25 Best Self Development Books to read in your 20s

When you’re starting your life journey, you often start off blindly with no idea on what you should do. It then gets stressful because you have no idea what to do or where to go. You wonder how life will go for you after college or what you should do in relation to your goals and ambitions.

But one of the first reassurances you need to tell yourself is that no one has all the answers they need to immediately skyrocket their career. When Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both established their companies, they heavily relied on books to guide them through their hardships.

Everyone starts off with questions no matter where they begin and they read books to uncover those answers. Perhaps you have a negativity problem or a lack of motivation. Either way, reading is meant to feed you with possible ideas on how to be the best version of yourself. It saves you months and years of struggling to find yourself because you’re reading the experiences of those who already suffered what you’re going through.

Rather than blindly searching for books to determine which ones will help you in the start of your journey, here are 25 best development books to read in your 20s.

1.The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field by Nathaniel Branden

The Six Pillars Of Self-Esteem is essential for anyone who wants to accelerate their self-esteem. Branden introduces the six pillars-six action-based practices for daily living that provide the foundation for self-esteem.

He explores the central importance of self-esteem in five areas: the workplace, parenting, education, psychotherapy, and the culture at large. The work provides concrete guidelines for teachers, parents, managers, and therapists who are responsible for developing the self-esteem of others.

2. Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind: Revolutionary Methods to Release All Barriers to Health, Healing and Happiness by Ph.D Henry Grayson

Through years of research and helping his private clients, Dr. Grayson has developed a step-by-step formula to identify what keeps people stuck repeating unproductive activities.

You will learn how to identify the origins of automatic, and most often, unconscious behaviors through informational questionnaires, easy to do exercises, and clear explanations on how to become more aware of conscious thought patterns that contribute to this vicious cycle of trying but not succeeding in long term positive actions.

3. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine

Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences.

You will be taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern your responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that helps you focus on bodily sensations.

4. Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More by Joe Vitale

Joe Vitale was once homeless. Now, he’s the millionaire author of numerous bestselling books, an Internet celebrity, and an in-demand online marketing guru.

What happened to create all of that success? How did he make it happen? Was it hard work, divine providence, or both? The answer may surprise you.

It wasn’t until he discovered the ancient Hawaiian Ho’oponopono system that he finally found truly unlimited success. Updated for modern times, Ho’oponopono is a self-help methodology that removes the mental obstacles that block your path, freeing your mind to find new and unexpected ways to get what you want out of life.

5. The Road Less Traveled, Timeless Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck

The Road Less Traveled helps you explore the very nature of loving relationships and leads you toward a new serenity and fullness of life.

You’ll learn how to distinguish dependency from love, how to become a more sensitive parent, and ultimately how to become one’s own true self.

6. Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! by Tony Robbins

A great book to start your self development journey for the lifestyle you want. Anthony Robbins provides a step-by-step program teaching the fundamental lessons of self-mastery that will enable you to discover your true purpose, take control of your life, and harness the forces that shape your destiny.

7. The Breakout Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes Creativity, Athletic Performance, Productivity, and Personal Well-Being by Herbert Benson

Would it surprise you to learn that to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, you need to get up and leave the room? A walk in the woods will help you finish your novel? Humming can make you a better tennis player? Or completely giving up is the way to succeed?

The Breakout Principle reports the discovery of an easy-to-access inner switch that increases mental function, enhances creativity and productivity, maximizes athletic performance, and enriches spiritual life.

8. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Four Agreements gives four principles to practice in order to create love and happiness in your life. As you practice living these four practices your life will dramatically change.

In the beginning these new habits will be challenging and you might lapse countless times. With practice these agreements become integrated into your being and every area of your life and become easy habits to keep.

9. iWant: My Journey from Addiction and Overconsumption to a Simpler, Honest Life by Jane Velez-Mitchell

Using a specific set of Twelve Steps in every aspect of her life, Velez-Mitchell shares how she shed many of the self-destructive habits that plague Americans, habits responsible for a host of social ills from the obesity crisis to environmental wreckage.

10. The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Dan B. Allender

The Wounded Heart is an intensely personal and specific look at sexual abuse. Dr. Allender explores the secret lament of the soul damaged by sexual abuse and lays hold of the hope buried there by the One whose unstained image we all bear.

11. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

In The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Dr. Joseph Murphy gives you the tools you need to unlock the awesome powers of your subconscious mind.

You can improve your relationships, your finances, your physical well-being. Once you learn how to use this unbelievably powerful force there is nothing you will not be able to accomplish.

12. What the Heck Am I Going to Do with My Life? (Twentys) by Margaret Feinberg

One of the top struggles listed by twentysomethings is the fight to find a purpose and a calling. They find themselves studying a major or working in a job they do not really enjoy, and soon self-doubt surrounds, bombarding them with questions such as,

What am I doing? Shouldn’t I have this figured out by now? and Am I the only one who doesn’t get it? This book takes readers on a soul-searching journey that gets to the heart of their passions, talents, abilities, and life goals.

13. Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want by Jenny Blake

Life After College is essential for every graduating student and young professional. It features practical, actionable advice that helps people focus on the BIG picture of their lives, not just the details.

Life After College will leave you feeling inspired, confident and ready to take action toward creating the life you really want.

14. You Majored in What?: Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career by Katharine Brooks

Dr. Katharine Brooks provides a road map for 20 somethings, replacing obsolete thinking that “major = career,” and instead using positive psychology, mapping techniques, and experimental wanderings to help job seekers reframe their skills.

Brooks provides effective strategies to help you mine your academic and life experiences for new insights into landing jobs with the best employers, and finding alternatives when the situation calls for a Plan B.

15. Love Is Letting Go of Fear, Third Edition by Gerald G. Jampolsky

This guide offers twelve lessons to help you let go of the past and stay focused on the present as you step confidently toward the future.

Dr. Gerald Jampolsky reminds you on what’s important to grasp in life and fear only gives you limitations. Revealing your true self is what you’ll receive from this book after it sets your mind free.

16. 20 Something Manifesto: Quarter-Lifers Speak Out About Who They Are, What They Want, and How to Get It by Christine Hassler

If you stress about future challenges in life, this books offer a few resources such as practical lessons and suggestions that can help. In these pages, quarter-life men and women tell their stories, sharing their successes and failures, along with their frustrations and realizations.

17. Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers

Are you afraid of making decisions, asking your boss for a raise, leaving an unfulfilling relationship, or facing the future? Whatever your fear, Dr. Susan Jeffers inspire can you with dynamic techniques that have helped countless people grab hold of their fears and move forward with their lives.

You’ll discover what you’re afraid of, and why. There’s a 10-step process that helps you outtalk the negative chatterbox in your brain, and so much more!

18. The Art Of War by Sun Tzu

Written in the 6th century B.C., The Art of War remains the ultimate guide to combat strategy. Sun Tzu explains when and how to engage opponents in order to prevail in difficult situations.

He shows the reader how to succeed by motivating soldiers and leveraging tactical advantages. He explains how to win the battle of wits.

Though it was written for the battlefield, The Art of War contains valuable advice for other endeavors as well.

19. TwentySomeone: Finding Yourself in a Decade of Transition by Craig Dunham and Doug Serven

The decade of your twenties is full of important, stressful, maddening questions: What will I do? Who will I love? Where will I live?

But maybe there’s a bigger question: Who am I? The fact is, the period of time between your teens and thirties will shape a lot of your character, your calling, and your view of the world.

Craig Dunham and Doug Serven explain that the difference between a twentysomething and TwentySomeone has to do with the questions we ask. Instead of asking, “What will I do?” twentysomeones need to ask “Who am I?”–the real question of the twenties.

Full of personal experience and practical wisdom, TwentySomeone helps you make the most of your twenties while giving you the skills to handle common life experiences like singlehood, first jobs, getting married, having kids, and buying stuff. This is a guidebook that will help you discover who God is calling you to be.

20. Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties by Alexandra Robbins

Quarterlife Crisis document offer insightful advice on smoothly navigating the challenging transition from childhood to adulthood, from school to the world beyond.

It includes the personal stories of more than one hundred twentysomethings who describe their struggles to carve out personal identities; to cope with their fears of failure; to face making choices rather than avoiding them; and to balance all the demanding aspects of personal and professional life.

From “What do all my doubts mean?” to “How do I know if the decisions I’m making are right?” this book compellingly addresses the hardest questions facing young adults today.

21. Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness and Longevity by Jack Lalanne

Jack teaches you: How he reached 95 years old, still going strong, and how you can too. The most important foods to help you keep trim and healthy. Exercises that will keep you strong, supple and limber. How his philosophies helped him become a huge success. How to live a vibrant, motivated, stress-free, sexually active life that will make waking up a joy for decades to come.

22. Not Quite Adults: Why 20-Somethings Are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It’s Good for Everyone by Richard Settersten

Why are 20-somethings delaying adulthood? The media have flooded people with negative headlines about this generation, from their sense of entitlement to their immaturity.

Drawing on almost a decade of cutting-edge research and nearly five hundred interviews with young people, this book shatters these stereotypes, revealing an unexpected truth: A slower path to adulthood is good for all of us. Their surprising findings include

• Young adults who finish college and delay marriage and child-rearing get a much better start in life.

• Few 20-somethings who live at home are mooching off their parents. More often, they are using the time at home to gain necessary credentials and save money for a more secure future.

• Helicopter parents aren’t so bad after all. Involved parents provide young people with advantages, including mentoring and economic support, that have become increasingly necessary to success.

It’s a must-read for parents, teachers, psychologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in today’s youth culture.

23. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

This presents a clear approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.

With a balance of theory and practical examples, this guide to personal and professional life describes seven principles of life management. Targeted toward anyone who is interested in personal change, it guides you through private victory, public victory and renewal.

24. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61) by Eckhart Tolle

Discover the freedom and joy of a life lived “in the now.” In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending your ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world.

Tolle describes how your attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness. He shows readers how to awaken a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.

25. Get a Life, Not a Job: Do What You Love and Let Your Talents Work For You by Paula Caligiuri PhD

Design your own career so you love what you do. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or working within a company, this book shows how you can make it happen for yourself. You’ll learn how to move towards a fulfilling career that offers greater work-life balance, financial security, and personal control over your future, and more sheer pleasure and inspiration from the work you do.

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