In process of achieving our life goals and fulfilling dreams, we often get drained, turn hopeless for a while, confidence starts taking a toll but, on the contrary side we all know that The Show Must Go On.. leaving every baggage behind and continue the same process of life with more zeal now. We understand that this theory doesn’t convert to practicality overnight, you really need to pull your socks up and power starts it all over again & in doing so, our list of best inspirational books will help you out.
12 Best Inspirational Books To Read
#1. The art of happiness
This book is written by Howard C. Cutler and 14th Dalai Lama.
Published: 1998
As we must have all witnessed, Dalai Lama always has a smile on his face. You just cannot ignore it and even if you are in his presence for a short while, you would smile as well. This book projects this presence of happiness into our lives by providing us the thoughts of Dalai Lama himself and teaches us simple things in life that we don’t always look into.
Through this book, he tries to help us understand our purpose in life. He even helps us through realizing the truth behind happiness as it is our mental condition and not our physical circumstances. He helps us through the moral epiphany that our happiness is in our own hands and nobody else can play a part in it. We ourselves are responsible for our happiness and we should reshape our perception and attitude to be happy.
He tries to help us understand the fact that we should seize every opportunity of being happy and we must spend each day positively. He tries to help us look into and understand the nature of Buddhists that teaches us to remain gentle and boycott aggression. This is not all, there’s a lot more in the book that you must read. Trying this book will inspire you a great deal as it is from Dalai Lama himself and his lessons into the art of happiness will help you throughout your life.
#2. The 4 agreements
This book is written by Don Miguel Ruiz.
Published: 1997
This book talks about 4 agreements that we can make to ourselves. As human beings, we all have a tendency of accepting a lot of things as a fact if we have heard it for a very long time or from someone close to us. These false facts can be the agreements that we make to ourselves which can be due to our society, our family, or even our friends.
This great book focuses on 4 of these agreements that will be beneficial for us. The first agreement that it talks about is of being impeccable with your words. This can simply be understood by keeping one thing in mind and that is the power of each word spoken by us. Even a single word can affect people deeply and that may be positive or negative.
Even a single statement of ours can really impact others and similarly, someone else’s opinion can damage our own mindsets which lead us into the second agreement. This agreement helps us in understanding that we must not take everything too personally as it may not be because of us and rather just due to the opinions of someone else. Check this book out for knowing the other two agreements that might help you and the people around you through life.
#3. Awaken the giant within
This book is written by Tony Robbins.
Published: 1991
This beautifully written masterpiece is based on Tony’s own real-life story and would obviously be helpful to a person who hasn’t been going through the right things in life. He takes his personal experience into account and tells the reader how it may feel like to start from the bottom itself as he tries to put forward some of the stories from his own life.
He tells us about an experience that he had a long while ago where he was riding in a chopper and saw huge traffic while he was going for his own event and wishes if it doesn’t cause inconvenience to others especially if it is because of his event. He later finds out that the traffic was due to his event itself as an unexpected amount of people had shown up.
He then starts to remember the time he was going through an unfortunate time in his life, and he decided to stand up and make things better to turn his life around. Through this, he tries to introduce us to the concept of a giant that is present inside all of us and can help us in achieving everything that we ever dreamt of, but it is initially sleeping. He tells the reader some steps by which they can awaken that giant which is why reading this book is a great idea for some stable inspiration throughout life.
#4. The alchemist
This book is written by Paulo Coelho.
Published: 1988
If you haven’t read it yet, then I think you have missed out on a great and powerful literary piece. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is considered an all-time classic because of the story it puts forward and the author’s writing style. As the story proceeds, you might be excited positively, and it will leave an impact on you by the time you end it. The story is exciting and eye-catching.
It revolves around a sheepherder named Santiago who was from Andalusia. He used to have a recurring dream about a treasure. One day since he was tired, he took a small nap beneath a sycamore tree outside a church. During the nap, he saw the same dream all over again in which he saw the treasure under the Pyramids in Egypt. He wishes to confirm whether the dream in legitimate or not, so he went to a witch for confirmation.
The witch listened to what Santiago had to say and then confirmed that his dream was honest and asks for 10% of the wealth as payment when he finds it. He then decides to sell his sheep and travel to Egypt for finding the treasure but he finds trouble along the way and even finds love somehow. He wishes to let go of his dream but her lover convinces him to look for it. He continues his journey and there are certain great plot twists that occur ahead. So read it for getting an inspirational hidden message in the storyline.
#5. The checklist manifesto
This book is written by Atul Gawande.
Published: 2009
Now, this is a great book if you actually wish to turn things around as Dr. Atul Gawande will tell you his own insights on the topic. He talks about the tendency of people to make mistakes through which sometimes you may learn something, sometimes you may learn something while causing personal damage or sometimes it may just cause personal damage.
These mistakes are of three types as explained by the author, which are uncontrollable mistakes which are not in our hands to omit, controllable mistakes which may give us a lesson in whether or not to do it and the mistakes caused by our negligence which is most unfortunate. The author tries to talk to us about ruling the third kind of mistakes out of our life.
This can be done by following a simple checklist manifesto. He means that following the checklist approach towards your goal by checking all the checkpoints on the list as you pass them might help you minimize the mistakes caused by your own ignorance. The author is a surgeon so he takes the examples of the medical field to help the reader out while using some others for example as well. There is a lot more to the book than this, so try reading it with an open mind to help yourself in achieving your own goals.
#6. The hard thing about hard things
This book is written by Ben Horowitz.
Published: 2014
This book is more suitable for the people who are looking into startups and wish to know the right steps to succeed. Ben Horowitz takes his own experience into account to teach people a lot of important things by the medium of this book. It is a look into his own life as an inspiration to get up and get going and we know his credibility due to his position at this point in time.
By the medium of this book, Horowitz tells us to build a product that is 10 times better than the ones available in the market, if you wish to start a technology-based business. He tries to perfect perfection as he goes on with his life and that’s what he expects from his readers. He talks about his own personal struggles to help the reader understand how to hold on.
He teaches the major quality of leadership as the book proceeds and he tries to put forward the right tactics to be used as a leader. He tells us about his own hardships and his struggles as a CEO in keeping himself on top. It’s always just one struggle after another in his life which is something that would make the reader sympathize as well as learn from the mistakes made by Horowitz. Try reading this book to advance yourself as a businessman or achieve something great in life.
#7. Things fall apart
This book is written by Chinua Achebe.
Published: 1958
The book will be unlike any other in this list and the experience will help you out greatly. It revolves around the character of Okonkwo. This person gains the respect for his entire clan after winning a wrestling match against the toughest and undefeated wrestler of their clan. He then goes on to marry 3 women and father 10 children.
This book takes on a deeper concept than you might imagine. Okonkwo is ashamed of his father because he was a failed musician who was indebted to the entire community. This is why he grows on to become his total opposite when it comes to masculinity and other perceivable things. He is driven to hate everything that his father loves.
Okonkwo himself had made a lot of mistakes throughout the course of his life and believed in aggression more than anything else. He even betrayed a person who called him his father just to keep his position in his clan. Through the medium of this book, the author teaches us some brilliant life lessons on what we must be and what we must boycott. Try reading this book for the inspirational content put up by the author.
#8. Battlefield of the mind
This book is written by Joyce Meyer.
Published: 1995
The structure of this book is divided into three parts to help the reader understand the concept she wishes to discuss. One thing to know about this book is that it looks more into the concept as a Christian and spirituality are discussed quite seriously in this book so I’d prefer going into it with an open mind. If you don’t believe in all of this and if it might offend you then I’d suggest letting this one go.
So structurally, the three parts of the book are a brilliant idea and the division of the right content is the king in this book. Through the medium of this book, she talks about how negative thoughts affect our minds and the mechanism through which they come to us. The author uses a lot of her own experiences in the book to provide the right prospects to the reader.
Joyce tries to help the readers in understanding the mechanism of negative thoughts and remove them from our mind. She teaches the reader to rather concentrate their energy on how God might do it. I personally found this book pretty helpful and she has helped a lot of people in getting out of negative emotions as well. Check it out for a great book that somewhat helps you understand your thought process.
#9. Are you fully charged?
This book is written by Tom Rath.
Published: 2015
Tom is a great author and the message that he has tried to push forward through this book is something that made me respect him even more. His writing style is incredible and absolutely easy to understand. Due to the tragedies he has been through, the experience and thoughts projected through the book seem really first hand and makes the reader relate to it on a personal level.
The book talks about the time when Tom was 16 and he was diagnosed with cancer. He had to visit the hospital almost every year for checking if his cancer went through mutation. Due to this, his vision of the time frame of his life narrowed down. Instead of thinking in the long run, he rather started believing what he can do today to contribute to our community.
A lot of people going through cancer suffer from depression but Tom didn’t really have to go through the phase because he took a day-to-day approach to make a difference. He has explained a lot of meaningful things through this book while incorporating his journey for a better understanding. He might truly inspire you due to the work he has done over these years while going through a serious medical illness. So check this book out.
#10. Life is so good
This book is written by Richard Glaubman and George Dawson.
Published: 2000
This is a book that revolves around the story of George Dawson who learned to read at the age of 98 and he discusses the story of it with his co-author Richard Glaubman who went on to write this book. Dawson was the grandson of a slave and he spent his whole life in his ego to not learn reading but finally, he gave in and he really appreciates it.
If you actually believe that a book can make a difference in your life then this might be it. The inspiring journey of George Dawson and the description of his hardships in the book is really one to look forward to. The way he crossed all his barriers, even the ones he put up himself and started on a journey to achieve his goal is one that we must all learn from.
This book will successfully give you a very important life lesson that needs to be understood by every human being to proceed in life. Other than Dawson’s description and assessment of the last century, I would like to take a moment to appreciate the work of Glaubman in capturing his voice and bringing it out in front of people. This book is a must-read as it will prove to be positively helpful to each and every reader.
#11. The happiness project
This book is written by Gretchen Rubin.
Published: 2009
This is another book that was really inspirational according to me as I went through it and its title really attracted me, given the genre of the book. It does exactly what the title exercises, that is, it helps you understand the right things to look for in order to be happy. It helps you understand that happiness depends on your mindset so changing it will definitely give you the help you need.
She goes and talks about the 12 commandments that you should follow each day and keep a track of them to look through your virtue. She even tries to help us out by teaching us to be satisfied with what we are. She tries to help the reader in realizing a simple fact of staying focused on what you are doing currently instead of thinking of something that you wish to do.
She also talks about the simple concept of writing journals and tells about the importance of them in our lives. Especially, writing a one-sentence journal is a great idea. When you do so, you will be able to remember and look back to past experiences without having to waste a lot of time reading long essays. There are many more things in this book that you must go through, so check it out.
#12. Rising strong
This book is written by Brene Brown.
Published: 2015
This is one of the books that won’t start on a complete rise as there are certain books out there that simply work on greatness throughout. It rather works on a story that rises after a fall. It simply reflects on the fact that glory isn’t really achieved by constant greatness, rather it is achieved through each rising after we fall.
We must understand the fact that we are stronger every time we face a fear and fall down, yet find the courage to get back on the wheel. It is understood that in life our triumphs don’t really matter, it’s our struggles that need to be acknowledged. The book focuses on statements like every disadvantage is accompanied by a hidden advantage and that it plants the seed for a better tomorrow.
The author helps us in realizing that most of our worries may never truly happen or might have happened in the past. Continuing to worry about those scenarios can turn out to be the setbacks that you need to shut out. It helps us in gaining the right courage to embrace our vulnerabilities and look into what we actually are so that we can use it to our advantage. This book has much more to offer, so try reading it out for a great experience.
I hope I was able to provide you with a good piece of book to satisfy your problems and inspire you to go on. I personally think that looking for a stable source of inspiration is necessary and all of these books will help you in the process. If the content was helpful, please leave a like on our post or drop a comment below.