As a professional psychologist I get this question from my clients all the time, "Dr. Paul,
what are the best books I can read for personal development?
This is actually not a very easy question for me to answer. The best books I can read
for personal development because I read these a lot. but I'm going to give you my current
top 10 list and you don't even have to take notes. you can go to the URL on the screen
drpauljenkins.com/bestbooks and you will get a list of all the titles
and authors that I'm sharing with you here today. Here's the one I want to start with Phil M Jones
"Exactly What To Say", I love that title and it really does deliver on the promise.
Phil is an expert in identifying the phrases that are going to work best to engage in conversation
or in sales or in negotiations and this is a very quick, very concise book. In fact, I've got
the audible version on my phone and as soon as I finished listening to exactly what to say I hit
replay and I went through it again. It's that powerful. I had my entire team read it at Live
On Purpose. If you get the audiobook you'll also get to enjoy Phil's very charming British accent.
I ran into Phil Jones on an elevator last summer and I looked at him I recognized who he was and
I said, "Thanks to you, I know exactly what to say", he just looked back at me and he said, "Thank you".
Because he knew that I knew exactly what his book was about. Exactly What To Say
Phil M Jones. Here's the second one on my top 10 list, this one is Flip The Gratitude Switch
by Kevin Clayson. The reason that I really like this book is because gratitude is where we start
with positivity. Now, I like to get past all the trite fluffy just think positive stuff that you
can hear from any motivational speaker on any stage. I want to get down to the science behind
positivity and Kevin Clayson identified in his book an important starting point for positivity
and it's gratitude. But here's the powerful thing about Flip The Gratitude Switch. Our brain
can easily come up with 10 or 12 things for which we are sincerely grateful. In fact, you've probably
done this before where you do a gratitude list or a gratitude journal. These are really powerful
ways to get our mind to start thinking about positive principles. But a lot of people do it
wrong and here's what they miss. Kevin explained in his book that there's a switch we can flip
where our brain is thinking that something is bad and we can flip a switch and find something that
we're grateful for about it. The example that he gives is a common experience that many of us as
parents have. You get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and you step on
one of those legos, you know the little building bricks that have sharp edges and you step on it
in your bare feet in the darkness. Is there anything quite as painful as that? Maybe you
can relate. Kevin's point is that you can flip a switch in your mind and instead of going to,
"Oh, this is terrible", you go to I know this is going to sound a little crazy but just go with me on this.
"I am so grateful that I have children who owns toys and a house that I can step on
possessions that we own", okay, do you see where I'm going with it? You ask your brain to find
the gratitude in the difficult stuff. Just one more thought about this before I move to the next book.
If you go to the gym every day what happens? You get stronger, right? Well, maybe. What if you
go to the gym every day and you reach over on the registration area desk there and you pick up a pen
like this one and you put it in your right hand and you do 10 curls with that pen and then you
put it in your left hand and you do 10 curls with your left hand. How strong are you going to get?
Not very, you're lifting a pen. If you really want the benefits you have to put on some
weight and then do the reps. In a similar way Kevin is pointing out in his book look,
anybody can be grateful for the easy stuff puppies and rainbows and indoor plumbing.
That's the light lifting. If you really want this to make a difference for you put some
weight on it. Find what you're grateful for in the difficulties of your life. In the challenging,
painful, frustrating, elements. That's Flipping The Gratitude Switch. Okay, number three on my list is
Portal To Genius by Leslie Householder. I was going to include the Jackrabbit Factor as well but she
just went ahead and did that in this book you get both of those. The Jackrabbit Factor was Leslie's
New York Times bestseller and she has included that in her second book Portal To Genius. The
thing that I love about this book is the way that it opens up your mind to new possibilities
and it gives us a new take on an older idea called the law of attraction. You've maybe heard of this.
I think Leslie captures it better than any other author that I know, it's called Portal To Genius.
Jackrabbit Factor is in that same jacket, go get this one. Portal To Genius Leslie Householder.
My next favorite on this top 10 list looks like a children's book The Dog Poop Initiative by
my friend Kirk Weisler. Kirk nailed this story in a way that can be used with children but also with
corporate teams and leadership and executives. It's a powerful story about the meaning of initiative
and how we see what needs to be done and do it. I also love the way Kirk distinguishes between
poopers pointers and scoopers. The poopers make the mess. The pointers pointed out to everybody
else and it's the scoopers who may make the place a better place for everyone else to be in. The Dog
Poop Initiative, Kirk Weisler. Now, the next one on our list is a true classic. This is Victor
Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning. You guys, I feel like this is required reading for all of humanity.
Dr. Frankl was one of the holocaust survivors. As a psychiatrist living in Austria, he was also Jewish.
His entire family was captured by the nazis during world war ii and killed. He was sent to
various concentration camps he actually survived that experience. But he found during that time
that everything could be taken from a human being except what he called
the last of human freedoms and that is to choose your attitude in any given set
of circumstances to choose your own way. That's pretty powerful doctrine coming out of Auschwitz.
What are you dealing with that's even half that hard. That's why this book is so powerful and I
think required reading. Man Search For Meaning Dr. Victor Frankl. I told you these are my current
top 10 list. It changes from time to time as I get to know new people and read new books
and you've probably got some other ideas. Would you please share what books you're reading that
are making a huge difference? Write down there in the comments. Let's get some conversation
going about that. The next book I would love to share with you is another friend of mine
and a podcast guest he's been on my show a couple of times Scott Wilhite in his book, The Seven
Core Skills Of Everyday Happiness. Here's what I want to point out about Scott's book and I
told him this on my podcast that this is a game changing idea, the word skill. They are skills that
you can learn, that can be trained, that can be developed and practiced and this is good news.
I remember when I was chatting with Scott on the podcast, you never hear of anyone wandering around
bumping around through life trying to find their piano skills. But you hear people all the time
running around through life trying to find their happiness, right? It's more like piano than it is
finding something. Scott nailed it in his book The Seven Core Skills Of Everyday Happiness.
Our next book has a very bold title, "The 5 Laws That Determine All Of Life's Outcomes by Brett Harward.
I know Brett he's a friend of mine. I've actually reached out to him on a number of occasions
about the principles that he talks about in this book and they are powerful. Principles, let me just
go there for a moment. Principles are natural laws like gravity. You never get up in the morning and
think, "Oh, I wonder if gravity's on today", it is and it always affects you. The principles that
determine all of life's outcomes are just like that there are natural laws like gravity they're
always on. They always work. These principles are referred to as laws in Brett's book The 5 Laws
That Determine All Of Life's Outcomes. You're going to see that these apply for you and it
will change how you can approach your life. For the next book on my list, I'd like to go a little
different direction Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book has been on the bestseller list
internationally for decades now. i think it's been decades that shows my age a little bit. i think
Robert Kiyosaki is probably one of the leading minds out there when it comes to personal finance
but the thing that I like about this and for me what makes it a personal development book
is that the principles he's talking about when applied in general ways in your life can increase
your happiness, your relationships. I just love the way that the same principles that he uses
for personal finance can be tied back into our own happiness in our relationships. In fact, I've
based one of my models happynomics on what I learned from Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Next up is Elizabeth Smart, Where There's Hope. You might remember Elizabeth from a very harrowing
experience that she had as a young girl at the age of 14 she was abducted from her home.
During her kidnapping, she was brutally abused and mistreated for nine months. If you can imagine
that kind of an experience. She tells about that experience in her first book called My Story.
The one that i'm calling to your attention Where There's Hope is where Elizabeth has interviewed
and shared the stories of several other people who have also had challenging circumstances in
their lives and she shows how the same principles apply that allowed her to move past this terrible
experience that she had into a life of happiness and good relationships and creating value for the
world. Elizabeth inspires me so much with her own story but I love that in this book she has shared
the stories of others to show that these are truly principles and not just things that she happened
to get lucky with. The last one I'll share with you today is by John Acuff it's called Soundtracks.
Probably one of the favorite books that I've read in the past year because of the way John takes a
very practical approach to clearing up some of our head trash. If you're like me and you probably are
since you're here on the channel. You probably overthink things occasionally. I do this all the
time and I get myself into stuck places because of my own thinking. Soundtracks is a very practical
approach to how we can start cleaning up some of the head trash that we have
and the overthinking that some of us including myself are so prone to do John Acuff, Soundtracks.
If you want a copy of this list that I've shared with you today just go to the URL on your screen
drpauljenkins.com/ best books. Disclaimer this is my current top 10 list it
changes from time to time and I hope yours does as well. Watch that next video, I'll see you soon.