Seven Books that will Positively Change Your Life Path

Discover the secrets of a prosperous life in these remarkable books

The following seven books changed my life. I highly recommend them if you need support to keep pursuing your goals and dreams.

They are written by some motivational, and inspiring writers. From Napoleon Hill’s mysterious secret nestled in the book, Think and Grow Rich, to Louise Hay’s lesson to love yourself in You Can Heal Your Life, to Tony Robbins’s practical strategies in Awaken The Giant Within, all these books have a powerful impact and are life-changing.

You can find them in libraries, or anywhere books are sold, and some are available as audiobooks to listen to when your busy driving, cooking meals, working out, and can’t squeeze in the time to read.

7. The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn

Written in 1925, this small volume packs a lot of power. Shinn, born in Camden, N.J. and educated in Philadelphia, penned this prosperity classic.

She combines spiritual laws with religion, quoting Biblical scripture throughout the book to back up her claims. Life is a game, and the people who know how to play it are the ones that get what they want in life. She expands on the Laws of Prosperity, Nonresistance, Karma, and Forgiveness, focuses on love, intuition, and spiritual guidance, and demonstrates how to impress your subconscious. There’s a chapter on divine design and perfect self-expression, and the book finishes off with denials and affirmations.

This book explains how to attract love in your life. Shinn tells the story of a woman whose man she loved had left her for another woman. She was resentful and jealous and wanted him to suffer. Shinn advised her that by doing so, she was actually repelling love from her life, instead of attracting it. By wishing him harm it showed that she didn’t really love that man, she hated him. She told her the only way to receive a perfect love was to give perfect love. When you send out real love it will come back to you in some way. If it isn’t from the person you love, the love you sent out will come back to you from someone else.

6. The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder

This book shone a light on me in one of the lowest times of my life. Catherine Ponder wrote this book in the 1960s while living in Birmingham, Alabama. Her own life improved while she was finishing writing the book.

I found this book on a shelf in the library and the title spoke to me. I kept renewing it because I felt it was the ultimate spiritual guide on how to climb out of my awful situation. Once I started applying the principles and saying the affirmations in this book, my life started changing.

I read the beginning chapter where they discussed how a salesman always told people business was good because “gold dust was in the air.” I started saying “Everything I touch turns to gold,” to myself. Gradually, I started to believe my words, and my financial situation improved. It was amazing. I later purchased the book to add to my collection.

Ponder emphasizes that God is the source of all supply, that God gives us the power to get wealth. She quotes Biblical scripture to back this up. She also states that you must give to receive, and the people that don’t receive are the ones who expect to get something for no effort. You don’t have to give money away — you can give your time, your help, skills, and talents to assist others.

I remember when I was reading this amazing book, I decided that we should start tithing ten percent of our small income — 5 percent to church and 5 percent to help charities. It was impossible in my mind to imagine that we could swing it, but I had to prove that Ponder was right. We were struggling with small children in tow and couldn’t afford to give to anyone without sacrifices. We took a step out on faith and started giving to our church and sponsored a child in South America through a Christian humanitarian organization. It felt good to help a young girl and made me feel like we weren’t as poor as I thought. Right after we started sponsoring the child, my husband got a significant raise at work, and we finally could fill our pantries with food for our own children again. I will never believe that this was a mere coincidence.

5. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

Louise Hay — born in Los Angeles, and founder of Hay House publishing, released this colorful book in 1984. Adorned with beautiful illustrations, it teaches you to love yourself. By loving yourself, and forgiving others who hurt you, you heal yourself.

It’s very convincing, especially when you realize that Hay had a horrendous childhood, and was once diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in the late 1970s. She refused medical treatment and healed herself through forgiving the perpetrators of her childhood abuse. She also practiced good nutrition, therapy, and reflexology. Hay went on to be free of cancer, and lived to the ripe old age of 90, dying in her sleep.

Hay believed that the universe supports us in our thoughts and beliefs. She says that we learn how we feel about ourselves — and about life in general, from the adults that were influencing us as children. We chose our parents before we were born to learn lessons in this life, and we shouldn’t blame them for what’s happened to us. We must forgive them, and practice loving ourselves.

Hay said many people came to her telling her they never felt “good enough.” She originated mirror therapy, where you look in a mirror, say your name, and tell yourself how much you love yourself exactly the way you are. I tried this, and believe me, it felt weird at first. But it really helped.

Louise Hay stated that whatever we believe comes true for us, so we should start by changing our core beliefs.

She believed that resentment, criticism, guilt, and fear are the root cause of most of our illnesses. In the book, she charted numerous health problems and their probable causes, and the thought patterns that can heal them.

I know skeptical people will immediately reject this but think about this. It has been proven that our thoughts do affect our bodies. When we get nervous and anxious our heart rates increase, breathing becomes shallow and some of us will experience a massive panic attack. When our thoughts are racing, we can’t sleep- which impacts our health. Studies have proven that stress negatively affects our health, contributing to illness, such as heart disease. So maybe Louise Hay was on to something, way ahead of her time.

4. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

This is an excellent, practical book to create lasting change in your life. Robbins focuses on raising your standards, changing your limiting beliefs, and changing your strategy. He teaches lessons on emotional, relationship, physical, financial, and time mastery.

He poses the questions:

“How am I going to live in the next ten years of my life? How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to? What am I going to stand for from now on?” — Tony Robbins

He then shows you how to change your life.

Robbins was born in North Hollywood, CA. and rose up out of poverty and an abusive childhood where his family struggled for basic necessities. His mother was abusive, and he felt responsible for his younger siblings. He worked as a handyman and later as a janitor to help support his family.

His life changed after attending a Jim Rohn seminar. Rohn helped shape Tony’s career as a motivational speaker, and the rest is history.

This is one of many books he’s written, and I consider this one as a permanent part of my collection and a comprehensive guide to personal development.

3. The Aladdin Factor by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

A professor told me about this book in college, and I immediately went out and purchased it. It teaches that if you want something in life you have to ask for it. If you believe you can get it, are persistent, and keep asking, you will get what you want. Most people are afraid to ask for what they want, so they never get it. There is a section in the book on overcoming fear which was helpful.

I’ve applied this in real life. I felt an extra fee that was charged to me on a bill was unfair. For a moment I hesitated on contacting them but remembered the advice from this book. I asked them to remove the extra charge, and they did. All I had to do was ask.

A friend was interviewing for a job and asked for a large but fair salary. They gave her exactly what she asked for. Later on, she found out that they were prepared to give thousands more. All she had to do was ask.

It’s a positive uplifting book written by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen who know what it’s like to face obstacles. Their legendary Chicken Soup for the Soul series was rejected over 140 times.

They never stopped asking, someone finally said yes and the rest is history. This book inspires you to never give up. It gives you the confidence to go for it.

2. Your Heart’s Desire by Sonia Choquette, PH.D.

I love this charming book, with its bright and beautiful cover. But the real treasure is inside its pages. It’s a workbook on manifesting your desires. Choquette has you rank your desires in order of priority. Write down what you want and make an agreement with yourself to pursue them. She teaches meditative asking, and how it can be effective.

Her stories about manifestation are fascinating. My favorite story is the tale she told about her high school prom. It was getting close to the big day and she didn’t have a date. She thought it was because she was too tall.

Her mother told her to change her focus. She started to write down all the qualities of the guy she wanted to go to the prom with. He had to be taller than her. She listed all his good qualities and pictured him in her mind picking her up in a limo. She did this for two weeks and nothing happened. Discouraged, she was ready to give up. Then something amazing happened. Little did she know that visualizing a successful outcome would change her entire life, just when she was on the edge of losing hope.

This book helped me to focus on what I really wanted and manifest it.

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

This is my favorite book of all. When I was a small child, I discovered an early edition of this book on my father’s bookshelf. The title fascinated me, so I picked it up, and I’ve never really put it down since.

Born in southwest Virginia, Hill was a businessman who penned this classic that has already changed so many lives for the better. This book reveals how the most impoverished person can rise from rags to riches.

I was captivated from the beginning, where Hill tells the story of Edwin C. Barnes who had a burning desire to work with Thomas Edison and how he made something that seemed impossible happen.

Hill shows all the ways people sabotage their own success. From the excuses they make, the fears they have, and their lack of persistence in chasing their goals. It forces you to examine your own life; you will be surprised to see how many excuses you’ve made. This treasure of a book shows you the way how to rise from failure, stop being your own worst enemy, and climb the ladder to success.

Throughout this amazing book, Hill constantly speaks of the secret that is hidden in the book, the secret that will bring you what you want in life. I believe I’ve figured it out, but I’m not going to tell you. You have to figure it out for yourself.

If I had to choose one book from this list as my only self-empowerment guide, Think and Grow Rich would be it. I return to it again and again for reference.

These books were a window out of a bad situation when doors in my life closed. At that time my self-esteem was at an all-time low. I was my own worst enemy. I said terrible things to myself that I’d never imagined saying to another human being.

These books saved my life. They taught me how to change the negative thought patterns that continued to hurt me. They inspired me to change focus and bring more good things into my life, and to stop dwelling on my failures. They revealed how new thought patterns could uplift my mood, and how choices that I made each day could positively impact my future.

Most importantly; they demonstrated how applying these techniques changed other people’s lives for the better, giving me hope to cling to when my present life was unbearable. They motivated me to persevere, to make a plan, to keep believing, and to move towards my life’s purpose. I hope they do the same for you.

I hope reading and applying the wisdom of all of these books brings you the success you strive for.

A new path in life now awaits you.