Welcome to my fun list of my all-time best life-changing books! I’ve compiled a list of the best books I read as a millennial. These are books that changed my life, and they might just change yours too!
Do the Work
Do the Work by Steven Pressfield was life-changing for me. I found it at the perfect time in my life when I was struggling with confidence and self-worth. Do the Work is a book about how to break through resistance and accomplish your creative goals.
What people don’t realize is that their inner critic is their biggest obstacle.
This book reframes that concept so you realize the only thing you need to beat is that voice telling you to stop. It puts you at war with self-doubt in a very energizing, fun way. It is amazing how motivating it is. I tell people it’s like the book equivalent of Red Bull.
The Fire Starter Sessions
Danielle Laporte is a life coach who spent years working with people who have limiting beliefs about themselves and their lives. She wrote The Fire Starter Sessions which is an incredible book about how to really figure out what you are meant to do. It’s SO different from any other “find your passion” book I’ve ever read. I remember reading this book over Thanksgiving break and one of the lines just stuck out to me. “Be careful what you’re good at—you could end up doing it for years.”
I realized I had been so addicted to approval that anything I was good at, and that got me accolades was what I gravitated toward.
Huge revelation: the things I’m good at aren’t necessarily the things that set me on fire. This changed it all!
It totally rearranged my ideas about what success could look like. The Fire Starter Sessions is actually better than the Desire Map, her other book, in my opinion.
Spirit Junkie by Gabby Bernstein is another one of those books that come into your life at the perfect moment. I was ready for a little “woo”. When I read it at 26 or 27, I had been very type A and focused on career, achievement, and approval.
Spirit Junkie
Spirit Junkie is all about connecting with a power greater than yourself, understanding how to remove ego from your life, and how to stop striving to be perfect. The book talks about how to find your life purpose using methods from a Course in Miracles.
Add More Ing to Your Life by Gabrielle Bernstein is also a great book. It is about finding your true self through various practices such as prayer, meditation, and yoga.
I highly recommend both of these books by Gabrielle Bernstein because they have helped me become softer and more open to the spiritual parts of life.
Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear has been a recent life changer for me. Atomic Habits focuses on how to use tiny changes to create huge results. James Clear has a lot of great insights in the book about what it takes to achieve success. One thing he focuses on is that when you want to change your habits, be mindful and allow yourself time for adjustment before expecting perfection. He talks about how tiny changes are cumulative. They add up to these massive results. It is something I have to remind myself of over and over when I get focused on some dream that’s 5 years in the future. Dreams are made of tiny atomic habits.
Stick With It
Stick with It is another book about habits. That’s been my theme of the last few years because I struggle with consistency and follow-through.
I’m also obsessed with research around why people do and don’t succeed with habits and resolutions.
Stick With It is an amazing psychology-backed book all about why some resolutions work and others fail. In this book, the author shares insights from research and his 20 years of experience as a psychotherapist.
The strengths-based approach to habit change is empowering – I love that it’s not all about willpower.
Of course, some of the top life-changing books you’ve probably already heard about include The Alchemist, The Four Agreements, and the classic Rich Dad Poor Dad. I’m a millennial, and while those books are great, I have a different lineup.
My life-changing books were mostly written by women so they may be different than what you’re used to.
I’m not suggesting these books will change your life in the same or better way that The Alchemist or Four Agreements might but I am certain they’ll make you really think about how you live and present yourself as a woman, millennial, and empowered person.