On this page, you will find a personal review of my favourite personal
development books - what I consider to be the best books I've ever read.
I haven't read them all (thank goodness) so this is just my somewhat limited
opinion. However, I have found all of the books listed below to be helpful,
inspirational and motivational. Like all reading, though, you have to
take action for the wisdom to be effective!
PS don't get addicted to reading self-help! Remember, the answers lie
within; these books just help you realise this...
My Favourite Self Help Books - A Personal Review
Self help books - what I say...
Now the first thing I'm going to say is that I have not read every single
motivational self-help book! And I've only read a few self help ebooks
(online books), listened to the odd self help audio books; and I have
little or no experience of free self help books or ebooks (but you'll
find links to such resources below).
Having said that, I have read some outstanding self-help books
- life-changing books, make no mistake - and those are the books I've
listed. Yes, the following is my personal self help book review
- my list of best self help books - that is all. Your
opinions are, of course, welcome! :-)
By the way, if you have read hundreds of books, you might want
to ask yourself why that is. Do you just like reading self-help literature
for the sake of it because, in my humble opinion, you only need
to read a few good self-help books - then you need to put what you
read into action!)
So let's get going. The self help books are listed in some kind of order...
The subtitle of this transformational book is Healing Our Relationships,
Coming to Ourselves and that is what this powerful self help book is
all about, really - healing our relationships. I don't want to say too
much about it (and spoil it for you) other than I genuinely believe
it to the most illuminating (helpful) self-help book I've ever read
- more important than Tolle's A New Earth (which really is saying
a lot).
Your
relationships will improve if you read this book and take on board what
C Terry Warner has to say! And I'm not talking about casual relationships,
here, but those long-term relationships with siblings or parents or
even children where you have tried and tried and tried to make things
better but failed. Warner's incredible book has the answer. Warning!
It might not make comfortable reading.
Interestingly, I bought this book on the recommendation of Brian Caniglia,
author of an ebook that showed you how to you get your ex- back. (By
the way Brian's Ex
Back ebook is a great read, should you be in that position!) Brian
basically said there was little point in getting back with your ex-
if you were just going to repeat the same mistakes. He recommended Warner's
book as it helped you to take an honest, victim-free look at your relationships;
it helped you to recognise the sometimes damaging role that you play
in your damaged relationships.
This book simply teaches about the importance of the present moment,
the now. It talks about stillness, silence and enlightenment.
And it talks about the tyranny of the egoic form (the Pain Body). It
talks about the future of humankind, too. (Wow, what a book! Lol.)
Actually, A New Earthis an amazing book,
and a lot more engaging (and easier to read and comprehend) than Tolle's
first landmark book The Power of Now, in my opinion anyway. Like
many other readers, I also intend to read it many times over. However,
I do not think, as critics seem to want to refute, that it has the answers.
I don't believe self-help books (or any books, for that matter) are
meant to have answers - good self-help books simply try and show you
where the answer lies within you. And that's what Tolles book does,
admirably so, for me anyway.
A
note of caution. To many this book might seem a lot of spiritual
mumbo jumbo ("unutterable twaddle" as The Daily Express puts
it) - what the heck is a pain body when it's at home? And there are
many Christians that seem to be reacting defensively to Tolle's message
(as summed up by this fascinating book called A
New Earth, An Old Deception: Awakening to the Dangers of Eckhart Tolle's
#1 Bestseller by Richard Abanes), so this book might not be for
you. I just thought I should mention this. (By the way, what the heck's
a pain body? Well I think it wrote A New Earth, An Old Deception.
:-O)
Personally, I find it hard to find fault with the truth that there really
is no past and there really is no future, there is just now. It's a
simple message that you have may have read many times before so if you
believe that you don't need to read this book, then fine don't read
it. As I think the Self
Help Collective website testifies, I am not a fan of gurus. Instead,
I believe in you, and I believe in me! I also believe that we all sometimes
just need a helping hand along the way. And Tolle's A New Earth
does that for me.
NOTE: I would say a common theme in the top two books above,
and maybe in the third book (Unconditional Love) is one of allowing
others to have their beliefs, even if they differ from yours. This is
a very important life tenet for me - accepting differences in others
- it might not be for you: you might just like being right all the time!
;-)
Unconditional Love: How to Live With an Open Heart in a Changing
World is Ed and Deb Shapiro's close look at that big word called
love. Now all parents can tell you - glowingly (and alarmingly in some
cases) - about that very first moment of seeing their firstborn, that
moment they became parents. These people experienced the full power
of unconditional love: a love that will more or less never extinguish
no matter what! Unconditional Love is a book with a message that this
kind of unconditional love is available to all, whether you're a
parent or not.
Now,
and I don't mean to sound trite here, I'm a big fan of love:
love conquers all; love is never wrong; "Love, love me do"...
Yes, I believe in love - not the falling-in-and-out-of-love love (that's
infatuation!) - I believe in the love that is unconditional love.
So if loving someone means that I can never see them again or that I
can only be friends (and not lovers) then that's fine - I shall simply
express my love in a different way. And I guess that's why I really
enjoyed reading the Shapiro's Unconditional Love because they
believe in love the same way I do, too.
If you want to live with an open heart - fearless living - then I recommend
this book.
This
is a book about the power of thoughts, your thoughts, to create the
world that you want to live in. It is far more than a positive thinking
book - it teaches how to create thoughts to heal relationships, to achieve
long-term goals in life and even to determine what you will achieve
today. Again, this is another book that I will always refer to throughout
life - after all, successful living requires occasional reminders. :-)
The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking might be a bit spiritual
mumbo-jumbo for some so maybe those people might want to read Personal
Progress through Positive Thinking by Hilary Jones and Frank Gilbert
or the ever-popular The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman
Vincent Peale.
Don't you just hate it when you start arguing with someone, heatedly
so, only for them to turn around to you and tell you that you're projecting
your problems onto them! The thing is, quite often that person is right.
You're getting angry with someone because they're displaying qualities
you dislike that you know are inside of you. That, my friend, is your
shadow.
I
have to say I had very little understanding of 'shadows' before I read
John Monbourquette's How to Befriend Your Shadow and I also think
that this book could have been written better - the subject order needs
to be changed, to my mind. Still, Monbourquette's book is also a transformational
read.
Above all, How to Befriend Your Shadow tells you when you're
projecting your problems in a conflict situation and when the other
person really does have a problem - and that really is worth knowing,
in my opinion.
This is not really a self-help book; instead, it's a beautiful insight
into one woman's wisdom. Each page starts with the words, "When
I love myself enough" and then Kim McMillen tells us, after years
of the suffering that most of us have experienced, how she now has resolved
to live life: wiser, and with more self-love.
Sometimes self-help - helping yourself - comes from listening to how
someone else has helped themselves. That's why this book is highly
recommended reading. Really.
Don't take self-help books too seriously! Well, that's what Craig
Ferguson thinks about self help books. Is his video a chicken soup
for your funny bone? Maybe.
"Live! Love! Learn!" that's what Tupak Soiree says in
Will Ferguson's satire on self help books and the self-help industry.
Yes, Happiness(TM) is not a self-help book; it's a fictional book about
a self-help book that works (called What I Learned on the Mountain).
It may well be the perfect antidote for those of you that are self-helped
out!
So
Will's novel wonders what would actually happen if a self-help book worked,
for everyone!I'm not sure I agree with his conclusions - the end
of the world as we know it (or at least the end of the tobacco and alcohol
and even the self-help industry) - but Happiness™ is certainly
food for thought, and it's a great swipe at an ever-burgeoning industry:
self-help. Yes, self-help is an industry, a business, and you and I are
playing our part by being avid consumers of the product, the next big
thing. It's good to remember that fact, and that...
"Self-help is the opium of our age" -- Will Ferguson
"It's only a book, Edwin. And happiness can't be found in
books. Trust me, I know"
Touché
So if you're going to read one of my recommendations then please read
Happiness™ too! After all, you really can't fault Will's faux self-help
mantra can you: "Live! Love! Learn"?
Self help books - what they say...
I'm not the only person who has reviewed self help books. You'll find
plenty of reviews at Self
Help Product Reviews.
(Or you could just find a list of your favourite self-help
authors.)
Self help books - what YOU say...
Hey, I'd love to hear what you think of the above self-help books or
even what you think are your favourite motivational self help books. Contact
us here - thanks. :-)
So
Will's novel wonders what would actually happen if a self-help book worked,
for everyone! I'm not sure I agree with his conclusions - the end
of the world as we know it (or at least the end of the tobacco and alcohol
and even the self-help industry) - but Happiness™ is certainly
food for thought, and it's a great swipe at an ever-burgeoning industry:
self-help. Yes, self-help is an industry, a business, and you and I are
playing our part by being avid consumers of the product, the next big
thing. It's good to remember that fact, and that...