Ultimate List of Best Personal Development Books for Women 202224 min read
Looking for the best personal development books and self improvement books for women and entrepreneurs on reaching your full potential to read so that you can improve your life, accomplish your goals, change your thinking, and reach your full potential? Here is the ultimate list of the best personal development and self improvement books in the genre of self help that will empower you to take your personal growth and self development to a whole new level.
Reading personal development books is my all time favorite way to relax – snuggled up on a couch, in my cozy socks, with a steaming Earl Grey tea beside me and the flames from the wood stove dancing in front of me. (Honestly, sometimes I don’t even look at the words on the page; I just stare in contentment, grateful for all of the beautiful things in my life… I digress…)
You can almost always find me immersed nose deep in the best personal development books in the evenings and reading all about reaching your full potential on the weekends. I devour at least 3-4 amazing personal growth books a month, and am frequently reading more than one at a time (#bookworm).
There’s something incredible about a great author’s ability to challenge my thinking, shake up my status quo, and light a fire under my butt that leaves me feeling inspired and motivated to live my best life and take my business to the next level.
I want to share with you a list of the best personal development books for women, men, and entrepreneurs that have made a profound impact on my life and business. They will, without a doubt, help you create a more successful and fulfilling business and life too.
In this post I explain exactly why these personal development books are so freakin’ awesome and what you’ll learn should you choose to spend your time digging into them! This isn’t any list, this is an in depth guide to the best personal development books where I also share my key takeaways, the things I’ve started doing differently since reading these, as well as my favorite quotes, all with the purpose of helping you decide which personal growth books are best for you to invest your time and energy in.
(In this article, I include affiliate links to these books on Amazon, so that you can find them easily!)
by Tim Ferris
This is the best thing I have ever read. Tim Ferris takes what he’s learned from interviewing hundreds of world-class performers on his podcast and deconstructs their tactics, tools, and routines so that you can use them to transform your life.
I love the format: every couple of pages are about someone different, so it is the perfect book to read in small chunks throughout your day — I use it in 5 minute chunks as part of my morning routine!
You’ll learn everything from the best morning routines and time management tactics, to the qualities that make up success and how to handle failure. If you do one thing this year, read this book.
I was highlighting things like a maniac. There’s not a single page where something didn’t ring true for me. I reread it on an annual basis because there is so much wisdom in those pages.
My favorite quotes from this personal development book on reaching your full potential:
Have no fear. You’ve got one chance here to do amazing things, and being afraid of being wrong or making a mistake or fumbling is not how you do something of impact. You have to be fearless.
ADAM GAZZALEY
Don’t evaluate only the potential downside of action. It is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction. If you don’t pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years? How will you feel having allowed circumstance to impose itself upon you and having allowed 10 more years of your finite life to pass doing what you know will not fulfill you? If you telescope out 10 years and know with 100% certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as “the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome”, inaction is the greatest risk of all.
TIM FERRISS
Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is? Type A personalities have goal pursuit as default hard-wiring. This is excellent for producing achievement, but also anxiety as you’re always future focused. You have to want what you already have.
TIM FERRISS
by Jen Sincero
Another great book to read as part of your morning routine to get you fired up and excited about giving it your all today.
Jen’s writing style is HILARIOUS and made me burst into laughter more than once. At the same time, she challenges your conventional thinking and limiting mental models to help you with reaching your full potential.
You’ll learn how to identify the stories you tell yourself that hold you back from greatness and then use practical strategies to change your thinking so that you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Jen touches on
- our fears about success and money,
- the distractions in life that keep us from chasing our dreams, and
- the importance of getting the hell out of your comfort zone (and staying there)!
My favorite quotes from this self development book on reaching your full potential:
This is about getting mighty clear about what makes you happy and what makes you feel the most alive, and then creating it instead of pretending you can’t have it. Or that you don’t deserve it. Or that you’re a greedy egomaniacal fathead for wanting more than you already have. Or listening to what Dad and Aunt Mary think you should be doing.
JEN SINCERO
Nobody who ever accomplished anything big or new or worth raising a celebratory fist in the air did it from their comfort zone. They risked ridicule, and failure, and sometimes even death.
JEN SINCERO
Much of the time we pretend we aren’t clear on what our calling is when what’s really going on is that we’re horrified to face it because it seems too big or too impossible to make a living at or completely out of the question for us. But what if you had the audacity to leave your excuses and your shame about wanting to be huge and fabulous behind and really went for it full-on anyway? What if you decided to do the most outrageous, most exciting thing you ever dared fantasize about, regardless of what anyone, including your terrified self, thought? THAT would be living.
JEN SINCERO
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck
by Mark Manson
Again, I have to start out by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK, but you might have guessed that since it’s on this list 😉
Mark Manson is another amazing writer of personal development books with a comical vibe that keeps you laughing as you read, while all the good stuff sinks in behind the scenes. In his book, you’ll learn everything in between failure and success, happiness and suffering.
My favorite quotes from this self improvement book on mindset:
Humans yearn for extraordinary experiences, but those are few and far between, and social media has created a generation of people that think it’s not okay to feel negative feelings, or turn out average… Being average is the new standard of failure, but it shouldn’t be. The majority of your life won’t be news-worthy and that’s okay. Once you take the pressure off of yourself to be something amazing, you are free to be exactly who you want to be and that is when you will thrive. In the end, it’s the ordinary moments that will have mattered the most anyway.
MARK MANSON
To not give a f*ck is to stare down life’s most terrifying and difficult challenges and still take action.
MARK MANSON
Life is about not knowing and doing something anyway, all of life is like this.
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
MARK MANSON
Mark Manson is awesome. He also has a blog that you can visit for personal development tips.
By the way, if you’re looking to achieve more in life and business, our powerful email community receives weekly strategies, tips, and lessons from behind the scenes of my 1:1 VIP coaching conversations to help you create exponential business & personal growth.
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by Brene Brown
Brene Brown’s personal development books focus less on ‘go, go, go accomplish everything!‘ and more on ‘live your life gratefully, courageously, and be kind to yourself.’ It is a refreshing perspective in the personal development books space.
Being a very strong Type A personality, I often get stuck in the hamster wheel of chasing achievement. Brene Brown’s books help me center myself and enjoy the life I’ve created.
In this personal development book you’ll learn about a few pretty powerful concepts:
- The hustle for worthiness
Brene writes, “when we struggle to believe in our worthiness, we hustle for it.” We chase success, we work 10 hour days, we stay busy and keep the calendars full, we do everything in our power to avoid coming to terms with the uncomfortable feelings that arise when we have to sit with ourselves and our thoughts. - Vulnerability & connection
It is essential to satisfying our most basic human need: connection. Without vulnerability we cannot bond on a deeper level with those around us. - Purposeless play
“In today’s culture — where our self worth is tied to our net worth, and we base our worthiness on our level of productivity — spending time doing purposeless activities is rare. For many of us it sounds like an anxiety attack waiting to happen … Who has time for painting and photography when the real work of achieving and accomplishing needs done?” - Shame resilience
“The ability to recognize shame and move through it while maintaining our worthiness and authenticity.” - Self worth and the comparison mandate
“Fit in but stand out. Be like everyone else but better.”
“We seem to measure the value of a person’s life by their level of public recognition. Worth is measured by fame and fortune. Our culture is quick to dismiss quiet, ordinary, hardworking people. We equate ordinary with boring, or even more dangerous — meaningless.”
Next on the Brene Brown train is Daring Greatly, an incredible book about the power of vulnerability, and how opening up about what’s really going on gives us the strength and courage to overcome our challenges and connect on a much deeper level with the people around us. If you’re used to putting on a brave face and acting like you’ve got everything together, this book will help you see how taking down your walls will improve the quality of your life tenfold.
By Brene Brown
In this book, Brene Brown shares the lessons she’s learned from people who are living a brave life. People who are shooting for the stars and wading into the messiness of life and coming out on the other side, imperfect but alive. People who are reaching their full potential by chasing their dreams, failing, and trying again.
This book is all about getting back up after a fall, and if you’ve been a little bit scarred ever since your last blunder, this one is for you.
Key takeaways from this personal development book on success
- “Perfection is about the furthest thing in the world from badassery It is not a strength or a skill or a badge to wear with pride.”
- “The middle is messy. There’s just no way around the fact that the space between committing to something and achieving it is long, and hard, and messy.”
- “We all numb our feelings… PS staying busy counts as numbing!” (This one hit me hard. Brene had a long list of ways we numb ourselves (alcohol, caffeine, drugs, sex, you name it) but I didn’t feel like any of those applied to me. Until she stated that staying busy is just another way to numb our feelings. Mic drop.)
Favorite Quotes from this self improvement book
It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1910)
Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.
BRENE BROWN
by Rachel Hollis
Rachel Hollis’ book Girl Wash Your Face is a call to action to stop believing the lies you’ve been fed your whole life and get out there and kick some butt!
Rachel breaks her personal growth book up into 10 chapters, each representing a lie that is holding us back (ever tell yourself: something else will make me happy, I’m not good enough, I’ll start tomorrow?)
She then tears these lies to pieces and shares the things that helped her move through them. Things you’ll learn from Rachel Hollis if you add this book to your reading list this year include:
- Your dreams are not someone else’s to manage.
“That’s the incredible part about your dreams: nobody gets to tell you how big they can be!” Claim your dreams.
“You need the courage to stand up and say ‘This one, right here: this is mine!” Work through your fears. Map it out. And get at it. - Dreams don’t have expiration dates.
“Nobody will ever care about your dream as much as you do. Ever.”
“As long as you’re working toward the things you hope to accomplish, it shouldn’t matter if it takes you a month or a decade.” - The key to creating the life of your dreams is imagining your dreams in intricate detail.
Write it down. Use visuals. Announce it every day. Make sure you are crystal clear on what you want, and what will drive you to success. - Stop comparing yourself to other people.
Just stop. “Comparison is the death of joy and the only person you need to be better than is the one you were yesterday.” - Steer clearly in one direction.
It doesn’t matter if you’re 100% certain that this is exactly what you want in life, it doesn’t matter if you get there. “It’s highly possible that by not being where you thought you should be, you’ll end up exactly where you’re meant to go.” “Nothing is wasted. Every single moment is preparing you for the next… All of it is growing you for the person you’re becoming, for a future you can’t even imagine.”
My favorite quote from this personal growth book on reaching your full potential:
Turns out, the most beautiful things in my life were never on my to-do list.
RACHEL HOLLIS
by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
If you tend to shy away, people please, and chase perfection, you are sabotaging your success! The very opposite of building confidence is trying to avoid mistakes. That is not the path to building your dream life!
In this book, Katty & Claire explain what confidence is, how you sabotage it, how you can create more of it, and why it is so important to modern day success. Their research points to the fact that confidence is only partially genetic, and that we get to choose how confident we feel day to day.
Confidence is the purity of action produced by a mind free of doubt.
KAY & SHIPMAN
How wildly would your pursue your dream if you could leave all of your doubts behind?
My favorite quotes from this self improvement book on confidence:
If you choose not to act, you have little chance of success. What’s more, when you choose to act, you’re able to succeed more frequently than you think. How often in life do we avoid doing something because we think we’ll fail? Is failure really worse than doing nothing? And how often might we have triumphed if we had just decided to give it a try?
KAY & SHIPMAN
Even if you make the wrong decision, decide. It’s better than inaction.
KAY & SHIPMAN
The people who succeed aren’t always naturals, they are doers.
KAY & SHIPMAN
by Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin decided to try a variety of experiments every month for a year to see if she could change her base level of happiness and get more out of life. Each month had a theme with a few actions that she took to impact that area of her life.
The themes were:
- Boost Energy (Vitality)
- Remember Love (Marriage)
- Aim Higher (Work)
- Lighten Up (Parenthood)
- Be Serious About Play (Leisure)
- Make Time for Friends (Friendship)
- Buy Some Happiness (Money)
- Contemplate the Heavens (Eternity)
- Pursue A Passion (Books)
- Pay attention (Mindfulness)
- Keep a contented heart (attitude)
- Boot camp perfect (Happiness)
I liked it because as a working mom with kids, I could relate to a lot of the struggles between what needs done and what I want to do. Each of her months had me writing down new ideas to try for myself, essentially starting my very own happiness project.
Key takeaways from this personal development book on happiness:
- Sometimes our mental rules of thumb suck
- We often walk through life on autopilot, and fall into these mechanical thoughts that may or may not serve our lives. For example, how many times have you thought to yourself, or said to your kids, ‘hurry up! We’re in a rush!’ Are you actually in a rush? Or do you just want to be somewhere at a certain time because of a schedule you’ve made up in your own mind?
- Consistently thinking I’m in a rush goes against my values of living intentionally, enjoying the present moment, and staying positive.
- Reflection increases happiness
- Gretchen writes “only through recognizing my happiness did I really appreciate it.” I can have a good day, but if I don’t sit down at the end of a day (usually with a tea in hand and a journal in my lap) and think over the things that went well, they easily get dismissed in the blur that is life and I don’t realize how truly blessed I am.
- Reflecting on your day, recognizing your happiness, and expressing gratitude make you significantly happier than rushing through fun activities and never taking the time to pause and appreciate the moment.
- Happiness doesn’t depend on some thing in the future
- We often buy into the notion that ‘when I lose 15 pounds, or when I take a vacation, or when I get that promotion, I will be happy.’ The reality is that you’re buying into the ‘arrival fallacy.’ Rarely does the thing you’re anticipating bring you as much happiness as you assume.
- We often buy into the notion that ‘when I lose 15 pounds, or when I take a vacation, or when I get that promotion, I will be happy.’ The reality is that you’re buying into the ‘arrival fallacy.’ Rarely does the thing you’re anticipating bring you as much happiness as you assume.
My favorite quotes from this self improvement book on happiness:
Happiness and misery consist in a progression towards better or worse; it does not matter how high up or low down you are, it depends not on this, but on the direction in which you are trending.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Prosperity allows us to turn our attention to more transcendent matters – to yearn for lives not just of material comfort but of meaning, balance, and joy.
GRETCHEN RUBIN
by Seth Godin
This is an incredible call to action for all creative entrepreneurs that are looking to grow their business and their impact. Seth speaks to the entrepreneur that loves to create products, services, offers, but hesitates to sell them. If you’re building a business or feeling shy about putting your creative work out into the world, this book will help you create the confidence to see your work through to the end, and get it out into people’s hands.
by Michael Singer
This book and this author are excellent at helping you identify the voices inside your own head and disassociate from the negative thought spirals we all face on a daily basis. Michael Singer helps you see just how much of your mental headspace is taken up by an endless stream of chatter from your brain, and gives you the practical tools you need to quiet down your mind so that you can focus on what matters. If you struggle with negative thinking, The Untethered Soul will help you detach from that voice and create a positive mindset.
by Shauna Niequist
I read this book every holiday season, when my brain needs a reminder to slow down and be present with my family. Shauna is an amazing author, and reading this book is like drinking a cup of tea for your soul. Shauna reminds her readers that the true magic of life comes from being who you are and enjoying the present moment, rather than hustling to achieve an impossible level of perfection. If you’re a hyper achiever or recovering perfectionist, this book will gently guide you back to the truth: you are enough just as you are.
You Are A Badass At Making Money
by Jen Sincero
Another Jen Sincero book makes the cut, obviously! This personal development book focuses specifically on mastering your money mindset so that you are able to grow your wealth. It is the perfect book for entrepreneurs that are looking to grow their businesses and elevate their income levels, as well as 9 to 5ers that feel stuck at a certain pay band and want to make more money. What I love most about this book is that Jen Sincero gives you practical strategies for becoming aware of your limiting money stories and exactly what you need to do to overcome them so that they are no longer holding you back. If you’re ready to make more money this year, this book is for you!
A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose
by Eckhart Tolle
This book is all about fulfillment, and how to experience it on a daily basis. Eckhart Tolle digs into the ways in which your ego are preventing you from living a life you truly love, and how to disassociate from its grasp so that you can have a better life experience. If you’re feeling less than thrilled about the life you’re living, this book will help you find meaning and direction.
by Rachel Hollis
In her second book, Rachel Hollis empowers women to stop apologizing for the way they are, and start stepping into their authentic selves. Rachel digs into all of the excuses we buy into that we need to let go of, behaviors to adopt/habits to build, and skills to acquire. If you want to feel more confident in your own skin and claim your spot at the table, Girl, Stop Apologizing is the perfect book for you.
by Mike Dooley
This self improvement book literally changed my life. As someone who loves guarantees, well thought out plans, and certainty, I struggled to transition into entrepreneurship where so much of my work and future was undefined. Leveraging The Universe helped me release my attachment to having to KNOW and increase my ability to TRUST. Mike Dooley helps you create the mindset shifts you need to venture outside your comfort zone and create a life you truly love. If you want the skills and strategies to master your mindset and develop the power to create the reality you truly desire, this personal growth book is one of the best personal development books out there to help you shift your thinking.
by Denise Duffield-Thomas
This personal growth book helps you understand and overcome your money mindset blocks so that you can focus on creating more wealth in your life and business. Denise shares practical strategies and tips for improving your relationship with money and becoming the kind of person to whom money flows naturally. If you feel a resistance toward making money, receiving money, or spending money, this book will help you release the blocks that are keeping you stuck, so that you can hit your financial goals this year.
by Tim Ferris
Wrapping this list of best personal development books with another one of Tim Ferris’ incredible personal growth books for achieving your full potential: Tribe Of Mentors. Similar in style and vibe to his original Tools of Titans book, but with all new material. The majority of this book has never appeared on Tim’s podcast, and is full of valuable advice from some of the world’s most influential and successful people, sharing their perspectives on productivity, happiness, and success.
So there we have it, the 18 best personal development books on reaching your full potential for you to add to your must-read list in 2022.
The messages in these personal development books and the way in which they’re written will get you laughing, crying, and feeling inspired to create incredible results and personal growth in your life and business.
I want you to buy one, get one from the library, borrow one from your friend, and make it part of your routine to surround yourself with information and motivation to live your best life!
If you’re looking to live achieve more in life and business don’t stop at reading these books, go book a time to chat with me about how I can support you in creating exponential business & personal growth and living a life you truly love through powerful coaching conversations.
Having the support of an experienced success coach to help you step into your full potential and create the level of success you desire is exactly what an ambitious wo/man like you needs to make these next 12 months the most incredible 12 months you’ve ever experienced. Learn more about my business coaching programs and life purpose coaching programs.
And if you want to become part of a community of ambitious women and Entrepreneurs that are creating more personal growth, happiness, fulfillment, and success in 2022, join us by dropping your email below.
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