There’s no doubt that self confidence is a desirable and much sought-after personality trait. That powerful feeling that no matter what life throws at you or what you do, everything is going to pan out.
There’s something unshakeable about being confident and elevating your personal happiness levels and letting go of negative thinking.
However, at the same time, it is also important to understand that self confidence can just as easily be an elusive concept.
After all, nobody is born confident.
It is a characteristic that you have to develop based on the environment that surrounds you.
The Importance of Boosting Your Self Esteem and Confidence
A lot of complications that you may be dealing with in your life right now, both professionally and on a personal basis, typically boil down to the absence of self confidence.
Not being able to talk to your manager about a raise because you feel the conversation may end up turning awkward or intimidating is a sign of a lack of self confidence.
Similarly, not being able to strike up a casual conversation with your crush at school or work because you feel you’d just end up being brushed off or worse feel stupid about it is also a sign of a lack of confidence and low self esteem. These are some examples.
But you get it. However, the problem is, going about your life repeating these same actions on a regular basis can gradually start to become detrimental to your ability to build confidence.
This, in turn, will adversely affect your drive and willingness to complete your milestones or life goals, and may quite possibly prevent you from living a more gratifying or fruitful life. But what can you do about it? That’s a great question.
And there’s not a lot to it because the first step is to actually understand the steps you can take to slowly build up your self confidence.
And an excellent way to do that is to read the best books on raising your self esteem and confidence by bestselling authors.
It is perhaps one of the easiest ways to become a confident person.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs and Building Self-Esteem for Success and Personal Growth
If you’re reading this article, you can have two objectives.
Firstly, you are looking for ways to become successful at what you do.
You want to achieve your life goals and want to be financially independent to live a joyful life. You need a confidence code! You need to surpass limiting beliefs.
Secondly (and quite importantly), you wish to be able to stand tall in the face of adversity and avoid the negative self talk.
You want to build enough self confidence to become outspoken, have difficult discussions, embrace a risk-taking attitude, and want to escape the shackles of your comfort zone. Quite simply, you wish to evolve into a greater version of yourself.
No matter what your objectives are, it is vital to keep in mind that in order to be successful and confident in life, you need to elevate your levels of self esteem, conquer limiting beliefs, and focus on self love.
And that is exactly what will be discussed in this article!
In light of this, here are some of the best confidence books ever written on how you can strive and continue to elevate your self esteem and confidence and hold fast to the belief you have in yourself, which is vital to enhance your self image.
These books contain inspiring stories that shun self hatred and teach individuals the road to high self esteem. And who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired enough to take up public speaking!
The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field – Nathaniel Branden
Released in 1994, Nathaniel Branden’s The Six Pillars of Self Esteem still remains one of the best confidence books to this day.
Branden is a New York Times bestselling author and is widely considered an avant-garde self esteem guru.
And in this bestseller, he answers some of the most fundamental questions revolving around self esteem and how you can work to become more confident and combat low self esteem.
The author has laid out a complete roadmap to understanding:
- What self esteem actually means
- What you can do to successfully elevate your levels of self esteem
- The role of the people in and around your life that contribute to or take away from your self esteem.
What you will love about this book is how meticulously the author goes about explaining relevant cornerstones to developing confidence and mental toughness.
Such as trying to live life as consciously as possible, the power of self-acceptance, the necessity of holding yourself accountable, etc.
It also touches on the notion of being assertive, and the importance of having a purpose in life, which is vital to carve your financial destiny.
Branden expressively and scientifically outlines how necessary it is to master all these aspects of life and how it is on the individual to ensure that they sustain these attributes.
The book teaches individuals that the task of attaining a higher level of self esteem and self confidence is something you need to pursue and accomplish.
It shows how cultivating creativity become easier if you are self loving.
Self esteem isn’t something that your parents, teachers, friends, loved ones, or bosses can “give” you. And the moment you understand this is the moment that you truly “wake up”.
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are – Brené Brown
Having sold more than 2 million copies, The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown is another one of the best self confidence books that beautifully touches on the importance of wholesome well-being as well as the value of acceptance.
It has been touted as being a truly inspiring and transformational book by globally renowned platforms and newspaper companies such as the New York Times and Forbes.
The Gifts of Imperfection eagerly inspires readers to know that they truly have what it takes to be a better version of themselves and that they are more than what they believe.
Brown intricately glides over the fact that it is so easy and common for people to doubt themselves every step of the way or constantly feel “unworthy”. She talks about how you can take steps to change that and embrace self love.
If you don’t already know, Brown also gave a famous speech that ranked as the top five most-watched TED Talks in the world. She is also a renowned scholar and a prolific research scientist.
The Gifts of Imperfections can also be aptly described as a warmhearted self-help book that explains how individuals can live a fulfilling life from a position of self-acceptance and self worth.
It touches on important topics such as why you should start letting go of what people think and start living a life with a hint of creativity, love, and affection. It teaches you how to enrich your self esteem.
It is one of the best confidence books you can read and shows you how your self confidence determines your self image and can be a powerful trait for self discovery.
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun – Gretchen Rubin
There are plenty of reasons why it is so easy to see how The Happiness Project landed on the best-seller list of the New York Times, and why the book was published in 30 languages.
Gretchen Rubin’s meticulous analytics and writing prowess have transformed her into an absolute authority on habits, happiness, human nature, and self worth.
The author claims that the idea to write the book came to her when one day she was riding on a bus and she reflected on her life and what she wanted to achieve.
Just like every other individual, she too thought to herself what she wanted in life, her purpose, and what she needed to do to live a happy and fulfilling life.
It was then that she knew, she had to combat her low self esteem and enrich her self image.
In the book, Rubin highlights her personal experiences and the promises and resolutions she made to herself in order to pursue her very own quest for happiness and contentment.
The book talks about the importance of self love, the need to focus on your well-being, and the power of thinking outside the box.
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person – Shonda Rimes
Year of Yes truly encapsulates the power of pushing the boundaries of the “self” to achieve a higher level of self esteem and confidence.
The author, Shonda Rimes, while somewhat of a celebrity, also struggled with harnessing the level of confidence you need to succeed in life.
It is a great book that helps combat growing levels of low self confidence and helps boost your subconscious mind.
Rimes claims that it was her sister that inspired her to turn her life around over a Thanksgiving dinner when she told Rimes that one of the biggest issues she had was saying no to all the important things in her life.
This is when something clicked inside of Rimes and she suddenly remembered how she just blatantly refused to be interviewed and declined requests to make public appearances on TV shows, etc.
But she also realized that it was her lack of self confidence and self worth that caused her to act this way. Rimes also struggled with anxieties revolving around appearance, weight, and that general feeling of unhappiness.
Year of Yes is an account of the steps Rimes took to transform into a better version of herself, steps that we can all take too!
It is perhaps one of the best books you can read to enrich your own happiness and heightens your ability to listen to your inner voice, boost your mental health, and find the courage to fight emotional abuse.
Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life – Gary John Bishop
If you’re constantly questioning yourself when it comes to self esteem and confidence and can handle tough love, then by all means, Unfu*k Yourself is going to be one of the best self help books you’ll ever read.
One of the best lines from the book, which quickly became a personal motto for many readers was “Here’s what you’ve forgotten: You’re a fu*king miracle of a being”.
And yes, you can live an awesome life! Read this book and give ten days to self love. Try it.
The book aptly serves as a rough “earth to human” wake-up call for people that constantly feel trapped inside their minds and just don’t know what they can do to take back control.
It will keep on reminding you that you can’t keep on blaming others or lament on how life keeps throwing curveballs at you from all directions. But what you should truly blame is your inability for positive self-talk.
Unfu*k Yourself is one of the best self confidence books that teaches people how they can take control of themselves and how certain lifestyle changes can help gradually boost their self esteem.
A brilliant read for paving the road to self improvement, no doubt! It is going to help you convert your negative feeling into positive ones.
The Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear And Self-Doubt – Russ Harris
The Confidence Gap is an extremely powerful read. It’s readers attest to the fact that you’ll be inspired with new ideas each time you read this book.
It is without a doubt one of the best confidence books you will ever find. In the book, Harris basically demystifies the monkey-mind concept, which is something of a hurdle that a lot of us go through, making life unfulfilling.
The Confidence Gap is considered one of the best confidence books everybody should own. It really helped lots of individuals boost their mental health.
And it’s understandable. Everybody experiences a massive load of ideas day in and day out and they know that they will not be able to achieve every single life goal no matter how hard they try.
But that’s okay. In The Confidence Gap, Harris has ingeniously laid out a doable yet highly effective methodology for:
- Managing your inner monologue
- Compartmentalizing all that mental chatter; allowing you to build a more positive mental image of yourself.
He also admits that it’s virtually impossible to stop yourself from thinking negatively.
But if you give ten days to self care, you will be able to feel motivated enough for cultivating authenticity and enjoy your life experiences.
However, he also shows you how you can manage your thoughts and take back control even if you incline towards negative thoughts.
The book contains some powerful yet simple mental exercises you can perform to be more aware of your “self”.
It is a practical guide that help motivate individuals to embrace interactive exercises and count their days to self esteem.
In addition, you’ll also be able to understand the process of converting a negative or dark thought and reduce it to something meager or inconsequential.
You will learn how to identify your positive thoughts, no matter how small or how far in between.
You’ll be able to determine and categorize which positive thoughts can indeed be converted into a life goal and something achievable.
The Art of Extraordinary Confidence: Your Ultimate Path to Love, Wealth, and Freedom – Aziz Gazipura
The central theme of this widely acclaimed book is that to build self esteem and unwavering self confidence, you need to learn how to embrace the fears and discomforts in your life.
Fear can be a powerful and humbling motivator while discomforts can help you strengthen your character and your will to achieve “more”.
Gazipura highlights that by listening to your inner voice and asking yourself hard-hitting questions such as, “What path in life will I be able to choose if I have enough confidence?”, you’ll be able to navigate your life through ups and downs.
And molding it into something that perfectly aligns with your inner values.
Being one of the best confidence books, it provides individuals practical advice on how to avoid or not be overwhelmed by negative self talk.
The author also discusses how our brains are able to simply make up things and stories that we subconsciously accept as realities about ourselves.
He talks about how this can be a big problem, especially when it comes to building confidence, living a gratifying life, and build self esteem.
Gazipura explains that the only way to beat this is to quash such stories and to start believing that you are more than what you seem.
The book helps you to finally awake your inner self and take back immediate control of your life, and enhance your mental health.
The Art of Extraordinary Confidence is a transitional self-help book that helps you enjoy the things that matter the most and helps you combat low confidence by teaching you the value of positive thinking.
It helps you understand how to work on your health, form loving relationships, enjoy your career, and a lot of other major facets of your life. It is a complete self love workbook.
Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway: Dynamic Techniques For Turning Fear, Indecision, And Anger Into Power, Action, And Love – Susan Jeffers
Looking at things from a broader perspective, it is safe to assume that people typically have two choices to make in their day-to-day lives; deciding to take action confidently or succumb to their fears.
You see, if you don’t have any self confidence and are bad at expressing yourself or taking decisions on your feet, you really don’t need to experience drastic scenarios to feel fear.
There are plenty of things that will start to act as your main trigger point. For example, you will begin to feel uneasy and unsure of yourself as soon as you lay eyes on a beautiful girl or guy at the bar.
You will be overcome with hesitation and won’t be able to speak up at a meeting, etc. You will always feel stuck and be unable to embrace real talk.
The point is, these are all situations where your fear and anxiety will abruptly creep in and keep pushing you back from taking affirmative action.
In Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway, Jeffers talks about taking an alternative route to feeling confident, and that is through managing your fears instead of overcoming them.
The book is a burst of fresh air for balancing your work life and counting your days to self esteem.
She proposes a meticulous yet easy to digest framework of how you can take steps to act on your fears and not allow them to destroy your effort to live a more sucessful life.
By building resilience, you can raise your levels of self esteem and find the courage to face the curveballs life throws at you.
One of the reasons why readers love this book is because the author brilliantly explains why fear and doubt overcomes us and what we can do about it.
Jeffers highlights that there are essentially a handful of outcomes that people typically tend to fear, such as:
- They feel overwhelming anxiety and self doubt about what is going to happen to them as a result of an illness, loneliness, aging, pain, etc.
- They fear the uncertainty of their actions, preventing them from taking a leap forward.
- They fear an attack on their pride and ego – such as rejection, utter failure, incompetence, and helplessness.
However, of the incalculable number of fears that people have, Jeffers points out that the most damning of fear is the inability to believe in yourself.
So yes, it is one of the best confidence books you should own!
How to be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety – Ellen Hendriksen
Many readers claim that it took them a long time to overcome social anxiety. Sure, it wasn’t like they were alone, they had friends and a lot people knew them.
However, the problem was, they never quite felt like themselves when they were surrounded by other people. They were struck with low self esteem.
An optimal way of explaining social anxiety would be that you start to constantly feel as if you really don’t belong. You begin to fear that once you’re in a group of people, you will be exposed for what you are.
For example, whenever they went to a party and spoke to different people, at the back of their heads, they were always sure that they would be subjected to their social inadequacies, and faults, and would be quickly judged for their personalities.
Even self-hatred started to sink into them as a result.
Although it took them a while to manage their anxiety, and they feel like they still have ways to go, they firmly claim that How To Be Yourself played an instrumental role in helping them manage their social anxiety.
As one of the best confidence books, this helped them feel confident in their beliefs, it allowed them to realign their inner monologue, and it showed them how silly there were being.
In the book, Hendriksen mainly talks about how people can take steps to reduce and eliminate social anxiety. But why I am talking about social anxiety here?
Well, the fact is, one of the major hurdles to overcome to increase your levels of confidence is to develop the ability to become outspoken and to engage in conversation, not with just the people you know – but with those who you don’t.
The book explains how you can curb your inclination towards negative self talk and paves the road for self love and helps build confidence.
It’s important to understand that people enjoy being around people that have a certain amount of wit, charm, and charisma.
It’s natural to be attracted to people who have the ability to make you laugh, tell stories, and say the right thing in just about any situation they are in.
And above all, these people avoid negative self talk and instead, talk about the merits of self love.
As one of the best self confidence books, it helps pave the way for you to become a charismatic and empathetic person by helping you understand your inner self and allows you to focus on self love and have more compassion for yourself and others around you.
Bottom Line
So there you have it. A list of some of the best confidence books that will help you gain confidence, focus on self care, and develop self-reliant and positive personality traits that will help you succeed in life as well as enhance your psychological health.
These books are a great way to start your own self love experiment and find ways to stop doubting yourself every step of the way. So, start to build confidence today!
