I've never been much for self-help books.
As a general rule, I don't read a lot of non-fiction. And for a long time I think I was a bit of a snob where self-help books were concerned, thinking they were somehow low brow.
I was wrong. In the past few months, I've had occasion to read a couple of self-help books that have had a profound impact on how I want to move forward with my life. And in reflecting back, I realize that there have been a few others along the way that also left their mark.
So today I'm going to share five self help books that changed my life - organized by theme - in the hope that one of these might motivate you to change some aspect of your life that you're not entirely satisfied with either.
Before I begin, If I can offer one piece of (self-help) of on my own, it would be that you not "dabble" in these books. While it's fine to start and stop and/or to read them alongside something else, be sure that you read each one start to finish, because each one has its own internal logic which builds, chapter by chapter.
Above all: do the exercises. They are there to force you to confront tough questions about yourself and you won't progress if you don't use these tools to identify your strengths - as well as whatever it is that's holding you back.
Finally, be patient: some of these books are deceptively short. You might spend an entire month on one page before moving on to the next chapter. That's just fine.
To wit, five self-help books that changed my life:
1. Happiness. Gretchen Rubin's happiness franchise needs no introduction. She has a popular blog, several books and a podcast, all geared towards how to be happier in life. Gretchen's basic philosophy is that through better self-understanding, most of us can make even tiny changes in our daily life that would make us happier, regardless of our baseline. So it's not necessarily about rushing out and buying a new espresso machine or embarking upon an extreme sport vacation. Rather, small things like figuring out if you're a chronic under-buyer or over-buyer and shopping accordingly or adopting a personal motif to inspire your creativity can improve your mood on a daily basis. Personally, I found her advice about singing in the morning to work wonders.
2. Career Change. I'm a huge fan of one of the most well-known guides to career change ever written: What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles. This book is so famous it has almost become a cliché. But when I left academia to go into journalism, I locked myself in a café several hours a day for several months and did nothing but follow this book's script. The book's basic premise is that to make a meaningful career change, you need to zero in on two variables: what you like and what you're good at, and where these overlap (harder than it sounds). Six months later, I had a great job as a producer with Chicago Public Radio. I still recommend this book every time someone asks me if I have any advice on how to change careers without spending more than $15.
3. Creativity. I'm shouting to anyone who will listen about Elle Luna's amazing The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion. Like "Parachute," this book is also partly about how to finding meaningful work and/or embark upon a career change. But it's so much more. It's about going to the very core of who you are and figuring out how to be authentic to that self - what Luna calls our "must." It isn't an easy or comfortable journey. (Try the "write your own obituary" exercise and you may well end up in tears.) But the book is utterly inspiring because Luna believes so firmly that each of us really does have an amazing gift inside. We just need to figure out how to unlock that creativity and release it into the world. Bonus: because the author is a visual artist, the layout and design of this book are worth the shelf price in and of themselves.
4. Decluttering. Yeah, yeah I know. The whole decluttering thing is soooo...now. But Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way to Banish Clutter Forever is another deceptively short and simple book that's loaded with so much more. Kondo's essential message is that most of us are living with untold amounts of clutter in our lives that simply doesn't "spark joy." Sure, as one of the friends I recommended this book to put it: "Your socks need to 'relax'? Has it crossed your mind that this lady might be a teensy bit OCD?" (If you google her video on how to fold the perfect underwear drawer, you might find yourself agreeing...) But by the last chapter you will forgive her everything because what she's really trying to do is to use tidying as a vehicle for achieving clarity in our lives (e.g., change careers/get a divorce/take up windsurfing/etc.) If we can get rid of all our excess stuff, and pare down to the things that we really love, we'll not only see our lives more clearly, we'll be happier and more relaxed.
5. Platforms. This one is for all you aspiring writers out there who think you have a book in you. I'm currently reading Christina Katz' Get Known Before The Book Deal. It's the second time I've read this book and I'm finding it much more useful this time around, possibly because I have a much clearer idea for a non-fiction book proposal now than I did when I picked this up several years ago and was vaguely thinking about writing a novel. This book is written for all those aspiring non-fiction writers who want to be an "expert" in something but haven't yet created their platform. It shows you how to do this, step by step. I found the chapters on identifying your target audience to be particularly useful.
How about you. What self-help book would you recommend?