10 Best Self-Help Books of All-Time

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Personally, I am a sucker for non-fiction books. But no, I didn’t grow up being a bookworm. My fascination grew when I started stalking successful people and found out that most of these people attribute their success to the books they’ve read. And today, I’m going to share ten of the best self-help books of all time. Let me start it off with three of my personal favorites.

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10 Best Self-Help Books of All-Time

1. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

by Mark Manson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck is actually one of my personal biases. I just love how Mark was able to mix real talk and wit in a way that made me ponder my life’s choices in a deeper sense. I admit I am an overthinker and I often give too many Fs even on things that do not concern me.

Reading this book helped me think about what really matters and throw the rubbish I deem inessential. I fell in love with this book so much that it made me binge more of Mark Manson’s musings on his personal website, markmanson.net.  

Key Takeaways from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

• Pour your focus on the most important essential things in your life. Stop allocating so many Fs on non-essential things. Not everything is worth your energy.
• The more you crave, deal, and give a damn with what society expects from you, the more anxious you become. 
• Take full responsibility for your life and stop putting the blame on people and circumstances. 

My topmost favorite quotes from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

by Mark Manson

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

2. Atomic Habits

by James Clear

I read this book during the most dysfunctional phase of my life and it taught me that I do not necessarily have to have the motivation and the willpower to get things done.

Atomic Habits helped me understand that changing my environment in such a way that good habits become easier and more enticing to do than the bad ones can make a huge difference.

Key Takeaways from Atomic Habits

• Building habits is not more about motivation or willpower but more about the environment and system that you create for yourself.
• You get more productive by focusing on your systems and sticking to them instead of relying on sheer motivation to get things done.
• Design your systems in a way that good habits become the easiest option to do than the bad ones.

My topmost favorite quotes from Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits

by James Clear

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

3. Rich Dad Poor Dad

by Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad is more than just a finance book for me. It may have taught me the difference in mindset between the poor, middle class, and rich but the most important lesson I got from this book is the ability to filter out lessons from people from different walks of life.

It taught me to take the ones I deem essential for my self-growth and to scrape off the ones that I know aren’t serving my personal values in life.

Key Takeaways from Rich Dad Poor Dad

• Wealth is a state of mind. The constant deliberation between choosing to have the abundance mindset over a scarce mindset will eventually unlock more opportunities to create more wealth.
• Creating success always entails taking a number of risks. The higher the risk, the higher the potential of return.
• You should not take failure as the opposite of success but as a part of it.
• The more fearful and doubtful you are, the more you are holding back in unlocking your tremendous potential and personal genius.

My topmost favorite quotes from Rich Dad Poor Dad

Rich Dad Poor Dad

by Robert Kiyosaki

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

4. Think and Grow Rich

by Napoleon Hill

The book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of the best-selling self-help books of all-time but no, it does not teach you a get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, it doesn’t even talk about money.

Instead, it talks about the right mindset, principles, and philosophy to wealth creation. It was written in 1937 but just like the other books in this list, the lessons this book gives are timeless. In fact, most of the successful people I know greatly recommend this book as this personally helped them break psychological barriers around self-improvement and wealth creation.

Key Takeaways from Think and Grow Rich

• The only person responsible for the things that are and are not happening in your life is you and only you. 
• Failure always teaches you something. It serves as feedback to do better next time.
• You need to have a vision in life. Define the purpose, mission, and direction you want to go as clear and as concise as possible because clarity is the key to knowing where you’re going.
•  You have to have the hunger in order to create urgency to reach your short-term and long-term goals. Without urgency, you’ll always wait for the right time, but there’s no such thing as perfect timing. You just have to start and grow from there.
• Success often comes after the hardest phase of your growth. So hang in there. You need to keep going. You can rest but never stop.
• Never stop learning. You have to constantly reinvent yourself and absorb as many lessons as you can as you go along. Continuous improvement is always the key to self-growth.

My topmost favorite quotes from Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich

by Napoleon Hill

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

5. How to Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

If you think you lack the proper communication skills in dealing with people, you have to pick up this book. Dale Carnegie wrote the book How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936, but until this date, the lessons are still highly applicable despite the massive shift of human social interaction. This book somehow taught me that in order to win friends and influence people, you should know how to properly communicate. And in order to do that, you have to momentarily live in other people’s perspective, see what they want, and align it with what you want. 

Simply, most people will only get interested in you if you have something that could somehow address their needs or wants. I hate to put it this way but yep, in order to win friends and influence people, you have to please them in some way or simply make them feel good. And this is true not only for friendships but also for any kinds of relationships as well as business ventures.

Key Takeaways from How to Win Friends and Influence People

• If people are going to like you, things are going to go your way. You get to make more friends, highly get the chance of landing a job, and if you’re a business-minded person, you can use this ability to create more sales.
• If you become genuinely interested in other people’s lives, this will lead you to have meaningful conversations, and eventually meaningful friendships. And most of the time, in order to have one, you do not necessarily have to talk all the time. All you have to do is listen attentively. 
• When you know you’ve made a mistake, admit that you’re wrong and do it emphatically. 
• When you learn how to make friends, you learn how to make others happy. And this is one of the most fulfilling feelings out there — the ability to spread joy.

My topmost favorite quotes from How to Win Friends and Influence People

How to Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

6. Awaken the Giant Within

by Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins is a well-known growth and life coach. In his book, Awaken the Giant Within, he expounded on the complexity of psychology in a much simpler sense to release the beast in ourselves. And when I say beast, I mean the one who is hungry for success. Tony tailored this book to get results quickly, again, with the help of breaking down human psychology into bits.

Key Takeaways from Awaken the Giant Within

• The quality of your life is based on the quality of decisions you make. The five factors that highly affect your decisions include beliefs, rules, values, references, and emotional state. 
• Values greatly affect the quality of your decisions and it’s essential to determine these values to make decisions based on what’s truly important to you. 
• Your personal beliefs are like your compass to your desired life destination. Whether you think you can or you think you cannot, you’re always right.

My topmost favorite quotes from Awaken the Giant Within

Awaken the Giant Within

by Tony Robbins

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen Covey

The most important lesson I took from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is the ability to shape my own reality by focusing on things I can control and letting go of the things I cannot. Life doesn’t just happen. Life is about making choices and in every situation that requires me to make a decision, there is an opportunity to make a better choice, thus leading to a life that I always wanted to have. If life gives me the upper hand to run the show, then I have to give it the best I can.

Still, it’s okay not to be in control all the time as there are always things that are out of our control. But just because I cannot control it, doesn’t mean I can’t do anything about it. I can always choose how to respond and react as things come to heel.

Key Takeaways from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

• Be proactive. Stop complaining about the things you can’t control and start focusing on things you have control over and take responsibility of whatever consequences of the choices you have made.
• Begin with an end in mind. Make a conscious effort of mapping out where you want to end up in life. Otherwise, you will just run around a loophole with no means of escape since you have no destination to begin with.
• Put first things first. Determine the things that are most important to you and focus your energy on what really matters.
• Think win-win. In order to create healthy relationships with others, you have to work on having an abundance mindset. There is plenty for all. 
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood. For you to understand someone, you have to listen to them, not the other way around. So before you judge, listen. And listen with the intent to understand, and not just the intent to reply. 
• Synergy. All of us think and do things differently. Learn to accept differences and if there’s something that you need to disagree, then do it with respect.
• Sharpen the saw. Always aim for continuous improvement. But in order to do it effectively, you must first focus on being the kind of person who is open for improvements.

My topmost favorite quotes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen Covey

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

8. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

by Joseph Murphy

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind is a book that teaches how our mind works and how our thoughts project into our lives.

I found this book as something that you don’t necessarily have to read from cover to cover entirely in one sitting. I just flip certain parts when I feel it somehow fits the situation I am currently in. This book really helped a lot in improving my mental health by tapping the infinite power of my subconscious mind.

Key Takeaways from The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

• Your subconscious mind is like soil for your thoughts. Whatever you plant in it, be it positive or negative, a poor mindset or rich mindset, a healthy body or an unhealthy one, is what you’ll manifest and eventually reap in your life.
• You can communicate to your subconscious mind through repetition, suggestion, and visualization. 
• Your subconscious mind can bring you immense amounts of success if you learn how to create positive mental building blocks.

My topmost favorite quotes from The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

by Joseph Murphy

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

9. The Compound Effect

by Darren Hardy

The very idea behind Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect is that we tend to overestimate what we can produce in a week and underestimate what we can do in a year. We’re currently living in a world where we are brainwashed by how possible it is to get things we desire in almost an instant.

Want to lose weight? Drink a diet coffee or laxative and lose 30 pounds in a week. Want to make your skin lighter? Take whitening pills and have a lighter shade in just three days. Although some of these products seem effective, they really aren’t sustainable in the long run. And this is how important the idea of the compound effect is. You get better and sustainable results as long as you upkeep your small yet consistent efforts. 

Key Takeaways from The Compound Effect

• Small but consistent efforts, when aligned with your goals, can have a tremendous effect over time, thus the compound effect.
• In order to create results, you have to be comfortable in putting effort into the things that matter to you and focus on generating the momentum in order not to lose sight of your goals as things get out of hand.
• Your core values are your internal compass. They act as the internal filter for your daily choices and actions.
• Focus on measuring the percent gains and focus on your momentum.

My topmost favorite quotes from The Compound Effect

The Compound Effect

by Darren Hardy

Available in: Print Audiobook

10. The Secret

by Rhonda Byrne

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is one powerful book that totally shifted how I perceive life. And it’s no secret at all actually. The Secret, aka The law of attraction (LOA) is simply a belief of “Like always attracts like”.

Simply, the universe serves you whatever you ask for and whatever your thoughts are focused on. This book taught me to be careful of the kind of vibration I am sending off to the universe as positive vibrations attract positive results the same way how negative vibes attract adverse consequences.

Key Takeaways from The Secret

• Your thoughts are magnetic and it attracts the same frequency you’re sending off.
• You have to clearly define the things that you REALLY want. Set a specific amount of richness you want to have, the kind of partner you want to be with, and the kind of life you want to live.
• You need to believe that the universe or God or whatever spiritual being you believe in, will provide everything you desire. 
• Reinforce your wants by acting and thinking like you already have them. Visualize your goals and dreams and align them with your feelings.

My topmost favorite quotes from The Secret

The Secret

by Rhonda Byrne

Available in: Print Ebook Audiobook

Among the self-help books I mentioned above, do you have a personal favorite? If so, how did it help you in your personal growth?