Self-Help Books for 2017
Wanting to learn more about personal finance? Trying to start your own business? Or wanting to clean out all the clutter out of your house? If so, you have found the right place! Here are some of the best books we have read in 2017!
1.) The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck was gifted to us from a close friend when we were complaining about a corporate coworker at our day job. This fairly short read, is very impactful if you're constantly wondering how to placate to others and finding that you're doing it more often than you would like. (the true midwestern dilemma).
At its core, this book is about finding what’s truly important to you and letting go of everything else. In the same way that Mark Manson encourages limiting exposure to mindless distractions such as social media, television and technology, he encourages limiting concern over things that have little to no meaning or value in your life. He writes in his book, "Wanting a positive experience is a negative experience; accepting a negative experience is a positive experience" which is our favorite takeaway from the book and found it relatable at times.
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2.) You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
Take part in the exercises at the end of each chapter to help set goals and figure out how to reach them. You Are a Badass will help you create a life you love and help you create that life now. It’s a fresh take on the traditional self help book that is funny, entertaining, and motivational. Learn to love yourself and others, accept what you can’t change, and how to kick ass using The Force. You Are a Badass is a great read if you’re looking to improve your life without getting busted doing it.
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3.) Mad Genius: A Manifesto for Entrepreneurs
Mad Genius by Randy Gage is a great book for anyone interested in thinking big! This book is geared for entrepreneurs of all ages. There's a reason Facebook was birthed in a dorm room, Amazon.com came from people not in the bookstore business, and UBER was created by people who weren't from the taxi industry. Innovation, discovery, and creating disruption require blowing up conventional thinking and unleashing entrepreneurial brilliance.
The most fascinating part of this book in our opinion is Randy Gage's predictions for the "big bets" in the next decade. He predicts VR, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT) will drastically impact the start up scene. If you're looking for some creative, entrepreneurial juices, we HIGHLY recommend reading Mad Genius.
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Feeling like you’re stuck in a life or career rut and looking for some motivation to spark your next life move? Sophia Amoruso, founder of Nasty Gal, is the author of #GIRLBOSS, a story of her journey from being a broke, college dropout who followed her passion of selling and styling vintage clothing to opening up her own clothing store Nasty Gal. The book is full of stories of her time spent hitchhiking, committing theft, and digging through dumpsters. Eventually, she took a job checking in IDs in the lobby of an art school - a position she took for the health insurance. During her free time, she would sell vintage clothing on eBay.
Filled with stories of her youth and path to success with Nasty Gal, Sophia describes how she began her career in the fashion industry that lead her to becoming the founder and executive chairman of a $100 million plus fashion retailer. Also included in her book is stories of fellow #GIRLBOSSES she finds most inspiring. Hear the stories of how Alexi Wasser (IMBOYCRAZY.com), Norma Kamali (Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur), and Christine Barberich (Refinery29 Editor in Chief) started their paths to success.
A funny, inspiring, and motivational read, #GIRLBOSS is a book for those seeking a unique path to success, even when the path is plagued by naysayer; it’s is a story about trusting your instincts and not being afraid to let your freak flag fly. A great read if you’re looking for some motivation to achieve a life goal or set forward down an exciting and unknown path, read Sophia’s book to learn how you can become the next #GIRLBOSS.
5.) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
This book was recommended by one of our MESSIEST friends. We love her dearly, but would constantly leave nick nacks everywhere, crumbs in the kitchen, and clean laundry on the ground of her apartment. When she said it, "changed her life", we had to go visit her place that day. She had given away 10+ bags worth of clothing, and her mess was out of sight.
Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has been described to us as having a cult following. Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The "KonMari Method", with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. When we read the book, we also threw a lot of stuff away and adopted Marie Kondo's folding methods. Highly recommend for anyone trying to downsize and join the minimalistic movement
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6.) I Will Teach You To Be Rich
We saved the best book for last on our list! I will teach you to be Rich by Rahit Sethi was our favorite self-help book we read in over a year. We both read it in a day! This book directly caters to 20-somethings on what we would describe as the "advanced basics of personal finance". It is a very subscriptive book. If you're anything like either of us, the older we get, the more we want to be told what to do, and when to do it. Weird how when we were little, we were more interested in doing our old thing and refuse advice, but the older we get, the more we invest in advisors such as personal trainers, and financial advisors to tell us what to do!
This book goes through the basic nuances of either maximizing your ROTH IRA before 401K to the increased complications of optimizing your financial structure (savings accounts, checking accounts, retirement accounts, and more). When Aimee read this book, she completely redesigned her financial accounts, having her open a vanguard account, ally account, opened up a new credit card and reinvesting her 401K. She also took Rahit's advice to use https://www.optoutprescreen.com to opt out of all credit card junk mail. Overall, you can see she is a huge advocate in this Rahit Sethi's I will Teach you to Be Rich and was able to see 12% returns this past year as a result!
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