10 books that will change your life

We live in an age dominated by social media ‘influencers’ who make careers out of appearing to be better than those who watch them. Every day, the papers bring bad news, and levels of anxiety keep increasing daily. It’s natural to feel overwhelmed by life sometimes, but do we need to suffer?

Sure, the world is a scary place, and facing it can seem like an overwhelming prospect, but there are books out there specifically designed to help you through even the darkest moments. Self-help books are always popular, but some are more impactful than others. 

I’ve done my fair share of self-growth over the years, and much of it has come in the form of books designed to inspire and uplift. Here are 10 of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read, the ones that have permanently changed my mindset. Hopefully, they can have a positive impact on your life, too. 

Although it’s been almost 90 years since Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People was first published, it still manages to be completely relevant in these new modern times. It’s a collection of solid advice for life, and making your way up any ladder that interests you.

Carnegie goes over the six ways to make people like you and many different ways to change people’s minds. While this is, and has always been aimed at those who want to climb career ladders or succeed in their respective fields, it still has lessons that are applicable during all life stages, regardless of your goals.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, The Courage to Be Disliked is an absolute masterpiece that offers advice for living life to the standards you set for yourself rather than trying to live up to the expectations of anybody else.

Koga takes the theories of Alfred Adler and modernizes them, allowing you to live for yourself and become the truest version of who you always wanted to be. It makes sense; the only person you should worry about letting down is yourself, and setting expectations for anyone other than yourself is only setting yourself up for disappointment.

At the risk of sounding incredibly depressing, I like Pale Blue Dot because it puts my problems into startling perspective. Sagan works hard to explain that the Earth is not the center of the universe and that we are not as important as we seem to think we are. Life comes and goes, and the earth and universe will remain long after our petty squabbles and self-doubt are gone. 

If you’re wondering whether you can stomach this book, I suggest you watch this video of Carl Sagan reading an excerpt of the book, which is one of the best things ever uploaded to the internet if you ask me. 

Victor Frankl was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and rather than let his experiences destroy him, he turned them into a quest for understanding and, ultimately, a way to help others overcome hardship. His experiences led to the foundation of Logotherapy, which is a therapeutic approach to finding meaning in life. 

It’s broken down into three areas as part of Man’s Search for Meaning: finding purpose through creative work, gaining it through relationships, and learning to change your attitude when it comes to facing tough situations. Those are things that everyone should consider while going through life. 

The War of Art is aimed towards creative types who struggle to break through their mental barriers to create. It centers around the concept of “Resistance,” which Pressfield describes as a process in our subconscious that is constantly striving to prevent success. Essentially, The War of Art works as a guide to avoid self-sabotage rather than as a guide to find motivation and discipline, and that’s why it works so well. 

I bet you weren’t expecting to see a Roman emperor feature on this list, but Marcus Aurelius might just be the first self-help author who ever lived, and he is still helping people to live their best lives centuries after he left the mortal plane. One of the central themes of his Meditations is that of control and the detrimental effect of choosing to focus on things that we cannot control rather than the things that are within our power to change. 

One of the most withstanding lessons I learned from Meditations was that the only way anybody has the power to hurt me is if I allow them to. I do not have the power to dictate how others treat me, but I do have the power to control my reaction to their treatment. That is a serious life lesson and one I’ve never forgotten. 

While The Paradox of Choice is a startling look at consumer culture and how it affects our lives, tackling the difficult lesson that offering fewer choices to consumers might make for happy shoppers. Despite that, there are a lot of personal lessons that you can learn from reading this book. We have so many options in this modern world, and just one just one can be utterly overwhelming. 

The basic lesson of The Paradox of Choice is that any choice can be likened to a risk assessment. Breaking a choice down into steps, especially when you have to choose from a lot of different options, can help you discover what’s truly important to you. 

Changing your life is not an easy thing to do. The concept of change is utterly daunting, and changing everything in one move is terrifying. Atomic Habits offers a different technique and describes how an entire life can be changed by implementing minuscule changes that add up over time. 

Giving 100% of yourself to something new overnight is hard, but giving 1% of yourself every day for 100 days is a lot easier. That’s the basic concept of Atomic Habits, and it will seriously change your life if you struggle with sweeping changes. 

Did you know that it’s scientifically proven that those who believe they’ll heal after tragic accidents heal faster? It’s also proven that those who take a placebo drug, even when they’re fully aware that it’s a placebo, will still feel the benefits of taking the drug. That’s the expectation effect, and it’s something that can be applied to everyday life. 

If you believe you can do something, you’re far more likely to actually do it. If you believe that you’re capable of making a change, then you’re more likely to be able to make that change. The Expectation Effect looks into why this happens and passes on skills that can be used to improve your mindset even on tough days. 

I previously mentioned that Pale Blue Dot changed my life most effectively of the books on this list, but if you want a purely self-help title to absolutely turn your life on its head, then I highly recommend The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. It’s not a book that will take it easy on you if you’re having a bad moment or ask you to think positively. 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is more about accepting that everything is a mess and learning how to deal with it more productively. Human beings are, by default, not perfect. We are flawed and broken in a myriad of ways. Limitations shouldn’t always be broken through, but fear shouldn’t hold us back either. 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is all about being honest with yourself and accepting that though you may not have the power to change the things around you, you can learn to accept them and be badass anyway.

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