’t imagine what good things are in store for us if we just fix the things that are within our power to do so.
4. The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance-What Women Should Know by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
This book is a perfect combination of real life women who are in positions of prestige (politicians, army generals, financiers, etc) and how they’ve struggled with confidence issues and what they’ve overcome with the science of how DNA affects them.
5. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
The main premise of this book is the idea that slow and steady wins the race. It is very helpful the way Darren reminds us that even ridiculously small changes can, if applied CONSISTENTLY, produce huge effects over time. He also reminds us of the power in taking responsibility for our own actions, and that if we want to “manage” something, we must first “measure” it.
6. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
There is so much in this book that absolutely anyone and everyone would benefit from.
7. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck : A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
This book is exactly like the wake up call which everybody needs
8. You are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
Reading this book is similar to that a really good friend who doesn’t hold back, but isn’t rude in offering their straight up opinion
9. Start with Why by Simon Sinek
This book has inspired many thoughts as I read it, but it has helped me to truly put into perspective the age-old advice to follow your passion.
10. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T.Harv Eker
The ideas in this book are simple, there is no complicated formula for getting rich, if you are looking for that you need to move on. Its going to take smart, planned, and dedicated work.
11. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
This book will challenge many of the conventional wisdom you’ve believed in for probably all your life.
12. Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini
This really is a must read book. In the same vein, the last thing on his list is a one sentence course on persuasion — the sentence being, “People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.”
13. The 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires by Brain Tracy
This book is about self made millionaires who give you the top secrets of success which are very easy to be implemented into your life. Great, short and to the point.
14. No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy
This book will kick your brain into gear and give you tools to achieve things from losing weight to changing your financial future.
15. Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
The whole idea is, If we can eat the “task” or “goal” we have always wanted to achieve right in the morning, then the rest of the day will be smooth.
16. Never Chase Men Again by Bruce Bryans
I love how the author gives simple but powerful guidelines on how we need to respect ourselves no matter what.
17. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
The deep work philosophy requires one to be very disciplined with their limited time and use that time effectively to get non-trivial work done. The non-trivial work in this case tends to be work that does not give one immediate satisfaction of productivity, but rather a sense of satisfaction of working towards a bigger goal or completed work with more meaning.
There you go. Maybe you pick up one of the above books. Maybe you don’t. That’s not the point of this article.
I just hope you pick up a book and read it :)
