5 Personal Development Books That Changed My Life
#1: The Inside Out Revolution by Michael Neill
I’ve read about 50 personal development books.
Some were great. Some were okay. Some completely missed the mark.
What I’ve learned from reading so many self improvement books is that each book can only teach you as much as you’re ready to learn. When friends ask me for book recommendations, I always ask them what they’re looking for from a book before recommending them something from my library.
Because books can change your life when you read them at the right time—but, they can also feel like a waste of time if you don’t.
That’s why you don’t need a list of books that completely transformed my life.
You need the books that can change your life regardless of where you are because of how the information is presented, an invisible goal you never realized was self destructing your life plans, or your lack of knowledge on how to use language to get what you need.
This is that list of books. It’s the books that can change your life regardless of where you are because they’re going to teach you concepts that need to be used at every stage of your life.
Here are 5 personal development books that changed my life, and, because of the above, will change yours too.
#1: The Inside Out Revolution by Michael Neill
This was the first and only book that I’ve read cover-to-cover over 7 times. It’s a look into the reality—or lack thereof—that humans are living in. When you realize that your entire external reality is created inside of your mind, you’re not going to be the same person.
You’re also going to be a better person. This book is for people who know that their mind is a tool and if they are conscious about how they use it, it can give the the life of their dreams. It’s also the opposite writing style of most famous personal development books, like The Power of Now.
It feels like somebody asked Michael Neill to, “Explain this to me as if I were ten years old” and he delivered.
#2: The Space Within by Michael Neill
This is Michael Neill’s second book, the first The Inside Out Revolution. While the former focuses on turning your mind into a tool that creates the reality you want to be living in, The Space Within teaches you what’s going on in your mind the rest of the time.
The current rise in stoic philosophy, thanks to Ryan Holiday, has made the concept of stillness a more mainstream topic. In this book you’re talked through how stillness is something that happens in your mind and why it’s actually our default state.
This book is written in the same style as Neill’s other book, simple and to the point without the fluff of philosophical language.
#3: The Courage To Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
In The Courage To Be Disliked, there’s a concept called teleology discussed. In short, this perspective states that everyone is working towards a goal — whether they realize it or not.
For example, a lot of people are working towards the goal of being the person who has suffered most out of their friend circle. You’ll see this in the way people describe their childhoods (“We didn’t have a lot of money, times were tough and that’s why I am the way I am now.” “My wife cheated on me so that’s why I’m single and never going to find love again.”)
This book will scare you by holding a mirror up to your face and demanding you to realize where you are self sabatoging yourself. Chances are there are a lot of places you are doing this, you just don’t know that your internal goals are much different than the ones you talk about online.
#4: Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson
As a full-time writer, I’m a huge fan of Mark Manson. His writing style does an incredible job of making tough concepts easily digestable by linking them to easy to follow stories. I initially grabbed this book to help hone in my writing skill, but I ended it with a new, and uncomfortable, view of the world.
In this book, Manson talks about how hope is the reason people do pretty much anything. We hope for a better life so we go to work every day to make more money to try to attain that life. We hope to fix a country so we run for office. We hope to end war so we hit the big red nuclear bomb button.
This book is an uncomfortable read when you look at how the idea of hope has shaped the world. But, it’s a necessary read to understand how you can keep yourself from contributing to the problem.
#5: Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss with Tahl Raz
There’s a little sticker on my Never Split The Difference book that says, “A Former FBI hostage negotiator’s field-tested tools for talking anyone into (or out of) just about anything.” This is the type of book that will make you realize how easy your job is in comparison to others (ex. an FBI agent convincing people to let hostages free).
It will also make you a master negotiator. While most of us don’t worry about having to convince awful people to stop doing terrible things, these strategies can be used on a daily basis to improve your life.
For example, I use these negotiation strategies when I talk about contracts and rates with my clients. I really use them when I’m talking with customer service representatives. This is the type of book that sticks with you throughout your entire life, and you’ll always be grateful for the knowledge Chris shared.
