Top 5 Favorite Books for Personal Growth

I've gone through a lot of different phases over the years- each one driven by a desire to change something specific that I knew was holding me back.

These are the top 5 books that helped me kickstart my personal growth. Whether it's professional, spiritual, or personal growth you're looking for- I hope one of these titles call out to you the way they did for me and change your life for the better. 

Atomic Habits by James Clear

In the winding road of my work-history, I spent four years working 1:1 with children on the Autism Spectrum, helping to shape their behaviors in learning, communication, and even daily routines. After awhile I started having a lot of success applying the same principles of behavior in my own life for things like weight loss, dating, and general productivity.

Atomic Habits does an INCREDIBLE job of articulating these principles of behavior change and how to apply them in your own life with simple tips and relatable examples. I can not emphasize enough how accessible his examples are. 

He teaches you how to ENJOY leaving behind behaviors that have trapped you and how to ENJOY building new healthy habits that meet your needs and create better results in your life. 

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Oldie but a goodie. I have read this book several times. The first time I read it I had left teaching, started a new career, started grad school and was also pursuing the arts.

I was reading/listening and  just hoping that I could learn enough about networking and "people skills" to meet the right people that would help to propel my life forward. 

This book has helped grow me to be both bolder and more other-centered. It taught me the should-be-obvious lesson that "what goes around comes around" and that if you make others feel important, not only will you have made the world a little better, they will also remember you when opportunities come around. 

I don't want you to be discouraged by the age of the book. People are still people and the lessons Dale Carnegie shares about work-ethic and people-skills are absolutely still relevant today. 

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I remember when this one was on all the book club reading lists and I was like  "I don't need some silly feel-good lady travel story."- And I was so wrong. 

This book helped me re-open myself to the possibilities of life.    The part of me that maybe died when I stopped watching rom-coms from the 80s and 90s. It wasn't a Sex in the City kind of story. It was a real woman healing from some losses in life, resetting her expectations and learning to live abundantly. 

Spiritually, it was bridge for me to begin seeking God. This book prompted some of my first steps into to a relationship with something greater. If that freaks you out, by all means, just focus on the Italian food. But for me, even though my beliefs now are more specific and Jesus-centered than those of the author's, I will always be grateful for the door this book opened for me.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

This book has a FORMULA for putting your intention out into the ether and getting back exactly what you ask for. . 

If you're not familiar with Napoleon Hill, he is another one of these OG personal growth authors. Hill made a career interviewing all sorts of titans of American industry (Ford, Schwab, Carnegie), collecting their insights, habits, and experiences, and sharing it with the general public.

So much insightful and credible material here about the power of positive affirmation and how who you are in your mind creates who you become in the world. 

I will say though- this is an older book. So while the principles are still relevant, the examples might take some imagination on how to apply them today. If that doesn't scare you off, it is definitely worth the time. 

The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz

The premise of the Mastery of Love is that humans are miseducated on how to love, because we often learn to love from other misguided people. We hurt each other with things like unreasonable expectations and knee-jerk responses and it creates emotional wounds that make it difficult for us to be in relationship with each other.

I can't tell you how freeing the content of this book was. I could finally start working on accepting people for who they are and begin recognizing familiar toxic patterns of my own relationships and how to remove myself from the cycle.

It can be some heavy stuff, but if there's a relationship in your life that just doesn't feel right or maybe you've come to the same crossroads again and again, this book might be for you.

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