How to pick the best personal development book for you.

So, you’re keen to be the best YOU you can be and are ready start the personal development journey. But where do you start?

A good book is the best place, but with thousands (heck, maybe even millions) of books available, it’s hard to know which one is right for you.

You could Google it; “Which personal development book is right for me?” will definitely bring up a LOT of results, but it can be pretty overwhelming. All that choice might make you want to close your laptop, fire up Netflix, and binge on old episodes of Riverdale.

If you’re serious about personal development, the best place to start is by asking someone!

If you’ve got a mentor or teacher you enjoy talking to, see if they have any awesome book recommendations. Then find the book, and read it!

If you don’t have a mentor (not many of us do), you could do a simple quiz about the Wheel of Life to figure out which areas of your life you should start developing.

The Wheel of Life covers off a bunch of different foundations, like health, career, relationships, finance, attitude, personal growth and social life. You give yourself a score out of five for each part of the wheel – if you have a low score in a particular theme, that’s where your personal development journey should start. Easy, right?

The first time I did this exercise, my money management was poor (pardon the pun). I asked a friend – who has always been a great saver – what book she thought I should read, and she suggested “The Four Laws of Financial Prosperity” by Blain Harris. It’s a simple book with easy to apply habits. I got so much out of it, and am so much better with my money now!

Another time, I was feeling stuck in a rut and lacking creativity. I talked to another friend – a brilliant designer – about how she stays inspired. She shared books she reads and a whole lot of activities she does to challenge herself. Talking to her, an expert in her field, helped me think about things differently.

In a nutshell, talk to people you respect, trust and admire about their favourite personal development books, and ask them what they learned and what they think you might get out of it.

Starting the personal development journey can be pretty confronting.

If you overload yourself with too many books too soon, it can be tempting to chuck the book across the room and give up. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Start with one book, and go from there!

And remember: if you want to change something, you have to change something.

So, keep at it ☺

Here are my top five favourite books on personal development. They’re all full of really useful, easy-to-digest information – these books are a great place to get started:

• The Four Laws of Financial Prosperity, Blain Harris
• The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy
• Personality Plus, Florence Littauer
• The Oracles Secret, Anthony Fernando
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R Covey
  

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So which book are you going to start with?