The best self-development book 2021

So, what’s your plan for 2021? 

Well, would you lie on your couch, video gaming, feeding yourself with loads of junk(food and content) in the next 365 days to come? 

Doing nothing but daydreaming, so-called socializing on digital-tools, and spending the rest of 2021 complaining about almost everything? 

Wait!  I’m not going to get harsh on you. No, not at all! After all, I’ve spent a good long-time doing the same.

I know how it feels when you’re not living the life you want to live. It sucks when your life is just passing by, outside of your control. When you’re not living every moment of it!

That’s why I’m here to help you get out of laziness, negative self-perception, and low self-esteem.

So, even if your answer is a yes, remember you are valuable, important, and distinctive. Just like any other creature in this universe, you have your OWN uniqueness, which sets you apart. I just want you to know that you’ve way more potential than you think you have. The only difference is to get to know yourself better and start working on it.

Let’s begin with small tasks. Maybe as small as reading a single self-help book in the whole of 2021. Not that difficult, right! 

Listen, no matter how hard it might seem to you, Just give 15 minutes of your daily routine to a self-help book, and see the impact it’ll have on you.

Gradually but surely you’ll experience the power of healing, transformation, and growth within yourself!

Today, I’ve come up with one of the best self-development book for you to read in 2021. Although it was published in 1989, but its considered one of the classics in self-development category.

Here we go!

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”- by Stephen R. Covey

If you’re trying to find happiness around yourself, you should better stop looking for it. Because true happiness and contentment lie within yourself!

It’s just the game of perspective. The way you look at things. No matter how they actually are! You’ll learn this and more life-changing lessons from “The 7 Habits of Highly effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. This one is my all-time favorite self-improvement book to read and recommend.

This book has a history of sparking up individual brains. You can read the reviews on this self-help book and find out the positive impact it’s created on many beings. 

The main message it gives is the power of control you have over yourself. If, for instance, you’ve had a bad incident at work. You don’t let it control your whole day. You simply can’t let it ruin your mood, energy, and performance at work.

“You have to learn to invest your energies in productive things“

Moreover, letting go of stressful situations will save you a lot of trouble and valuable time. Yeah! I know it’s more difficult to do than said! But at least you can try.

“Life is another name for thriving! You keep on learning, experimenting, and implementing new things until you master them one day. “

How encouraging is it to watch an old man reading a book? What he’ll be learning at this age? Isn’t it inspirational?

Do you remember the time when you were a kid and not able to speak? What happened then! Well, you learned to speak. More precisely, you learned it with time and your environment. This is the simplest example I could give to prove that you can do a lot more! And that nothing is impossible for you!

“You don’t have to be good to start … you just have to start to be good!”- Joe Sabah

Another great thing about this personal-development book is it doesn’t really tell you about the apparent habits of successful people. It doesn’t tell you to wake up early, to exercise daily, to meditate, to set some serious goals for yourself,….

No, it simply doesn’t force anything onto you. It just plays a role in your self-awakening process. This self-help book focuses on the mindsets of highly influential people. Their standard for dealing with certain problems-as one might call them. But for them, they are not even considered as problems. They don’t waste their energies upon small issues. 

Stephen R. Covey provides you with the content capable of igniting a spark within yourself. The words, powerful enough to stir your perception towards life, people, and situations. You’ll get to read some serious callings- strong-enough to wake you up from a dull, and ordinary life. 

Wrapping up

On an ending note, I heartily recommend you to read this personal-development book at-least once in your life. If it’s possible, set a small goal for your 2021, to complete reading it. Put the rest into the years to come. You’ll feel the spell of this powerful, awakening, and conceptual self-help book.

If nothing else, It’ll definitely play its role in kickstarting your vision-development.

“Last but not the least, you’ll discover yourself somewhere between the pages of this impactful book. Just as I discovered myself!“

Self-awareness: Key to self-development

Who doesn’t want to succeed in life?

Well, every other person is struggling to achieve their ultimate goals in life! But then the question arises: What efforts are we putting forward to succeed?

Be it your personal or professional life. You must know your strengths, beliefs, shortcomings, and overall personality. The way you tackle difficult situations. How you respond to negative circumstances. Your method of managing stress and anxiety, and many more…

What is self-awareness?

Knowing about your true self is called self-awareness. This includes your abilities, traits, behaviors, emotions, opinions, thoughts, limitations, etc.

Self-awareness is the key to self-development. That’s because we can more likely improve something that we are aware of. For instance, if we get the self-awareness that we lack in concentration and focus. We would try out solutions to overcome the problem at hand.

Tip: Meditation, adult coloring books, concentration-involving games, puzzles, Sudoku, and relaxing mobile apps…. are helpful to improve your concentration skills.

Having said that, every problem has a solution. It only depends on how early we detect the problem and start fixing it.

The same phenomenon goes with your self-development journey.

The earlier and completely you understand yourself, the better you can improve yourself.

After all, life is a journey, which involves constant learning, hard work, and thriving.

Types of self-awareness

Well, you’ll come across two types of self-awareness. Internal vs External.
Internal self-awareness involves full knowledge of your beliefs, values, desires, pros, cons… and your effect on others, etc.

That awareness hits your soul. You learn the things you never knew about yourself. Your potential, creativity, powers,.. are all revealed during your path towards consciousness.

While external self-awareness deals with the perception of people about yourself. Also known as public self-awareness, a large part of it caters to empathy. The individuals who can understand others are much better with external self-awareness. That’s because they get into the shoes of others. They react in a way they prefer to be treated themselves.

I would tell you to focus on internal self-awareness first. Honestly, nothing is more important than knowing what’s inside of you.

On the other hand, understanding others’ perception of you is not necessary. As in most cases, it kind of adds layers to your personality. To fit into society, you often sacrifice a part of your true nature. And that, without knowing it.

Our goal here is to find yourself! To discover your inner soul! Your true colors! The way nature has created you raw! Unique, and Powerful! Rich and Beautiful!

Why is self-awareness important?

Nature has created all of us different in many ways. Self-awareness is one way to discover our differences; to cherish our distinctiveness; to get comfortable within our body.

As I said earlier, self-awareness opens the door to self-development.

In this thriving journey, you not only develop more skills, but, a large part of it depends upon enhancing your existing skills, and abilities.

If you find it hard to discover your abilities and potential. One reason for that might be a lack of self-awareness. Knowing yourself will help you in making sound life decisions. It will help you feel comfortable with yourself. And, motivates you towards self-development.

Not only you’ll feel confident in yourself, you’ll also honor your personality type, and personal space. Most of all, it helps you to become a better version of YOUESELF!

Self-confidence comes from within: true or false?

Yes, confidence comes from within. When your intentions are right. Your ambitions are high. And your eyes are all set at the goal. The key to developing self-confidence from within is: looking at the reward; the final destination; the ultimate goal of your life. And that without getting carried away by the hardships of the journey.

“Remember, confidence has very strong self-esteem. It doesn’t come to the headless, clueless, and aimless beings“

Strong goals are important for self-confidence

My No#1 trick to attain self-confidence is setting a strong goal in your life. Interestingly, during this journey of achieving your ultimate goal, you’ll meet confidence. With each passing stage and, every accomplished milestone, you’ll get more confident in yourself.

Get yourself a purpose in life. Ask where you wanna see yourself in 10 years? Your purpose must be so strong to keep you going. With whatever external situations or environment you face. 

The key is to get so much concentrated on achieving the goal. Such that matters such as addressing an audience, standing for your rights, or asking for a favor to someone, etc., becomes quite petty. So, you won’t even give them a second thought before doing them. 

Believe me, attaining self-confidence is such a small goal to set for yourself. Don’t underestimate your potential. You got to set some real goals. You have much more power than you think you have.

That’s how inner confidence comes in. The best part is: It is not altered with the outside life. It’s unaware of the outside hustle and bustle. Criticisms, negative energies. It has its power, vibrant colors, and a beautiful aura.

Just like a strong life-purpose embedded into your soul. It will stay as far as your soul remains in your body. It’s resonance vibrating into the world long after you’ve left the world.

Can you say that influential people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and Abdul Sattar Edhi had no vision of life? And yet they were so confident in whatever they did. And yet so humble and down to earth. 

And that without faking. Without tons and tons of makeup, branded suits, and accessories. Without taking confidence-building classes. Without pretending to be a celebrity, they became celebrities themselves.

This is the true definition of confidence. The type of confidence is healthy, humble, productive, and long-term. The one which comes with a purpose! So slowly, and wonderfully. That the beholder doesn’t even realize that he has attained a strong level of self-confidence. Until the world applauds for their vision, confidence, and assertiveness. 

Different school of thought; self-confidence

While I was going through internet research on self-confidence. I encountered two schools of thought. One believing that confidence comes from experience. That experience is regarded as an external object. Something you attain from your environment. Your parents, friends, or at work.

Interestingly, the second school of thought regards confidence as a feeling coming from yourself. Arising from a state when your heart, mind, and soul are aligned together. Beating at the same rhythm… Soaring at the same speed…

Let’s have another discipline of people, who don’t care whether it’s coming from inside or outside. All they care about is having it at their service. (I’m not sure if others feel the same)

I used to be the one who belonged to this group.

I tried to jump at every tip or trick to enhance my confidence. From faking my confident friends, role models, and celebrities to volunteering during class discussions and meetings.

Unfortunately, these tricks didn’t work out for me. I couldn’t somehow balance the under-confidence (which I had) with overconfidence (which I attained unintentionally while trying on the tips and tricks for confidence building). 

But why?

That’s because I was not aware of myself in the true sense of words. I was not aware of my potential. The things I was capable of. The goals I could set and achieve.

I didn’t realize that I don’t need to pretend to be confident. I don’t need to fake it! If nature has created me as a unique human being. A complete person. A beautiful individual inside out. Why should I then fake it?

I’m not saying that knowing yourself well will alone give you confidence. But It is one of the basic steps which most of us ignore in our self-development journey.

Does confidence come from within?

We cannot conclude this statement as true or false. As it varies from person to person. You can attain a very balanced amount of confidence from combining internal and external factors. For instance, having a big vision, supported by your external environment, is perfect.

It’s just that external conditions never remain the same. That’s where stronger inner confidence gets an edge. It keeps you going irrespective of the hurdles you face.

Like always, it is for you to decide which method works for you to be more confident in yourself. To be honest, if I hadn’t tried the random methods and tricks on the internet, I could not have discovered the one which works for me.

Sometimes, the best way is discovered only after you’ve tried all other ways possible. No doubt this journey takes its time. But the result is fruitful. With a sense of accomplishment and hard work, you’ve put your way.

Self Development and Personal Growth; Healing, and Consciousness

Where are we lacking in life? What is stopping us to achieve our goals? When will we succeed?

Well, these are the common questions we all ask ourselves.

And oftentimes we get entangled in our thought process. But why?

Well, because we are not aware of ourselves in the true sense of words. And, when we are not aware of our pros and cons, How on earth can we evaluate ourselves? How we’d know if we best fit for a particular field of education? Or a job? Or a business? Maybe starting married life?

Calm down! Calm down! you are not alone in this. Mostly, we need the help of someone else to tell our strengths and shortcomings. Someone who knows us better than ourselves.

Someone who can tell us if Biology is better for you or the arts? Whether you should go for a start-up business or a local job? Someone who can assure you that a particular person is best suitable to be your life-partner.

As for me, I always craved for that SOMEONE! and even relied on my friends and family for all my life decisions. Some of them ended out well, some bad.

But that doesn’t matter how they turned out. What matters is my personality deterioration.

How negatively the dependency on others, impacted my self-respect, self-growth, self-awakening, and self-development- which I believe are the pillars of growth.

The reason for starting the “Thriving Together” series of blogs is to come out of that dependency, breaking-free from complexes, insecurities, and the fear of failure.

That I am sure, if I’ll come out of the negative constraints, I’ll succeed in life. If you’re going through the same phase in your life, This is the place for you! Let’s start this journey of self-realization, healing, growth, and development Together!