10+ Personal Development Books I Read and Loved

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I was reading through old notes on Evernote the other day and I stumbled across a list of personal development books that I read and loved a few years back when I was beginning this journey. Here are 10+ books I read while on a journey to happiness that I found to be helpful.

While I was learning how to be happy, I came across a lot of different personal development books and things that helped me figure out my life and get things back on track. These are a few self improvement books that I love in particular.

Self Improvement Books
Self Improvement Books

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10+ Best Personal Development Books

The Success Principles

1. The Success Principles

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield is an amazing personal development book about how to succeed in every area of your life – and these principles definitely apply to making you happy, too.

This book is really, really long (600 pages!) but there are dozens of different principles broken up into little chapters so if you wanted, you could just read about one principle that sounds interesting because each one of them is a game-changer.

And when you combine them all, you could seriously change your life.  I know it helped me a lot, and a lot of what he talks about is what I talk about too.  Click here to check out The Success Principles.

A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson

2. A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson

A Return to Love is a beautiful and insightful book.  I’ve read this at least once already all the way through and have reread my highlights many times and will probably reread it a few more times because it’s just that good.  Based on the teachings of A Course in Miracles.

3. Spirit Junkie and May Cause Miracles

Spirit Junkie and May Cause Miracles are two books by Gabrielle Bernstein and they are a great introduction to concepts like spirituality, self love, and forgiveness.

They’re based on the metaphysical text A Course about Miracles, and will help guide you to a place of loving yourself and letting go of past hurts.  Gabrielle has the experience of being a previous junkie (hence the title of her book) and feeling really low.

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The Fire Starter Sessions

4. The Firestarter Sessions by Danielle Laporte

The Firestarter Sessions is a book about following your spark and doing what you love.  It’s a catalyst for action and inspiration in your life, and could be the spark you need to get started on an important journey.

The Power of Now
A New Earth

5 and 6. The Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now is one of the best books to read if you want to learn about mindfulness and living in the present moment.  That’s what the whole book is about.  ðŸ™‚

A great read about learning to detach yourself from your thoughts and just “be.”

A New Earth is a pretty cool book about transcending the “ego” and petty problems like anger, stress, etc, and becoming happy.  He also talks about the collective consciousness of the world and other neat ideas.

Peace is Every Breath

7. Peace is Every Breath by Thich Nhat Hanh

I love everything from Thich Nhat Hanh (my favorite Buddhist monk!  And Pema Chodron).  This book is about learning to be mindful with everyday actions.

Now I see hand washing dishes as a form of meditation, and it’s actually very relaxing.

The Big Leap

8. The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

Next, The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is a major game changer and life changer.  I actually talk about principles from this book on the blog such as the idea of having upper limits to the amount of happiness or success we’ll allow in our lives before we start to self-sabotage.

It’s like this quote, “We accept the love we think we deserve.”  If you want to allow more happiness in your life and not keep sabotaging your results, get this book.

Bittersweet book
Cold Tangerines book

9 and 10. Bittersweet and Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist

I’ve said it before, but Bittersweet (and anything from Shauna Niequist) is one of my favorite books.  It’s a Christian book but even if you’re not religious or spiritual you’ll still appreciate her beautiful, poignant, and descriptive writing.

Bittersweet is about finding the good in the bad, and vice versa.

Cold Tangerines is another beautifully-written book about finding the joy in everyday life, from the color of the sky to drops of water on tangerines.  Similar to mindfulness.

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Those are just a few of what I think are the best self help books of all time. 😉  I’ll update this list with new recommendations if I read new things that I think will help you!

Best Personal Development Books | Best Self Improvement Books