My Top Three Personal Development Book Recommendations

Hello it’s Dr Ro here, I hope you’re well. 

I’m sitting in my hotel room about to go present. Funnily enough, I have my glasses on because I’ve just been reading and I thought I would address a question that’s come up a lot, related to reading.

The question is, what are my top three favourite personal development books?

I think this is a fantastic question.

Every time I’m speaking in front of an audience, during the break, I am asked what my favourite books are.

Before I answer that question, I want to say that every single person, including me at age 53, goes through different periods of personal development. We go through different periods of emotional evolution. 

I think it was Carl Jung that said, “There are different stages of maturation that we all have.”

This means that we all mature in different ways. Some people rise to a certain level and never grow beyond that. Others continue to grow and evolve throughout their life. 

So back to reading, there are books that I read when I was in my twenties. I started reading personal development books at age eighteen (oh my gosh, 35 years ago!). And then later in life, I picked up those books that I read in my late teens and early twenties again. 

I noticed that I took a completely different meaning from these books. I could even see the highlights that I had made back then, and the way I interpret those sections now is totally different. I notice that because of where I am now, my awareness and absorption and intellectual processing is different than it was back then. 

So, I wouldn’t get too hung up on what your favorite book is. I think it’s more important to ask what the appropriate book is for where you are in your stage for personal development. For example, you might be going through challenges with relationships. Or financial challenges. Or confidence. 

The choice of book very much depends upon where you are at any moment in your life. Try not to get too hung up on labeling or attaching yourself to a specific genre. Make it about reading as you evolve. 

So, I’m going to give you three books. I wouldn’t say they were the top three books because there are so many jostling for that position. But if I give them to you, I’m giving them to you for reason. Because they’re across three different areas of life, and hopefully from that it might just allow you to start to build in these areas. 

For my first choice, I’m actually going to be cheeky and give you four books for spot one. 

The first book is a book I read when I was probably about twenty two years old. It’s called the “Magic of Thinking Big” by Dr David Schwartz. I love it because it challenged me to think differently. It got me thinking at a completely different level. It gave me a sense of scalability so I could take my first businesses to another level. 

In Schwartz’s book, he recommends you walk 25% faster, and I think the recommendation is brilliant. You know you see people ambling along through life, they’re walking along, and they don’t seem very purposeful. And the point he made was, if you walk 25% faster it gives your body a different dynamic energy. It makes you feel like you’ve got a sense of purpose, but it also gets other people watching you and they’re going, “Wow, where is that person going. They seem to be on purpose, let me go chat to that person. They’ve got a bit of direction going on there.” 

The next book is, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  Now think and Grow Rich is a book that if you hear iconic speakers all over the world reference.  It was written in the early 1900’s.  

Now, Napoleon Hill studied thousands of people, some of the most successful people in the world. Over a 20-year period, he created a set of characteristics of the most successful people in the world. For example, decisiveness was one of the things that came out. And he actually stated in there that decisiveness is one of the most common characteristics of the most successful people in the world. Whereas being indecisive was one of the things that made people fail, It’s a heavy read. But it has so much detail and it’s a sort of book you can’t really read in one go. You’ll have to read it, put it down, digest it, process it, come back have a think, go and apply it, read another chapter, go back. 

Another book I’d like to recommend is actually a story book. I have most of the author’s books. This particular one is called “The Choice” by Augmon Deano. Now I recommended this recently to a good friend of mine and he loved it. It’s a fantastic book. Especially if you’re at a stage in your life where you are not sure about the career that you are in, you know you want to make a change. If you know you have something inside you that is beyond what you’re doing right now, go read this book. It’s brilliant. It takes you through a journey of a man that really is going through that process of change, and the choice is really expanding through his thoughts and his experience.

The last book is a beautiful book. It is a book by a gentleman called Dr Wayne Dyer, who sadly died not so long ago. He was an inspirational human being. If you ever just want to listen to somebody and imagine your ears being fed with hot chocolate or something nice and calm, and relaxing and meditative, go read this book. 

The book is called “The Power of Intention.” I have to say the audio of this is amazing and if you get a chance go listen to the audio. Dr Wayne Dyer is a very deep, emotional, spiritual gentleman who I’ve been following for many, many years, and I find his teachings inspirational. He has a wisdom that really reaches down inside your soul, and if you are looking for a book that connects in a more spiritual level, on a more emotional level ,this is a book for you. So, The Power of Intention will take you on a journey. The very first time I listened to him and he narrated the book, I actually got very tearful because he talked about one specific thing and it was appropriate to my stage in my life, at that moment. He talked about the fact that everything happens at exactly the right time, for exactly the right reasons. And I needed to hear that at that moment in time. So, get the book and if you get the chance, have a listen to him on one of his audios, because he’s amazing. 

Four books, not three. Hopefully you’re okay with that. For the overachievers you’re like, “Great Dr Ro, thanks for the extra book.” Enjoy the reads and at some point, hopefully in the future, you can meet me, and you can tell me how you enjoyed them and what you got from them as well.

What are your favorite books? Leave in the comments section below!