The 21 Best Self-Improvement Books for Personal Development

By Tchiki Davis, MA, PhD
​Want to discover the absolute best self-improvement books of all time? Here are some of my favorite and the most popular self-improvement books around.
*This page may include affiliate links; that means I earn from qualifying purchases of products.

What Are the Best Self-Improvement Books?

While studying emotion in grad school I started reading lots of self-improvement books. While writing my book, Outsmart Your Smartphone, I read even more to learn new topics, writing styles, and tips. Since then, I've continued to review self-improvement books to authors and here's some of my favorite (as well as some of the most popular) self-improvement books out there.

Top 21 Self-Improvement Books​

1. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
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Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

2. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
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Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Dalai Lama shows us how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement. Together with Dr. Howard Cutler, he explores many facets of everyday life, including relationships, loss, and the pursuit of wealth, to illustrate how to ride through life's obstacles on a deep and abiding source of inner peace. 
Video: Learn more about The Art of Happiness

3. The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life
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Conventional wisdom holds that once we succeed, we’ll be happy; that once we get that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But the science reveals this formula to be backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around.
 
Drawing on his original research—including one of the largest studies of happiness ever conducted—and work in boardrooms and classrooms across forty-two countries, Achor shows us how to rewire our brains for positivity and optimism to reap the happiness advantage in our lives, our careers, and even our health.

4. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
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No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Video: Another 6 Recommended Self-Improvement Books

5. The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want
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You see here a different kind of happiness book. The How of Happiness is a comprehensive guide to understanding the elements of happiness based on years of groundbreaking scientific research. It is also a practical, empowering, and easy-to-follow workbook, incorporating happiness strategies, excercises in new ways of thinking, and quizzes for understanding our individuality, all in an effort to help us realize our innate potential for joy and ways to sustain it in our lives. ​

6. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
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In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Video: Review of ​The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

7. The Stress-Proof Brain: Master Your Emotional Response to Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity
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Modern times are stressful—and it’s killing us. Unfortunately, we can’t avoid the things that stress us out, but we can change how we respond to them. In The Stress-Proof Brain, a clinical psychologist and neuroscience expert offers an original approach to help readers harness the power of positive emotions and overcome stress for good.

8. Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior
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Practical, proven self help steps show how to transform 40 common self-defeating behaviors, including procrastination, envy, obsession, anger, self-pity, compulsion, neediness, guilt, rebellion, inaction, and more.

9. Best Self: Be You, Only Better
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Think about your daily life. Are you thriving, or going through the motions? Are your days full of work, relationships and activities that are true to your authentic self, or do you feel trapped on a treadmill of responsibility? If you dream of a better life, now is the time to turn your dream into reality. And the tools you need are within your grasp, to design a life that is fulfilling on the deepest levels. Best Self will show you how.

10. True You: A Self-Discovery Journal of Prompts and Exercises to Inspire Reflection and Growth​
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Empower yourself to discover who you are, what you love, and what you desire out of life. True You is a beautifully illustrated self discovery journal that combines thought-provoking prompts and creative exercises to help you gain meaningful introspection and unlock your potential.

11.  The Self-Love Workbook: A Life-Changing Guide to Boost Self-Esteem, Recognize Your Worth and Find Genuine Happiness
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​You need love from yourself as much as from others. When you have low self-esteem, low confidence or even self-hatred, it’s impossible to live life to the fullest. It’s time to build your self-love and transform your attitude, emotions and overall outlook on life! This helpful workbook allows you to become aware of your own unique needs and goals while discovering how to better accept and love your true self.
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This Positivity Workbook helps you create stronger connections in your brain for positive information through the practice of memorizing positive words. This helps you make positivity more accessible and easily activated.

12. Let That Sh*t Go: A Journal for Leaving Your Bullsh*t Behind and Creating a Happy Life
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Harboring grudges and plotting revenge takes a lot of energy. While the wait for one true moment of schadenfreude sounds oh so sweet, true bliss can be found in simply not giving a f*ck.

With Let That Sh*t Go, you’ll find moments of profanity-laced catharsis and joy through journaling activities and inspirations that are positive as f*ck. Within these truly charming pages, you’ll find ways to let go of the bullsh*t and lift your spirit a little f*cking higher.

13. The Magic of Thinking Big
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The Magic of Thinking Big gives you useful methods, not empty promises. Dr. Schwartz presents a carefully designed program for getting the most out of your job, your marriage and family life, and your community. He proves that you don’t need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction—but you do need to learn and understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there.
Buy it Here  | Buy it on Amazon

​The Happiness Skills Workbook compiles scientifically-supported activities to help you learn the skills that help you live a more satisfying, meaningful, and fulfilling life.

14. The Gratitude Project: How the Science of Thankfulness Can Rewire Our Brains for Resilience, Optimism, and the Greater Good
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Gratitude is powerful: not only does it feel good, it’s also been proven to increase our well-being in myriad ways. The result of a multiyear collaboration between the Greater Good Science Center and Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, The Gratitude Project explores gratitude’s deep roots in human psychology—how it evolved and how it affects our brain—as well as the transformative impact it has on creating a meaningful life and a better world.

15. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
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When Wherever You Go, There You Are was first published in 1994, no one could have predicted that the book would launch itself onto bestseller lists nationwide and sell over 750,000 copies to date. Ten years later, the book continues to change lives.

16. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
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With Dale Carnegie’s timeless advice in hand, more than six million people have learned how to eliminate debilitating fear and worry from their lives and to embrace a worry-free future. In this classic work, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Carnegie offers a set of practical formulas that you can put to work today. It is a book packed with lessons that will last a lifetime and make that lifetime happier!

17. The Self Compassion Workbook: Practical Exercises to Approach Your Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions with Kindness
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Are you a perfectionist? Do you have a tough time quieting your inner critic? It can be easy to fall into patterns of self-criticism when we feel uncertain―but self compassion is about building a new mindset, embracing the moment, and letting go of the responsibility to handle every obstacle. This workbook is packed with an array of exercises and strategies designed to ground yourself in self compassion and confidently build the life that you want.

18. The Road Less Traveled, Timeless Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
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Written in a voice that is timeless in its message of understanding, The Road Less Traveled continues to help us explore the very nature of loving relationships and leads us toward a new serenity and fullness of life. It helps us learn how to distinguish dependency from love; how to become a more sensitive parent; and ultimately how to become one’s own true self.

19. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
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​While certainly a part of well-being, happiness alone doesn’t give life meaning. Seligman now asks, What is it that enables you to cultivate your talents, to build deep, lasting relationships with others, to feel pleasure, and to contribute meaningfully to the world? In a word, what is it that allows you to flourish? “Well-being” takes the stage front and center, and Happiness (or Positive Emotion) becomes one of the five pillars of Positive Psychology, along with Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment—or PERMA, the permanent building blocks for a life of profound fulfillment.
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When kids regularly use the flashcards in this book, they can create stronger connections in their brains for positive information. This makes positivity more available, accessible, and easily activated in daily life.

20. Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life
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Limitless gives people the ability to accomplish more--more productivity, more transformation, more personal success and business achievement--by changing their Mindset, Motivation, and Methods.

21. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
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Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage. In a world where “never enough” dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is subversive. Uncomfortable. It’s even a little dangerous at times. And, without question, putting ourselves out there means there’s a far greater risk of getting criticized or feeling hurt. But when we step back and examine our lives, we will find that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena—whether it’s a new relationship, an important meeting, the creative process, or a difficult family conversation.

Video: A few more self-improvement books to explore

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About Dr. Tchiki Davis
Dr. Davis is founder of The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. After getting her PhD in psychology at Berkeley, she started creating online content & programs to boost well-being—some of these have reached more than a million people. As author of Outsmart Your Smartphone, and contributor to Psychology Today, The Greater Good Science Center, and Shine Text, Dr. Davis aims to share her insights on happiness & health with people all across the world. Learn more about Dr. Davis.
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