10 Self Development Books Worthy Of The Hype

The last post created so much interest I thought rather than wait until next week, I’d strike whilst the iron is hot and follow it up immediately. After all, I made over $3 in Amazon affiliate sales last month and I have ambitions to double that amount this month.

These are the books that I have not just drank the Kool-Aid for, but bathed in the damn stuff. With the possible exception of Learned Optimism and the later stages of Mans Search For Meaning, all are fairly accessible and don’t really need any prior knowledge about anything much (other than maybe the English language) to gain benefit from.

They are in no particular order and as always feel free to praise me to the heavens or laugh in my face.

The Success Principles – Jack Canfield

I’m not even sure if I really like the sugary sweet Jack Canfield. He reminds me of a big fluffy bunny rabbit for some reason and can sometimes appear smarmy and insincere. Maybe he’s sponsored by some teeth whitening company, or perhaps he really is that nice of a guy, I have absolutely no idea.

The Success Principles is a cool read though and it probably provided me with the biggest A-ha! moment in my life. It was Canfields telling of the old adage;

“If one man tells you you’re a horse, he’s insane.
If three men tell you you’re a horse, there’s a conspiracy.
And if ten men tell you you’re horse, you need to get a saddle.”

Reading that made me realized that I needed a saddle.

I’d spent my entire working life to that point being what I liked yo think of as a realist. I was the guy in meetings that would point out why something wouldn’t work, why targets were too high and why management were just a bunch of self-serving weasels. Shockingly, even when I was in management.

In short, I was a miserable bastard that needed to get his act together.

That alone was enough for me to believe the book was worthwhile, but there are lots of other great stories of people with ‘can-do’ attitudes including Jacky Boy himself.

Note for accuracies sake: Jack missed out the bit that says “If two men tell you you’re a horse, they have an equine fetish” but I guess it didn’t really fit with the theme of the book.

Awaken The Giant Within – Tony Robbins

Robbins is the easiest figure in the personal development field to poke fun at. After all, he’s about 13 feet tall, is outrageously intense, appears to be Benjamin Button and has the shiniest teeth in Christendom. Yes, even shinier than Jack Canfields!

He also took NLP techniques largely developed by Bandler and Grinder, repackaged them, re-named them in some cases and then delivered them to the masses as his own material.

To be fair, and to the best of my knowledge, he ever explicitly claimed credit and I’m not even sure he meant to mislead anybody, but he sure pissed off a lot of the NLP community nonetheless.

The fact is, ATGW introduces some very powerful NLP ideas that are relatively easy to employ and can be life changing, and the story about how Mr Honda (if true, because I’ve meant to research it because it’s so amazing) started Honda Automobiles is worth getting the book for alone. It’s a long book though at well over 500 pages so if you like quick reads it wont be for you.

Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl or Viktor Frankly as my spell checker insists on calling him, spent four years in four different German run concentration camps during World War 2. His observations during that time led to his ground breaking development of the psychology field of logotherapy.

Logotherapy is almost anti-Freudian in its belief that human beings aren’t wired up to seek pleasure, but to seek a meaning in life. Those that survived the horrors of places like Auschwitz for any length of time, more often than not had a strong purpose for existence. It is that, which Frankl believed drove them on and gave them hope, ultimately helping them to survive.

At times the book is both harrowing and depressing, but if you can look past the atrocities and the degradation of mankind, you’ll find an uplifting book with some very dark humor.

Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

Some people miss the fact that this book can really help with personal development. It’s the best book I have ever read on rapid cognition. Come to think of it, it’s the only book I have ever read devoted solely to rapid cognition.

When I first read it I thought, “You bastard Gladwell, I wanted to say that”

If you want to understand the power of your unconscious mind  and why you should trust it more often, Blink is your answer.

A few people panned it on release saying it encourages people to be lazy with how they think and not bother to analyze stuff.

I want to say they’re idiots, but no life coach would ever say such a thing.

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer that hasn’t had quite the hype is probably just as good by the way. And although it’s based more in science, it’s just as easy and enjoyable to read.

Learned Optimism – Martin Seligman

I am just re-reading this as it’s a few years since I first heard it on audio and I’m getting even more out of it the second time round.

It’s important to understand the difference between optimistic thinking and positive thinking because they are not the same thing.

The jury is out scientifically speaking, as to whether affirmations and positive thinking are always helpful. In fact, many people think they can actually be unhelpful in certain circumstances.

If you’re being chased by a very hungry bear and you have 2lbs of live salmon wriggling around down your underwear, thinking affirmations and telling yourself not to worry because everything will be ok, probably wont help (not you or the salmon anyway, the bear will be fine with it).

Being optimistic that you have the power to change things however, would encourage you to look for solutions and in no time at all you’ll have either tossed out the fish or eaten them and died from mercury poisoning

It is serious science that Seligman presents and leaning on cognitive behavioral therapy research to explain how we can make changes.

The remarkable conclusions about the benefits of thinking optimistically are readily accepted wisdom now and include, better health, better prospects for success at work and a longer life span. Not bad huh?

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Robin Sharma

In a nutshell, a rather unhappy, unfulfilled but in terms of work, highly successful,  attorney, has a heart attack . He starts to question the reasons behind his relentless pursuit of money and winning court cases at all costs. When he doesn’t discover the answers he heads off to find himself an Indian guru or two hoping they can explain the meaning of life to him.

As you may have guessed, he does indeed find his purpose for existence as well as peace of mind and a nice saffron robe too.

When I first read this book I was quite indignant, because although Sharma uses other peoples quotes and ideas he attributes none of them. I kept thinking “Such and such said that” and that was “Such and such’s idea” I didn’t actually say such and such, just that it’s a few years since I read it and I can’t remember exactly whose ideas he thieved.

I was being churlish and anal using that as a criticism because it’s total jealousy that I didn’t think of such a brilliant idea.

If you want a fast track to some of the best self development material (without ever knowing where it came from), this is the book for you. Whisper is quietly, you may even find mention of 30 day challenges years before another well known self-development guru supposedly invented them.

If you are a fan of Italian car design, TMWSHF may well prove disappointing because there is a distinct lack of Ferraris, Maseratis or Lamborghinis.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (And It’s All Small Stuff) – Richard Carlson

I have to admit, I stole the idea for the format for ‘Don’t Ask Stupid Questions’ after reading this delightful book by the late Richard Carlson.

This book sat in my bathroom for what seemed like years. It did for me over that time period what my iPhone with its Scrabble app does for me now, if you know what I mean.

DSTSM contains 100 short chapters of timeless wisdom. It’s the kind of book that you can open, read a chapter and immediately be able to apply it to your life.

It’s probably not earth-shattering and it may well not help people to change permanently. However, it may well prompt them to pause and take stock which has to be the starting point for conscious change.

Easy and fun to read.

The Secret – Rhonda Byrne

Just kidding.

The Power of Full Engagement – Jim Loehr and Tony Shwartz

This book really does deserve all the praise it receives. It’s the first book ever written (that I know of anyway) that transfers techniques developed by the authors to help athletes perform at a top-class level, to the world of business.

Loehr and Swartz suggest that you’re only as strong as your weakest link and as such you need to get all aspects of your life right i.e. spiritual, mental, emotional and physical if you want to excel.

They talk about the need for proper nutrition, exercise and disengagement from work that includes family and social time. In short they take an holistic approach they know works with world-class athletes and reason it will be helpful to anybody. I happen to agree for what it’s worth.

Whereas this is indeed a brilliant book, I was somewhat disappointed when I was contacted by somebody that works for the Human Resource Institute started by Dr. Loehr here in Orlando, claiming to be stressed senseless by work!

Prometheus Rising – Robert Anton Wilson

There is an NLP Presupposition that says ‘The Map is not the Territory’ This book could have been quite easily and accurately, called that.

Wilson was a maverick and a quite brilliant thinker, of that there is no doubt. PR gets a bit weird in places and his humor is somewhat off the wall, but there is a very important message pertaining to what we believe reality is, and probably more importantly, what we think it isn’t.

The paradox with this book is close-minded my way or the highway types are the people that would get most out of it, but they are the least likely to read it. Or if they do read it they’ll just dismiss Wilson as some pot smoking, liberal  intellectual, which is of course is exactly what he was.

It’s unusual to stop a list at  #9 and indeed I had Stumbling on Happiness penciled in, but then I thought, why I am doing all the work here? Stop sitting there staring into space and let me know which is the one book I am a damn fool idiot to have not mentioned.

BTW, I toyed with Think and Grow Rich, but the truth is I can’t remember that much about it other than enjoying it. Oh and please don’t worry, I will get over the severe and debilitating embarrassment if you say “How To Be Rich and Happy”

Next up my top books that I think really deserved a lot more hype and praise than they got.