Best self-help books?

shadowcrane192 said:I am asking because, in my experience, the impact of what I read only lingers for maybe three or four weeks. During that brief window, the brain still retains a sort of automatic recall of the material. But once those few weeks pass, the demands of real life begin to take precedence; the mind reverts to its "natural state," and whatever I have read is relegated to the background. Now, when I say "natural state," I don't necessarily mean a healthy or even a correct way of functioning—rather, I mean the way the mind is biologically predisposed to operate. It suggests that the reading hasn't truly altered my internal architecture; instead, it functioned much like a temporary pill designed to address a symptom before fading away entirely.

I went through the exact same thing myself. Eventually, I started writing down the most vital pieces of advice on actual paper, and I made it a point to read them every single morning and evening. I kept doing it until applying those principles became a subconscious habit rather than a chore. Give it a shot.

James Sanchez12 said:I’ve gone through those last two myself, and they aren't half bad. I picked up "power of the universe" by Joseph Murphy, and honestly, that one resonated much more deeply with me—though, in my experience, none of these books do much good unless you actually start putting the advice into practice. It wasn't until I began applying the principles that things finally started clicking for me regarding certain aspects of my life.

I've been meaning to get my hands on "The Power of the Subconscious Mind," but every single time I stop by the local library to check it out, it’s somehow already checked out! :-)

Ugh, I just grabbed a copy of "Believe in Yourself" from Barnes & Noble the day before yesterday.
I was worried I'd made a mistake because I later found out the author was a priest, and I thought it would just be some mindless rambling about God.
😳

Anthony Bailey said:This month, I've been digging through the Law of Attraction, Michael Losier, and Harmonic Wealth by James Arthur Ray.
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Basically, I attract whatever I dump my attention, energy, and focus into—doesn't matter if it's positive or negative.
Law of Attraction, Michael Losier

I’ve never been able to stomach this whole "Law of Attraction" nonsense found in self-help books. They repackage it under a dozen different names—like that massive hit "The Secret"—all preaching about how some intense "faith" will magically fix your life. Tried it once. It doesn't work. 😁

shadowcrane192 said:Has anyone here actually delved into the titles found in those local bookstores under the "self-help" section? I find myself wondering if any of you have derived genuine value from them, or if it is all merely an exercise in selling smoke and mirrors. If you have encountered anything truly substantive, I would certainly welcome your recommendations.

There was a time when I used to devour this stuff—literally. A lot of it is pure nonsense, especially that "spiritual" self-help garbage. They love to throw in those pseudo-scientific lies about quantum physics and whatnot to sound legitimate.

The list of things I can actually recommend is pretty short. Take Wayne Dyer, for example—but only his early stuff before he started hanging out with Deepak Chopra 😵. Something like *How to Be a No-Limit Person* is decent. Then there's Maxwell Maltz - Psycho-Cybernetics, maybe Brian Tracy - Psychology of Achievement, or even Brad Blanton - Radical Honesty.
Hopefully my spelling wasn't too much of a mess 🙂
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As for the big-name bestsellers? Usually the most useless ones in my experience 🤷—way too oversimplified and written with poetic fluff that makes them practically impossible to apply in the real world.

Those books are fine while you're actually reading them... but once you close the cover, it all goes in one ear and out the other.😁

Brandon Jackson49 said:Essentially, it lays out how you can achieve your goals by tapping into something we all possess but rarely truly grasp: the power of our own subconscious. It demonstrates that our state of mind, our physical health, and even the opportunities we encounter are direct reflections of how we think, feel, and believe. It strikes this perfect balance between high-level theory and practical mental techniques to ground those concepts.
I really appreciated the writing style; it isn't bogged down by overly complex jargon or convoluted sentences. The point is clear as day and very easy to digest.

Like any book in this genre, it shouldn't just be read—it needs to be internalized and applied. That is its defining characteristic. Without practice, all the theory in the world is just useless noise...

There's truth to that. This book found its way into my hands exactly when I needed it most, and it delivered results. Honestly, I regret neglecting it for a while; I let other things get in the way and stopped practicing what I learned, which felt like circling back to square one. But as of this morning, I've picked it up again and am getting back to work.

To what extent do all these various mental techniques mentioned in different books actually overlap with NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)? Is it essentially the same set of principles merely presented through a different lens?

placidranger said:I’ve never been able to stomach this whole "Law of Attraction" nonsense found in self-help books. They repackage it under a dozen different names—like that massive hit "The Secret"—all preaching about how some intense "faith" will magically fix your life. Tried it once. It doesn't work. 😁

Personally, I think it’s perfectly logical. You end up in certain situations and surrounded by specific people based on your mindset and how you view the world.
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You are attracting to you the predominant thought that you hold in your awareness whether that thought are conscious or unconscious.
The movie font>.

Anthony Bailey said:Personally, I think it’s perfectly logical. You end up in certain situations and surrounded by specific people based on your mindset and how you view the world.
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You are attracting to you the predominant thought that you hold in your awareness whether that thought are conscious or unconscious.
The movie font>.

On one level, sure—you’re going to seek out people who fit your vibe and hang out with them, but that doesn't happen just because of thoughts—it happens because of actions (which might be driven by those thoughts, but there's no point obsessing over it while sitting in a room).

You are attracting to you the predominant thought that you hold in your awareness whether that thought are conscious or unconscious.
The movie The Secret

That kind of rhetoric just doesn't sit right with me, even though it shows up in hundreds of books. The sentence itself is nonsensical—what even are "unconscious thoughts"? And the Law of Attraction doesn't work either—by its own logic, everyone would be solely responsible for every tragedy that hits them.

Go hunt down a book that’ll actually help you get a grip on how you act and think, something that forces you to wake up to who you really are and what you're actually capable of—you know, stuff you can actually use when life starts hitting the fan in the real world.

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I’m with Peter Phillips32 on this one.
placidranger, look, when I’m reading or watching something, I don't waste my damn time. I grab what actually makes sense, underline it, write it down, and actually learn it. If it isn't real advice for actual, real-world problems, it's just garbage to me. I'm not interested in fluff.

Anthony Bailey said:😳
I’m with Peter Phillips32 on this one.
placidranger, look, when I’m reading or watching something, I don't waste my damn time. I grab what actually makes sense, underline it, write it down, and actually learn it. If it isn't real advice for actual, real-world problems, it's just garbage to me. I'm not interested in fluff.

There might be some decent stuff buried in The Secret—I'm not saying there isn't—it's just mostly been overhyped and watered down into something overly simplistic.

placidranger said:There might be some decent stuff buried in The Secret—I'm not saying there isn't—it's just mostly been overhyped and watered down into something overly simplistic.

Where'd you even find that? 🤷

hiddenhawk3 said:Where'd you even find that? 🤷

Books? I download them—mostly via torrents.

Peter Phillips32 said:Go hunt down a book that’ll actually help you get a grip on how you act and think, something that forces you to wake up to who you really are and what you're actually capable of—you know, stuff you can actually use when life starts hitting the fan in the real world.

There you go. That sums it up perfectly. I’m with you on this. Every single person has to figure out why they’re even looking for this kind of literature in the first place; you have to tailor it to your own specific needs and your own capacity for change. I’ve burned through a mountain of books myself, and honestly? I’d bet 80% of them are garbage. They're incomplete, riddled with contradictions, inaccurate, vague, or just totally lacking any practical application. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate them—I view them positively—but that’s just the reality. You only realize how flawed they are once you've had enough time to evolve or do some actual self-work. Even the bad ones helped me scrape through certain rough patches or phases of my life. Anyone can write a book, and anyone can convince themselves they're an expert. A lot of these authors forget that we aren't carbon copies; they push a "one size fits all" approach, which is useless. There isn't a soul alive who wouldn't benefit from some high-quality guidance if they actually put in the effort. The problem is that most people refuse to let go of their old ways, and without sacrifice, there is no transformation.

"I'm just not buying that kind of nonsense. It’s the same tired rhetoric stretched thin across hundreds of books. That whole sentence is fundamentally meaningless—what even are these 'subconscious thoughts' people keep droning on about? And don't get me started on the Law of Attraction. If that actually worked, everyone would be personally responsible for every single tragedy that hits them."

We’re talking about the subconscious here—that non-conscious slice of our total awareness that is just as real as anything else within us. Every single thing, every experience, every sound, every scent... everything you've ever lived through in this life (and perhaps even past ones) is tucked away in the subconscious. It is a fundamental shape of our very existence. It dictates our daily lives through memory, logic, emotion, and those automatic reactions we can barely control. And because of this subconscious—because of those ingrained patterns we've picked up—we end up attracting suffering into our lives. Unresolved issues, endless cycles... honestly, in a way, we are responsible for it all.

We’re talking about the subconscious—that non-conscious layer of our total awareness that is just as real as anything else. Every single thing we've ever encountered—every sound, every scent, every lived experience in this life (and maybe others)—is tucked away in there. It's essentially how we exist. It builds our daily reality through memory, logic, emotion, and those automatic reactions we can't seem to stop. Because of this subconscious programming and those deep-seated habits, we end up inviting suffering into our lives—those endless, unresolved cycles—and, frankly, we bear some responsibility for it.

Sure, you could interpret it that way, but no matter how you slice it—thoughts don't actually pull physical objects toward us (unless we're speaking metaphorically).

shadowcrane192 said:Has anyone here actually delved into the titles found in those local bookstores under the "self-help" section? I find myself wondering if any of you have derived genuine value from them, or if it is all merely an exercise in selling smoke and mirrors. If you have encountered anything truly substantive, I would certainly welcome your recommendations.

Doesn't that category basically fall under the same umbrella as those "romance and erotica" PDFs?

placidranger said:

We’re talking about the subconscious—that non-conscious layer of our total awareness that is just as real as anything else. Every single thing we've ever encountered—every sound, every scent, every lived experience in this life (and maybe others)—is tucked away in there. It's essentially how we exist. It builds our daily reality through memory, logic, emotion, and those automatic reactions we can't seem to stop. Because of this subconscious programming and those deep-seated habits, we end up inviting suffering into our lives—those endless, unresolved cycles—and, frankly, we bear some responsibility for it.

Sure, you could interpret it that way, but no matter how you slice it—thoughts don't actually pull physical objects toward us (unless we're speaking metaphorically).

How exactly do you plan on explaining that? 😉

placidranger said:

We’re talking about the subconscious—that non-conscious layer of our total awareness that is just as real as anything else. Every single thing we've ever encountered—every sound, every scent, every lived experience in this life (and maybe others)—is tucked away in there. It's essentially how we exist. It builds our daily reality through memory, logic, emotion, and those automatic reactions we can't seem to stop. Because of this subconscious programming and those deep-seated habits, we end up inviting suffering into our lives—those endless, unresolved cycles—and, frankly, we bear some responsibility for it.

Sure, you could interpret it that way, but no matter how you slice it—thoughts don't actually pull physical objects toward us (unless we're speaking metaphorically).

🙂 I guess that's just because that's how you're thinking about it.

placidranger said:There was a time when I used to devour this stuff—literally. A lot of it is pure nonsense, especially that "spiritual" self-help garbage. They love to throw in those pseudo-scientific lies about quantum physics and whatnot to sound legitimate.

The list of things I can actually recommend is pretty short. Take Wayne Dyer, for example—but only his early stuff before he started hanging out with Deepak Chopra 😵. Something like *How to Be a No-Limit Person* is decent. Then there's Maxwell Maltz - Psycho-Cybernetics, maybe Brian Tracy - Psychology of Achievement, or even Brad Blanton - Radical Honesty.
Hopefully my spelling wasn't too much of a mess 🙂
.
As for the big-name bestsellers? Usually the most useless ones in my experience 🤷—way too oversimplified and written with poetic fluff that makes them practically impossible to apply in the real world.

To me, Wayne Dyer is nothing more than a complete fraud. It feels like he just grabs these ancient Taoist tales, gives them his own spin, and—from what I’ve personally seen—he interprets them incredibly poorly. That lack of depth is exactly what ruins his books. Honestly, I might just grab an old sheet and write my own version of this nonsense above. interpretation by electrictiger70, because one day, that was the very thing that triggered my self-hanging. And that’s essentially the gist of his statement regarding why he decided to pursue this path. All in all. 👎 Deepak Chopra is a total fraud, but Wayne Dyer honestly reminds me of those cheap snake oil salesmen you see on late-night TV. ☕

So, then there’s Maxwell Maltz - Psycho-Cybernetics.

Is Psycho-Cybernetics essentially the same thing as NLP? I’ve been wondering if we’re looking at two distinct disciplines or just different names for the same fundamental concept. Are they truly separate entities, or is one just a derivative of the other?

Perhaps we should look into Brian Tracy - Psychology of Achievement, or maybe even consider Brad Blanton - Radical Honesty.
I hope I didn't make too many typos. 🙂

I’ve said it a thousand times before, but I really can't recommend Brad Blanton-radical to anyone looking for real change. It's essential. 👍👍 That guy is a legitimate Gestalt psychotherapist. You can tell right away that the book was written by someone who actually knows their stuff—at least most of the time—rather than some self-proclaimed guru looking for a quick following.

There is actually quite a bit of substance to be found within the self-help genre, provided you have the discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff. Unfortunately, the editions available in local bookstores here often miss the mark, as the selection tends to be rather poor. If you have the opportunity to order directly from Amazon, however, I’d say go for it—you can find just about anything interesting there. Personally, I highly recommend leaning toward authors like Brad Blanton, or perhaps some semi-spiritual works like Zen or Buddhism. For instance, Alan Watts and Jack Kornfield are excellent choices. Even though they can occasionally get a bit intense, at least they keep one foot firmly planted on the ground, unlike most of those charlatans who spend their entire lives drifting in the clouds.