What Are Self-Help Books?
A self-help book is a book that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. From bad habits like overthinking to big life changes like starting your own business, self-help books offer tips and lessons by drawing from the author’s personal life experiences. Keep reading to discover 10 best self-help books for women to read.
Why Should You Read Self-Help Books?
Self-help books offer you a new perspective to make positive changes in your own life. In 2020, we’re all familiar with the term “self-care” and self-help books are the perfect way to elevate your mind and spirit.
Self-help books make the whole self-improvement process less intimidating by showing you a real-life success story. Self-help books serve as a blueprint to make positive changes to your day-to-day life while giving you the freedom to learn at your own pace.
Do Self-Help Books Actually Work?
Yes! The secret to getting the most out of self-help books is to enjoy the process and have fun with it. Pick a book and author that you resonate with so that you’re able to relate to the stories and actually have fun when reading the book. When you’re having fun, you’re more likely to continue reading and take the next steps to apply what you have learned in your daily life.
10 Best Self-Help Books To Read For Women
#1 Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Untamed is both a memoir and a self-help book focused on the concept of unbecoming. YOu have to unlearn your limiting beliefs before you can become your most authentic self. Each bite-sized chapter is jam-packed with nuggets of wisdom and relatable moments.
It is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.
#2 Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
You may know Elizabeth Gilbert from her legendary memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. But unlike Eat, Pray, Love, Big Magic is more akin to your typical self-help book. It’s all about working with your fear and creative genius to pursue your creative passion.
I’m sure you have been told, at some point in your life, that you need to overcome your fears, but Gilbert takes a different perspective in her book. Instead of overcoming your fears, just learn to work with them. The less you fight your fear, the less it fights back.
#3 Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein
Super Attractor demystifies the concept of the law of attraction and manifestation by drawing on the author’s life experiences. From hitting rock bottom as a drug addict to a best-selling author and motivational speaker, Gabrielle takes you on a journey of remembering where your true power lies.
By reading Super Attractor, you’ll learn how to co-create the life you want. You’ll accept that life can flow, that attracting is fun, and that you don’t have to work so hard to get what you want.
#4 A Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
You probably know Shonda Rhimes from her popular television series How to Get Away With Murder and Grey’s Anatomy, but did you know she is a fantastic writer as well? A Year of Yes is a story about how Shonda Rhimes embraced the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her. The book chronicles her journey to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self.
#5 You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero
I like to think of You Are a Badass as a more general, less specialized version of Big Magic. While Big Magic focuses on those people who are in creative endeavors, You Are a Badass applies to all entrepreneurs.
Jen Sincero serves up an entertaining self-help book full of funny stories and important life lessons, with a sprinkle of swear words. If you are always making up excuses to not pursue your dream or passion, then this book just might be what you need to ignite that spark in you.
#6 Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage. Whether it’s a new relationship, an important meeting, or a new career path, nothing is as uncomfortable and dangerous as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena. Daring Greatly is a practice and a powerful new vision for transforming the way we live, love, parent, and lead.
#7 Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
If you’re having trouble solving a problem or reaching a dream, the problem isn’t you. It’s that you haven’t yet installed the one belief that changes everything. Whether you want to leave a dead-end job, break an addiction, learn to dance, heal a relationship, or grow a business, Everything is Figureoutable will show you how.
Marie’s mom once told her, “Nothing in life is that complicated. You can do whatever you set your mind to if you roll up your sleeves. Everything is figureoutable.”
#8 Don’t Overthink It by Anne Bogel
Are you a chronic overthinker? In Don’t Overthink It, you’ll find actionable strategies that can make an immediate and lasting difference in how you deal with questions both small–Should I buy these flowers?–and large–What am I doing with my life?
More than a book about making good decisions, Don’t Overthink It offers you a framework for making choices you’ll be comfortable with, using an appropriate amount of energy, freeing you to focus on all the other stuff that matters in life.
#9 Joy At Work by Marie Kondo
Take your decluttering skills to your workplace and bring more joy into your job. In Joy at Work, bestselling author Marie Kondo offers stories, studies, and strategies to help you eliminate clutter and make space for work that really matters. Joy at Work will help you overcome the challenges of workplace mess and enjoy the productivity, success, and happiness that come with a tidy desk and mind.
#10 Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Lori Gottlieb was a therapist who needed therapy herself. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world—where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds. A boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.