Self-help books. Does that genre make you cringe? Me too, sometimes. I still have The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on my bookshelf – completely unopened. I assume the first habit is “actually read the book.” I’ll probably never know.
But I have read plenty of life-changing nonfiction books that impacted me in small ways. How do I define a “self-help” book? Broadly… and creatively. For me, it’s anything that inspired me, motivated me, or left a nugget of wisdom that stuck.
My favorite personal growth books focus on mental health, spirituality, business and creative ventures, or simply how to have more fun in life! Sure, I’ve read the classic improvement gurus like James Clear and Simon Sinek. But I’ve also picked up life lessons from Jenny Lawson and Rainn Wilson (yes, Dwight from The Office).
These are my favorites. (Your results may vary.)
Just so you know – I could get an affiliate commission if you link from my site and buy a product. Hopefully, I’ll accumulate enough affiliate commission to buy myself a coffee someday! Not Starbucks or anything like that. But maybe a plain small coffee from a gas station on the edge of town.
Table of Contents
The Best Personal Growth Books I’ve Read!
| Title | Author | Year Published | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World | David Epstein | 2019 | A data-rich case for meandering across skillsets and various domains. Generalists aren’t flaky – they are built to tackle wicked problems. |
| Furiously Happy | Jenny Lawson | 2015 | Mental health memoir + absurdist comedy. Finding joy, sometimes out of spite. |
| Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps | Kelly Williams Brown | 2013 | A practical, funny checklist for the real world: bills, boundaries, and basic competence. |
| The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | Mark Manson | 2016 | Prioritize your limited give-a-f*cks. The point isn’t “positive vibes only,” it’s choosing what to focus on. |
| The Fun Habit | Mike Rucker | 2023 | Make fun a deliberate practice, not a rare accident. Tiny, planned jolts of joy boost resilience. |
| Just Making | Matali Perkins | 2025 | A guide for creatives who care about justice. How to make meaningful work without burning out. |
| Soul Boom | Rainn Wilson | 2023 | A call for a spiritual reboot aimed at healing modern angst. |
| All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten | Robert Fulghum | 1986 | Simple, wholesome rules for a decent life: share, clean up, be kind. Still shockingly useful. |
| How to Be a Coffee Bean | Jon Gordon & Damon West | 2023 | 111 nuggets for being the change in your environment (instead of being changed by it). |
| Atomic Habits | James Clear | 2018 | Systems > goals. Small changes, repeated, beat grand plans that you never actually execute. |
| Building a Non-Anxious Life | John Delony | 2023 | Six daily choices to shrink anxiety by stacking connection, health, and reality over worry. |
| The Power of Fun | Catherine Price | 2021 | “True Fun” (playfulness + connection + flow) is a health habit, not a guilty pleasure. |
| Start with Why | Simon Sinek | 2009 | Purpose drives trust and action. Lead (and live) from the why, not the what. |
| Stories That Stick | Kindra Hall | 2019 | Four story types to persuade and teach – so ideas actually land. |
| Essays Out of Left Field | Scott Johnson | 2023 | Midwestern dad humor. Sports, family, and the occasional existential crisis. (Hi. It’s me.) |
Motivational Nonfiction Books to Inspire Greatness (or at least slight improvements)
Range Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World — David Epstein
- Big idea: breadth before depth. Specialization isn’t always the best path to solving the most challenging problems.
- Why it connected with me: I’m a serial dabbler. This book made me feel less broken and more strategic about my master-of-none ways. Or maybe it was confirmation bias.
- How I’ve applied it: It’s basically how I live every day. I have too many interests to be singularly focused on any one thing. I’m not Tiger Woods.
Read my full review (Coming Soon!)
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things — Jenny Lawson
- Big idea: Life is hard. Sometimes we need to fight to find happiness.
- Why it connected: Jenny Lawson is unhinged and hilarious. I need more unhinged hilarity in my life. And maybe a taxidermized racoon or 2.
- How I’ve applied it: Lean into my own goofiness. Sometimes it’s the solution to my problems.
Want more funny books about mental health? Try these!
Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps — Kelly Williams Brown
- Big idea: adulthood is a skill set you can learn. Lists help.
- Why it connected: I am definitely not the target audience Kelly Williams Brown intended. She wrote from a perspective of a 20-something single female trying to figure out adulthood. But darn it, her steps (now 535) were pretty useful for this old man!
- Applied: Step #74: Master Oatmeal. So simple and effective.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life — Mark Manson
- Big idea: Positive thinking isn’t always the answer. Sometimes life sucks. But we can choose what to care about. (and what NOT to.)
- Why it connected: I needed this counterintuitive dose of reality.
- Applied: Accept my own flaws. Accept that bad things can happen sometimes. Read books with more swear words in the title.
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
Want more books with swear words in the title? Apparently, I’ve read a few of them!
Bunmi Laditan’s Toddlers are A**holes
Book Review: Humans A Brief History of How We’ve F*d it All Up
The Fun Habit: How the Disciplined Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life — Mike Rucker
- Big idea: schedule fun like a workout; it compounds.
- Why it connected: I truly believe seeking out fun is important. Just need help finding it sometimes!
- Applied: Still working on it. But I do wear fun socks on Fridays.
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
Just Making: A Guide for Compassiontate Creatives — Mitali Perkins
- Big idea: make art that serves people, sustainably (and JUST-ly)
- Why it connected: I sometime wonder where art (writing, creating) fits in the grand scheme of importance in the world. Is creating art “selfish” when there are serious problems in the world? Nonsense says Perkins. Creating art is part of the solution.
- Applied: Well, I’m still here writing and creating blog posts, aren’t I?
Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution — Rainn Wilson
- Big idea: a practical spiritual reboot for a modern world with lots of problems.
- Why it connected: A different, fresh perspective from my Lutheran faith. Yet Wilson makes the call for cultivating spirituality universal.
- Applied: Keep feeding my faith (going to church, etc.) And also remember to re-watch The Office.
Are you a fan of The Office? Try these!
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things — Robert Fulghum
- Big idea: Kindergarten rules scale up to adult life: share, say sorry, clean up.
- Why it connected: Common sense, wholesome, life lessons. My kind of self-help advice!
- Applied: “Leave it better than you found it” policy at home and work.
How to Be a Coffee Bean: 111 Life-Changing Ways to Create Positive Change — Jon Gordon & Damon West
- Big idea: don’t soak up the pot; flavor it. 111 tiny ways.
- Why it connected: I saw Damon West speak in person. From prison to speaking to the Minnesota Timberwolves (my team!) He must be doing something right.
- Applied: I have the power to change the environment around me (like a coffee bean to hot water!)
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones — James Clear
- Big idea: Goals are overrated. Focus on building systems that make success inevitable.
- Why it connected: I need simple, actionable steps. Clear provided those clearly. Plus I didn’t want to be the only person on the planet not to read this book.
- Applied: Started a daily gratitude journal!
Building a Non-Anxious Life — Dr. John Delony
- Big idea: six daily choices that crowd out anxiety.
- Why it connected: Anxiety? We go way back! Always looking for tools to fight the beast.
- Applied: Realizing anxiety is just a smoke alarm to deeper problems. Address the root cause (the fire!)
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again — Catherine Price
- Big idea: “True Fun” = playfulness + connection + flow.
- Why it connected: I believe fun is crucial. Wasn’t hard to convince me to read.
- Applied: started to decrease dependence on my phone (“fake fun”!) Still have a long way to go.
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action — Simon Sinek
- Big idea: purpose inspires; features don’t.
- Why it connected: It clarified my own “why” for writing: help people laugh, learn and be inspired.
- Applied: I try to consider the WHY of my tasks, rather than focusing on what or how. Sometimes, I find the task isn’t necessary at all!
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audience, and Transform Your Buisiness — Kindra Hall
- Big idea: four story types that sell ideas without being salesy.
- Why it connected: Kind of my thing – storytelling! This gave me actual, proven frameworks to work from. Saw Kindra Hall speak at the Global Leadership Conference in 2024 (via web broadcast.)
- Applied: Focused more on the “customer” (my readers) rather than just self-indulging storytelling. Ah who am I kidding, all my stories are self-indulgent!
Check out my full review! (Coming Soon!)
Essays Out of Left Field — Scott Johnson
- Big idea: humor is a delivery system for perspective and inspiration.
- Why it connected: Because I wrote it.
- Applied: Yes.
Want a free chapter? Grab it here
Conclusion: The Best Personal Growth Books I’ve Ever Read.
I’ll never be the fully optimized, green-juice-drinking productivity superhero personal development books describe. But a few of their lessons have helped me live a little better (and remember to have fun along the way.) I’ll call that a win. But, I still haven’t read 7 Habits, so there’s clearly room to grow.
What are your favorite self improvement books! (Leave a comment below.)
Pingback: Life Lessons Books: Funny, Honest Reads That Actually Teach You Something - Scott Johnson Author
Pingback: Rainn Wilson’s Soul Boom Book: A Funny Spiritual Wake-Up Call - Scott Johnson Author
Pingback: Robert Fulghum Book Review: Like Kindergarten - Nap More, Worry Less - Scott Johnson Author
Pingback: Review: Birdie and Harlow, Because Dogs > Kids Sometimes - Scott Johnson Author
Pingback: Building a Non Anxious Life Review: An Anxious Dad Reads John Delony - Scott Johnson Author
Pingback: Start With Why Book Review: Does It Still Hold Up? - Scott Johnson