Books can be a wonderful resource when trying to find ideas or to become motivated to improve. There are literally hundreds of self-improvement books available about anything and everything from improving your relationships to improving your self-image, but how do you know what is right for you?

Marketers are ingenious when it comes to self-improvement books, many have intriguing titles and promise great results, but you need to look a bit farther than the outside cover to find out if the book will be useful. Open up the book and look inside, skim over the chapter titles read a few paragraphs and find out if this is what you are really looking for. Figure out if the things in the book are things you already know of if they will really be useful. If you skim a few pages and don’t feel motivated move on, but if the book is making you think of ideas already and makes you want to take action, then you’ve found the perfect book for you.

Don’t know where to start? Here are a few of the most recent bestsellers in the area of self-improvement: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey came out in 1990 and continues to be a bestseller with more than ten million copies sold. The author uses anecdotes and interesting analogies to portray and idea. The book focuses on such things as productivity, time management and positive thinking. However if you are looking for a start improving today book this is not it. This book is deep and many of the ideas must be implemented over time.

Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self by Rosalene Glickman helps the reader figure out what is most important in their life, then helps the reader come up with the best way to make that part of their life the best it can be. This book is extremely practical and gives great advice.

Why Your Life Sucks: And What You Can Do About It by Alan H. Cohen focuses on reasons why life sometimes just doesn’t feel right and how to remove those things from your life. There are ten basic reasons covered in the book ranging from expectations to trying to fix other people. The book doesn’t reveal any mysterious, new truths but simply reminds us about the truths we know deep down, but sometimes forget to use.

Reel Fulfillment: A 12 Step Plan for Transforming Your Life Through Movies by Maria Grace takes a completely new approach to self-improvement. This book presents prompts and worksheets that use movies as a backdrop to figure out your dreams, unrealistic expectations and self-imposed obstacles. It then guides you through setting up your own “happily ever after” like a movie script. The analogy between movies and real life, keeps the reader involved and easily conjures up characters and situations that help the reader understand what is going on in their own life.

Chris Simons
http://self-improvement.theconsumerguide.net