Self Help Book Reviews

There are so many different types of self help books on the shelves out there, which one's should you choose? Which suit your needs the best? There are books geared toward developing a new and beneficial mindset, how to make money, how to relax, how to improve your creativity, there are many detailed guides and purely informational books on winning, stopping smoking, losing weight, learning techniques, how to overcome limiting beliefs, hypnosis.... the list goes on and on and on.

Self help has fascinated me for years and has completely changed my life in more ways than I could possibly mention here. Some are more effective than others, some dig deeper than others, some are hugely life changing, some are written entertainingly, some are scientific, some are spiritual and so on.

Here I will give you a complete review of the best self help books I have read and continue to read, who they are for and how they will benefit you and what the book is missing or where it is lacking in my opinion.Where possible, I will also provide you with links for related material.

It takes time and costs money to buy and read a book, so I feel it is important that the book you choose is the, or one of the, best self help books for you as an individual and will benefit you in relation to where you are at in life.

Enjoy

Shortly after its release, The Secret took the world by storm and is now in print in approx 40 different languages around the globe!

What is The Secret? The Secret is the law of attraction. The book explains what the law of attraction is and how it affects our day to day lives. There are many extremely well respected and successful teachers involved in the The Secret, who explain how the knowledge has affected their own personal and business lives and led them to the abundance of wealth and health they enjoy today.

By applying the processes described in this book, you will more than likely, in fact almost definitely, feel happier and more cheerful day to day, and there's a good chance that it will inspire you to take steps towards your dreams.

Throughout the world there has been an incredible amount of gratitude expressed by its readers for its miraculous life changing results.

However, whether this is due to the scientific reasons described in the book or whether it is due to the fact that the book leaves you feeling inspired, science has yet to prove. Also, I would have liked to have seen a little more in the way of exercises and possibly some audio material to aid visualization.

I would say this is one of the few self help books out there that applies to all people. Whether you are looking to relieve stress, make friends, succeed in business, become a better person, or whatever, the teachings are things which you can apply to any situation really, as they are based on a universal law.

No matter what, this book will go down in history as a truly epic and significant creation within the self help community.

CWG (Conversations With God) first hit the shelves in 1995 and was nothing less than a publishing phenomenon. This book actually remained on the New York Times best sellers list for around 140 weeks! From there, Neale produced a series, CWG Book 2, Book 3 (See the links on the right)

CWG is NOT religious, but rather, deeply spiritual. Neale, the author, starts the book by explaining that he was very unhappy in life and couldn't seem to catch a break. He began to write down his problems as questions... why can't I... how come I always... then suddenly, as he finished writing down the questions, the answers mysteriously formed in his mind, which he quickly wrote down before posing another question. The book is written as a dialogue between Neale and what he believes to be God. Neale asks some very interesting questions and the answers he receives are not what you would expect and really made me think (they even discuss the meaning of life!)

This book has touched the world, and I can see why. It really has changed the lives of millions. CWG is not a guide and to be honest, not really a self help book as such, but the information and teachings within the pages cover so many topics and in such a way, that it would be difficult not to learn from. The following books in the series do however target specific issues, but reading the first one first is the only way to properly understand them.

The only bad points I can really provide you with here, is that there is a chance that the whole thing was put together deliberately, although Neale has assured us that his claim is genuine. And that the following books in the series tend to repeat a lot of information. This could however be a plus for some because they explain how the teachings affect various aspects of life. Personally, I found the first book provided enough information for me to figure out the rest (but then I am the sort of person who breaks everything down to a formula)

This book is not geared towards a particular type of person with particular needs, but everyone could and almost definitely would learn something from it.

Of all the books I have read in my life, nothing has come close to CWG for me, and I'm pretty certain nothing ever will. I read it ten years ago and there is probably not one week gone by where I haven't thought about it. The book is so beautifully written and connects so deeply with the reader, it actually brought me to tears more than once. It filled a gap in my life, and completely changed the way I view the world and everyone in it to this very day, whatever your beliefs are about God, this book makes sense.

The Chicken Soup For The Soul Series consists of over 100 titles and has sold over 110 million copies worldwide! Many targeting particular lifestyles and industries and specific groups of people

The books are basically compilations of short inspirational stories about people overcoming adversity or going beyond the call of duty to help others and so on.

These books are great for motivation and inspiration and generally will make you feel good about life. They provide you with lots of good news and feel good stories the newspapers so avidly avoid. Also, you can learn from the stories what it might take to succeed in life and they show you that 'hurdles' in life can be overcome. When reading these stories, think about how they could apply to you personally and you will get more out of them.

There's no real downside to these book other than they do not really go into detail as to how you can use the information to help yourself, but then again, that's not really the idea. Basically, what you see is what you get. Like I said above, read into the stories.

The people who will benefit from these books are people looking for inspiration or people who are looking to lift their spirits or people who might have lost faith in themselves or indeed the human race. The best thing in my opinion, is that there is something for pretty much everybody here, since there are so many different titles to cover a wide variety of needs.

Jack Canfield and the various co-authors have clearly filled a great need for good, positive, inspirational brain food here, something which unfortunately has apparently seemed to evade the public for far too long!

The Success Principles is another of Jack's successful publications, first published in 2005 and in his usual Canfield style, shot up into the top ten in the New York Times best sellers list (#2 Feb 6th 2005)

What is this book about? Well, it pretty much 'does as it says on the tin'. Jack has compiled 64 principles for achieving success and laid them out in the contents of this book in an inspirational fashion. There are inspirational stories, clever metaphors, techniques to use, visual aids and good advice aplenty.

He guides you through a series of well thought out questions to discover your life's purpose and from there, helps you to decide what it is you actually want, then provides advice and methods as to how to achieve those things. He explains what might be holding you back and how to remedy your limiting beliefs. He also provides guidance on using mental and physical exercises to put the past behind you and take the lessons you've learned to move onwards and upwards

To touch on the negative side of this book, I found there was just so much information to take in at once. I've read it twice and have used post it notes to mark the pages for referral purposes. I think to get the most out of this book, you would do well to follow Jack's advice in the introduction where he recommends you read the book once in its entirety, then start again at the beginning and implement the teachings from each chapter until it becomes habit, before moving onto the next one. Also if you are not money orientated, then you may find yourself skimming through a great deal of the content although Jack does attempt to relate his teachings to other non money orientated success such as parenting. I forgive Jack for focusing a great deal of the book on monetary wealth though, as so many people relate success to money.

As with all self help books and as Jack stresses throughout the book, reading a book like this will not change your life. You really do need to take the time and put in the effort to build these success principles into your everyday life to see the results you are seeking, but the content is well explained and the principles are actually very simple and would definitely work if applied.

First published in 1987, Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway has reached far and wide has helped millions feel their fear and do it anyway. From there, Susan has produced quite a large collection of similar themed titles which you can view at the link below.

The content of this book helps you to understand what fear is and how it is affecting your life before then providing you with some useful pictorals and techniques you can use to push yourself outside your comfort zone and begin to live the life you seek

This book has been highly recommended by other big name self help authors, who credit a little of their success to its teachings. Also, due to the fact that the book is still in print today and still selling extremely well, I can only assume that there are still people out there talking about it and passing on good reviews to others, which means it is clearly doing its job!

I must admit, I read this book due to recommendations, but I was not struggling with fear at the time. I did learn a little though and it has come in useful on occasions when I've found myself in a fight or flight scenario.

The downside to this book is that if like me, you have read a lot of self help books, there isn't much fresh information to learn from it (to be fair though, I'm pretty sure the other books I've read that deal with fear are derived from the information Susan provided in this book, it's just I read the others first).

So if you haven't really touched on dealing with fear, then this is the book for you. This is the book that pretty much formed the basis of all the other information you will learn about fear. Also, if you feel as though fear is playing a rather large part in tying you down in life, then you will no doubt benefit from reading the wise words of the pioneer herself.

All in all, clearly a good book, indicated by its phenomenal success over so many years. Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway, is concise and well written and Susan has a lovely way with words that makes you feel warm and comfortable when you read it.

Think And Grow Rich was originally published in 1937 and has sold over 15 million copies over the years and continues to sell well to this day.

This book is very cleverly written. It has been put together in such a way that forces you, as the reader, to think for yourself rather than just throwing information at you. The book is based around 13 timeless principles which will ensure monetary wealth for the reader providing one follows the principles consistently and accurately. The clever part is that Napoleon doesn’t give us the principles as a list, but rather provides us with true stories of successful people, metaphors and examples from his own knowledge based upon the 20 years worth of interviews he held with over 500 of the most affluent men and women of his time, from which the reader must extract the relevant information. Having someone think for themselves in this way, is by far the best way to teach something new while developing the reader’s ability to dissect a situation or incident and learn from it. As with many other self help books, this one focuses on the importance of faith and how to acquire it, visualisation, goal setting, the power of the subconscious, intuition and more. The revised version replaces old stories of people you may not have heard of, with more familiar names in our generation such as Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg but which exemplify the originals perfectly, proving that the principles are timeless.

Upon reading this book, no matter how many self help books you have read, you can expect to pick up something new. The more information you can digest on a topic, the more ammo you have for your success arsenal.

Bad points? I found some of the true success stories went into a little too much detail for my liking and found myself skimming through them purely looking for keywords to extract the meaning.

This book is for those who quite simply wish to have more money, those who would like to develop a rich mindset and let go of the negative thought patterns holding them back and for those seeking inspiration.

To summarise, Think and Grow Rich is a bestselling self help classic with plenty of inspirational and educational nutrients for your brain to sink its teeth into. If you like a book to keep you interested and make you think, you’ll really like this one.

Paul Mckenna Ph.D. is the worlds leading hypnotist and a hugely successful best selling self help author. This is a review of Instant Confidence, see the links on the right for his other publications.

Instant confidence, which comes with a hypnosis CD is a book which incorporates hypnosis into its teachings. The book is written in such a way that when you listen to the CD having read the book, the effects are intensified. The book explains perfectly how you can re-map your mind to achieve greater confidence, but not only that, along with the hypnosis CD, it does a great deal of the work for you. There are exercises to keep you involved and plenty of information as to why and how the teachings work.

Paul has really transformed a great number of peoples lives through his clever 'treat the root of the problem' methods, and has helped people not only with confidence issues but many more

No matter where your problems or issues lie right now, you can almost certainly guarantee that your mind is at the root of it. That is where hypnosis comes in. You listen to the CD every day for a said number of days and read the book and your subconscious mind will receive everything it needs to receive in order to push you towards your goals.

The negatives of this book and audio CD are that you need to commit to listening to the audio as specified for lasting results and the other thing is, once the book/audio has helped you to develop the right mindset, it is then up to you to find ways to put it into action, however you may already have something in mind (such as engaging in public speaking as part of your career or confronting your boss at work to negotiate a payrise to mention a couple of examples), in which case you will be all set and ready to go.

This book/audio CD is for anyone and everyone who would like to gain confidence. Confidence is an extremely important ingredient in life, no matter what you want. As long as you control your confidence so as not to be arrogant, confidence will always bring you the success you deserve.

The Science Of Getting Rich was first published in 1910. Many super financially successful people, including many self help authors, claim that they owe a great deal of their success to this book.

Wallace claims he has found the scientific formula to getting rich ethically and in a growth facilitating way. The basic principle of this book is that to get rich, you should find a solution to a need which needs to be filled, and sell it at a cost that is profitable for you, but less than the ‘use’ value to the buyer, so everyone is a winner. The teachings are also heavily based around visualisation and applied faith that you are receiving monetary wealth now. This book is very well written and there are some very interesting insights with regards to the source of all tangible substance and the purpose of the existence of life itself.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of very wealthy people out there who claim that much of their financial success was due to the teachings of this book, which set the foundations for the steps they took towards attaining their highest aspirations. Anyone who has read a number of self help books and/or autobiographies of the financially wealthy will no doubt have seen the title crop up on several occasions.

However you look at it, if you follow the teachings of this book, it is easy to understand how you would ultimately advance in pursuit of your financial goals. Think rich and remain focused while persistently moving towards monetary success.

The not so good points I am going to mention about this book are that since it was written in a different era, times have changed a little. Wallace advises the reader not to read any other books relating to getting rich as they may conflict with his and his way is the right way. Although this may have been true then, nowadays I would suggest people use this as the basis of their mindset but continue to seek actual business advice and opportunities to which they can apply the techniques. We live in a world now where there are thousands of business opportunities out there that people don’t even know exist, such as the various forms of internet marketing for example, whereas back then, the best routes to wealth were a little more well known

This is a book for anyone who can’t seem to acquire wealth. So many people are held back due to a poor mindset and nothing else. The Science Of Getting Rich will open your mind and help you to think differently.

When all said and done, this book has managed to claim a well respected status and a place on the shelves of many a respectable wealth guru within the self help industry, and has really stood the test of time since it was published 100 years ago.

Bestselling Author Tony Robbins’ Awaken The Giant Within has helped millions achieve success since it was published in 1992

Like all Tony’s books, Awaken The Giant Within is very content rich. He begins by covering his own journey then breaks down the fundamentals for you, such as using pain/pleasure to your advantage, the power of focus, decision making, goal setting, eliminating limiting beliefs and much more. Tony has an incredible gift for connecting with his audience, whether in writing or at a seminar, in such a way that it leaves them feeling extremely inspired. The insights Tony provides in this book do not only provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the mechanics of achieving success but also leaves them inspired enough to begin to take the steps to actually achieve their goals. Also he includes inspirational true stories, not just to motivate and inspire, but to prove that the principles he teaches have actually been used to change the world as successful people have applied the same methods he teaches to their own goals. Tony keeps the reader interested too as he very clearly explains his points using diagrams and metaphors and keeps it very interactive with exercises to carry out throughout the book.

As Tony mentions early on in the book, the practices he teaches have earned him an outrageous number of loyal fans and followers and an inspirational trail of new found success among his readers.

What can you expect to gain from this book? Expect to find out a lot about yourself and how you are operating and where you can improve. Expect to learn techniques you can apply daily which will alter your mindset and push you in the direction of your goals. As I mentioned above, you will be left inspired enough to get out there and get started.

I have no bad comments to make about this book other than that you will need to implement the teachings persistently and consistently to see the results you seek. But that is to be expected. Also the book isn’t designed to provide you with business ideas, but if you already have goals (even vague ones), this book will provide you with the tools you will need to get up and go.

Who will benefit from this book? Anyone who is looking to improve themselves in general and who have an idea of what they want to do but are procrastinating for whatever reason. Also people who want to take their business to the next level, or are looking to renew their inspiration and recreate some fresh motivation.

Altogether, this is a very insightful and useful book to have which provides a wide variety of easy to use methods for self improvement not just financially, but emotionally and physically too.