Books to Read to Get Rich: Success Thinking

Who needs books to read to get rich? Are you rich right now? Well, you may need the tips in today’s post for which books can help you get rich.

If you are not rich already, then you may be lacking the information you need, so why not go to the pros and find out what they know. I can tell you that gaining wealth has more to do with mindset than anything else…

This post was originally published June 19th, 2018 and has been updated to be current with new information. This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. However, my opinions are my own. Full disclosure is here.

Welcome to Fearless Affiliate.

My name is Irma and I help new bloggers to learn the ropes. There is a lot to take in that first year of blogging, from choosing a niche to changing your mindset from worker bee mentality to that of successful entrepreneur.

I like to focus on practical information and positive thinking, so if that sounds good to you please sign up for my weekly newsletter of tips and free stuff for bloggers.

Subscribers will get the password to my resource library of PDF printables for bloggers like my Google Analytics Cheatsheet or my SEO Checklist.#win-win

Still haven’t picked a blog niche?

I can help with that too! Read my 5 Secrets To Finding Your Niche eReport…it’s in the Resource Library. Sign up now and check it out.

The Best Books To Read To Become Rich

Yes, I have read these books.

Am I applying the principles? Yes. Is it helping? Definitely!

Many people miss out on opportunities that can really help them because their thinking is limited. It may be mental blocks about money and wealth. Or it could be limiting thoughts on what success means.

Either way, a subtle shift in thinking may be all that is needed.

When you start moving the needle to improve your success thinking, you will start to see “gifts” showing up in your life. This is your queue to:

1. Notice them for what they are
2. Take advantage of them

When my thinking about wealth and how to acquire it changed, life started presenting me with more opportunities.

It started small, with great coupons and “mysterious” gifts from friends and family.

Sometimes it was awesome discounts at the time that I am purchasing something – like everything that I go to buy is on sale or has a 30%off discount.

And sometimes it was unexpected cash!

These gifts are all around us, but if we are not in the right frame of mind to notice them, they may pass us by. #sad

I want you to be able to have more fun, free, bonus or unexpected awesomeness show up in your life too.

I want you to have hope in your future, and a solid awareness that your dreams are about to come true, because you now know how to make that happen.

The following books all have great tips within. You may not need all of the tips today, so just note the things that you want to try and leave the rest. You may want to re-read these books multiple times, mining for nuggets that you can use.

My favorite of the lot is this one:

Success Principles by Jack Canfield

I was inspired to read something, anything by Jack Canfield after watching him tell his story in the movie “The Secret”. What Jack did was a huge turning point for him and his family.

I watch that movie about once a month now, just for inspiration from the movies participants.

In The Secret, Jack talks about how, at a time when he was earning about $8,000 a year,  he was encouraged to reach for a goal so big that it scared him.

Jack went for a big money goal, and he got it. Or pretty close.

Jack was aiming to earn 100k in a year.

He got to $92,000+. Not bad going from 8K to 92K in one year.

Was he disappointed that he did not reach $100,000? No! He was super happy because he discovered a way to change every area of his life by changing his thinking. And so can the rest of us!

The book, The Success Principles, is full of motivating stories and exercises that you can do to help you reach your goals.

Change your mind to change your life.

There are lots of true stories in this book. Another that I like is how Jim Carrey became famous, and how he used the power of positive thinking to get his big break.

And there are plenty of stories of athletes who “visualized” getting across the finish line first and how they continue to win with this winning thinking.

Stories and quotes from famous people over the past 100 years who overcame all manner of obstacles to reach their goals.

This book will help you if you do some of the exercises in it. You do not have to finish them all, but starting will let you know what is important to you. The sooner you find out what works for you, the quicker success comes to you!

I re-read parts of this book often for inspiration and motivation. If they can do it, so can I, and so can you!

If you hang around with five confident people, you will be the sixth.

As well, if you hang around with five intelligent people, you will be the sixth.

Or maybe you can hang around with five millionaires, you will be the sixth.

Just don’t hang around with five idiots…

Let It Out by Katie Dalebout

“A journey through journaling”.

When I first heard about journaling, I tried it and had zero success.

That is because I was using my journal as a diary, as in “dear diary, today I met a boy” kind of thing.

While that can be fun, it did not help.

Then I attended a small conference where I had to use free writing as a way to express myself.

Huh? I was told that I would have 5 minutes and I could write about anything that I want. That was a huge turning point for me.

I started writing about how much I hated my job.

And the 5 minutes went by pretty quick.

At that point in my life, I was hugely unhappy in general and desperate to find a way out of my unhappiness, much of which was tied to my job.

I had no idea how to get out of the life that I did not want (current circumstances) and get into the life that I did want (the feeling of freedom).

After 5 minutes of free writing and getting all that stuff off my mind and out of my head, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of me.

Free-writing is amazing for Success Thinking

Better yet, I had a plan! It was really just a spark of an idea, but it was there. Encouraged, I worked to move forward.

I actually wanted to learn more about this whole journaling thing, because I felt like I was still missing something, and journaling would help.

So I bought Katie’s book, which has tons of exercises that you can do to improve your journaling experience and find your ‘groove’.

I tried many, many of the exercises in it. Then, I got to number 30 “The feeling of healing freewrite” and stopped.

That was what I needed…more free writing. I do it all the time now.

What is truly beneficial about journaling, at least for me, is how much clarity I gain after. Like all that gunk from inside my brain was blocking off the good stuff.

I encourage you to try any and all of the exercises to see what resonates with you.

Journaling is a great way to get clear ideas on how to move forward with life. When you allow your mind to show you what you really want, you can start down the path towards it.

You may not know about the path if you are surrounded by negative Nancy’s or people with limited thinking.

If you do not know what to do next, journal. Get the junk outta your head to make room for the awesome ideas that will propel you forward into your new life.

I have journals all over my house, because I get ideas at random times, and I gotta write that stuff down. I get when I am drifting off to sleep!

To quote Morpheus in the movie The Matrix: Free your mind.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Ah, the classic. This is on every top x books to become rich list, and for good reason.

Napoleon Hill tells us about all the people becoming millionaires during the great Depression. I cannot think of anything else that is so relatable at this Covid-19 time of our lives.

How were people becoming richer than rich when other people were jumping out of windows because they lost everything?

Mindset

The millionaires were solving new problems that cropped up because of what was going on in the world around them. And they got rich doing it. I am sure that you have read this book, because all the cool kids have.

The steps to changing your money mindset are laid out in order, and build upon each other.

I recommend the Mastermind edition as well as the Think and Grow Rich Workbook, because the original book was written many years ago, but the mastermind stuff is current and enhances the book with more questions and exercises for changing your thinking.

Be inspired by a man who convinced his son that he could hear, when he actually physically could not.

Stories like this are the reason that this is the go-to book for people who want to change their lives.

The writing is a bit dated, and I appreciate that they kept it intact because I enjoy reading books like this. I am sure that you do as well.

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive, he can achieve” – Napoleon Hill

The 12- week year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

How can you succeed in life without setting goals of some kind? I have no idea, because that way of thinking has never helped me before.

Since I started working on my goals using The 12 Week Year, I am way more focused.

I was getting by okay with S.M.A.R.T goals, but Brian’s book has elevated that for me in so many ways.

Setting goals in 90-day chunks makes it easier to monitor success

There are similar programs popping up lately, but I recommend going with the book. It is like original Kraft Dinner vs the no-name stuff.

I find that goal setting based on a 12 week year is much easier to attain data for. I set 3 goals and then work on each one of them weekly in progressive steps and monitor the results and then adjust accordingly.

Set goals for 3 or 4 key areas of your life: Career/Work; Family & friends (relationships); Finances; and Personal Growth.

Super easy.

You get data that helps you adjust your priorities for the next week to see if you need to change something or increase the effort that you are putting in.

If you have any kind of trouble setting goals and making them work for you, try Brian’s way.

This book makes setting goals a breeze.

Start collecting your data. I know you want to 😉

“Success is a state of mind. If you want success – start thinking of yourself as a success”- Dr. Joyce Brothers

How Successful People Grow by John C. Maxwell

I found this little gem on the discount table at Chapters for a few bucks, but Amazon has it as well.

This is also based on your mindset, but not specifically about money.

Chapter Three is called “Believe in Yourself”, and is about the power of positive self-esteem.

For anyone who thinks to themselves “I have low self-esteem” then the first thing that you need to realize is that you can change that, because self-esteem is what we think about ourselves.

And we can choose to think whatever we want about ourselves.

Why think small when we can think big?

We can believe that little devil on one shoulder that tells us that we do not have what it takes to succeed.

Or we can believe that angel on the other shoulder who says YES YOU CAN SUCCEED! JUST GET GOING ALREADY!! I dare you to try!

Movies like The Pursuit of Happyness are popular precisely because they are stories about people who were down, waaaaay down, but they found a way out.

I think that deep inside us we all hope that we can do it too.

What I really like about this little book is the chapter on trade-offs.

It is easy to become complacent about things in our lives, and sometimes all you have to do is trade off one thing to move forward. The trade-off may be an outdated attitude that no longer serves you.

“We must learn to see trade-offs as opportunities for growth”. That is powerful.

There are plenty of Q & A’s written into this book to give you a way to figure out which things are worth trading off.

One small change can be the difference that it takes for you to reach your success.

Do not be afraid to try and fail.

Failing is just another way of getting feedback and is super useful for tweaking things and trying something else. Feedback is just our intuition telling us to pivot just a bit to get closer to the result that we want.

Conclusion

I also do other things to change my mindset, and I have talked about these in other posts.

They may be strange or controversial (subliminal re-programming anyone? What can I say? It works.).

If your mindset about money leans towards “lack mentality” or “poverty consciousness” then you may want to consider some kind of reprogramming if you want wealth to find you.

Related Post: Success is a State of Mind

I know that I certainly did. I had some seriously dug-in blocks about money and my ability to earn it and spend it. But I am all done with that now.

Read an inspiring book. Write some stuff down. Think about problems that you can solve. Set some goals. Think better about yourself.

This is the path to wealth. Seems easy enough, right? And I will see you there!

Until next time, happy blogging! And follow me on Pinterest!

-Irma