The Five Self-Help Books I Channel Daily and Recommend to All
If you’ve been following me for some time you may have noticed that I enjoy reading… kind of a lot.
I absolutely love reading, actually - mostly self-help books and fiction novels. But here’s something you may not know: reading is a recent love of mine as I actually did not enjoy reading growing up.
To be honest, I wasn’t even that much of a star student for most of my life, but that's a story for another time.
I remember SOME books that I did enjoy reading as a kid, such as Junie B. Jones or Amelia Bedelia (any fans out there of these crazy women and their antics?!), but those 600-minute reading challenges to earn a free ticket to Six Flags had me riding in the front seat on the struggle bus.
My Reading Evolution
It wasn’t until after I graduated college when I really started enjoying reading. It began with very light, easy, and cute reads like Emily Giffin’s “Something” books, and after I finished those, I just kept on picking up more and more fiction.
My genre selections evolved as I started growing in my corporate role and taking on more and more responsibility. As my company groomed me for leadership, more professional development books were passed along to me. These books were focused on teamwork, leadership, discipline, and all had the underlying themes of how to be great at your corporate job.
I felt inspired and invested-in early-on with all of these books, and I certainly did apply a lot of these lessons to my leadership abilities. However, with every professional development book I read, I had less energy to read something that I chose for myself.
After a year of my own bookshelf gathering dust, I realized I needed to create a rotation.
For every book that I was given at work, I read a fiction novel of my choosing. This happy, lighthearted rotation continued until I was about 29 years old when I was suddenly faced with the realization that I spent far too much time being great at my job, and not enough time creating the life that really made me happy.
To clarify: I realized that I neglected myself personally for five years while growing professionally.
The Book That Changed It All For Me
Around this time, I picked up the book You Are A Badass, which came highly recommended by my friends and mentors. And honestly, I couldn’t believe that there were books like this out there. Books where you could learn from someone who has created an amazing life for themselves and is teaching you how to also create an amazing life.
YAAB (which is how I’ll refer to it) was a game-changer for me to take control of my life and was the gateway to the world of abundance, embracing spontaneity, and absolutely demolishing any limited thinking.
After reading this book, I owned my badassery by throwing away all excuses for mediocrity in my life and prioritizing myself. This introduction to self-help absolutely changed my life, and to this day, I channel YAAB daily.
In addition to this holier than thou book, there are four other books that have been game-changers for me. Each of them has assisted me in becoming the most realized human I can be, the best I can be in entrepreneurship, and even some of them helped in my corporate life.
And I am so stoked to be able to share these wonderful gems with you, as they just may be game changers to your success too.
The Five Books I Channel Daily
1. You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero
Okay, I obviously just covered this one, but JIC someone bypasses all the previous text and comes straight to my list, I needed to toss this one in here to make it complete. In short, this book got me to sell my old condo, buy a condo twice the amount of money, ask for more money at my work, obtain a ~40K salary increase, and finally be able to answer the “what do you do for fun?” question to dating prospects with an answer that my old self would be blown away by. While I haven’t read this book cover-to-cover in a while, I open it up often to absorb highlights. It has me making courageous decisions, not being threatened by others, accepting others the way they are, and has me so all-in on being me that nothing can stop me.
2. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Don’t @ me because you are sick of me talking about this book. It is a freaking game-changer, and I will tell you why.
Most of us walk around all day long thinking. This thinking involves worrying about the repercussions of already-made decisions, stressing about things that have already happened, replaying moments that have passed, angry at a friend who said something six months ago that they never apologized for, resenting others who are living their lives just fine and dandily, feeling total rage I feel from the $1,500 plumbing bill I just got in the mail. It’s awful and so not good for our health. But what if you actually could turn these thoughts off? What if you could just accept things much sooner and get to the place of making amazingness happen? This book gets you there if you are ready and willing to get there.
Applying the learnings from this book allows me to accept the plumbing bill and focus on the solutions (writing a letter to the management company and board of directors, just paying it, etc.) It is the reason I was able to move on from the insane amount of money my ex owed me that I never received. It is the reason I do not stress about where my clients are going to come from, find the simplest things incredibly joyful, and have built resilience that makes me feel at times like I’m made of rubber. This book is power, should you choose to be powerful.
3. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
I will cut to the chase with this one and dive straight into my favorite habit, which I have talked about before: habit number three put first things first. It’s asking myself “What do I need to do today that is not urgent but would make a tremendous positive difference in my business?” It focuses on identifying the one thing that can bring about significant results. It’s awesome.
4. You Are A Badass at Making Money (YAABAMM! for short:) by Jen Sincero
Oh, you thought being a badass at life is cool? Well now, how about being a badass at making money specifically?
This book just might be my soulmate and finally made me feel heard and understood. I have loved money for quite some time, but I never really felt great admitting that until I read this book. But money is just like your weird cousin who one day quits their high-paying job, turns their hair to dreadlocks, and moves to Oregon to live in a yurt: at first, everyone is all judge-y and stand-offish. They say things like, “You are throwing your life away!” and “We all know this is a phase, and I am here for you.” But really, if anyone just talked to them and learned about them, they'd realize that they are just totally misunderstood.
Here is one of my favorite excerpts:
“Let’s take back the word “money” and decriminalize it, because until you do, you aren’t going to be terribly motivated to let yourself make much. I’ve been broke and sad, rich and sad, broke and happy, rich and happy, and I’ll take the rich version over the broke version all day long. Because money gives you freedom and options and I really love freedom and options. Who doesn’t?” (pg. 22)
This book is why I’m not afraid I’ll “run out of clients." I don’t feel anxious about my prices, and it reminds me how freaking important it is to invest in myself.
Money is so abundant, and the moment we realize this, embrace it, feel it, worship it, and stop worrying about it is the same moment that the universe hears you and says, “You’re not worried about finding money? Great, I will give you more of it!”
If you are a biz owner, read it.
If you’re a fan of money, read it.
If you have a fear of money, read it.
Basically, just read it.
5. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Yep, another book about money. Money is flipping cool. When it’s in the right hands, it can be so amazing. But that aside, let’s talk about Think and Grow Rich.
It is clear that Jen Sincero loves this book, as upon reading it, there is a lot that Jen has pulled into her own books. What I channel daily from this book, outside of what I learned from YAABAMM, is two-fold:
Life will pay you whatever you ask of it.
You must have a deep desire to make money, along with total faith that you will make money, to begin to make money.
I’m honestly just going to let those two sit there. If you don’t believe either of these statements or need help believing them, coach with me, and we will get you there.
My Books On Deck
There are still so many books out there to be read that I am sure I will update this list from time to time. I also currently have so many books that are coming up!
Two that will definitely happen in the near future are Jen Sincero’s newest book, Badass Habits, and Mario Forleo’s Everything is Figureoutable.
Also, lately, I have heard about Mel Robbins’ and Gabby Bernstein’s books.
Please let me know if you read any of the above, or if you’re looking for any specific recommendations pertaining to where you are in life because I would absolutely love to help you find the book that will be a catalyst for you.