The Five Best Self-Help Books I Read in 2024

We are now to the last set of book recommendations based on the 86 books I read in 2024.

I have been sharing the top books I have read across four genres and the value I have gained from reading them:

1. Fiction (12/9)
2. Non-Fiction (12/16)
3. Business/Leadership (12/23)
4. Self-Help (12/30)

The Five Best Self-Help Books I Read in 2024

5. A Happy Pocket Full of Money: Infinite Wealth and Abundance in the Here and Now by David Cameron Gikandi

I have learned a few lessons about money over time:

1. While I have understood money and how it works, I haven’t always had the best relationship with money.
2. When people do not have a good relationship with money, they struggle cognitively and emotionally with money.
3. When people have a good relationship with money, they live with greater abundance.

I have read several books about the emotional side of money, and I thought this was at or near the top of the list. In fact, the only one that has rivaled it is You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero.

Both of these books have had a life-changing impact on my life because they have helped me upgrade and improve my relationship with money.

This book has a 4.38 rating on Goodreads with 60% giving it five stars.

4. From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way by Jesse Thistle

I have been fortunate that none of my family members have ever struggled with drug additions. So, that is something that has been foreign to me. But, that is also what made this such a powerful read to me. This memoir is written by a recovering addict, and he goes into great detail of his experience falling into, battling with, and rising above addiction.

While I think everyone will find this memoir moving, I think it is a “must-read” for anyone whose lives have been touched by addiction or for anyone who wants to better understand homelessness.

This book has a 4.49 rating on Goodreads with 59% giving it five stars.

3. How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self by Nicole LePera

I am always on the lookout for books that have been written to help people go through the vertical development process, and this is one of the better ones. I think she does a great job of helping the reader (1) get in touch with their body’s internal operating system (i.e., automatic stress responses), (2) understand where the programming of their internal operating system has come from (e.g., codependency, trauma), and (3) how to do the work of rising above one’s self-sabotaging behaviors.

This book has a 4.14 rating on Goodreads with 44% giving it five stars.

2. The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Ester

The basic premise of this book is two-fold:

• We do not push ourselves enough, and we are worse off because of it.
• If we intentionally do difficult things (like really difficult things) that push us to our limits, we will become better and experience life more fully.

I loved how this book carried a good proportion of memoir, research, and great life-lessons.

And, this book explains why I co-led a group to climb a 14er in Colorado as part of a personal/leadership development program called The Climb. If you are interested in pushing yourself in 2025, join us! It was a life-changing and life-elevating experience for all involved.

This book has a 4.28 rating on Goodreads with 49% giving it five stars.

1. The Seven Primal Questions: Take Control of the Hidden Forces that Drive You by Mike Foster

This was the best book connected to vertical development that I read in 2025. The basic premise of this book is that each of us has a “Primal Question” that guides how we see and navigate life. While this question serves us in some ways, it largely holds us back by causing us to operate in self-protective ways. This book helps people awaken to their “Primal Question” and the role it plays in their life. And, I agree with the author when he says that it is only by awakening to our Primal Question that we can take ownership of our life.

This book has a 4.34 rating on Goodreads with 59% giving it five stars.

Honorable Mentions

During 2024, I re-read two self-help books that have been a part of my “Best” books in years past. And both would have been at the top of this year’s list. They are written by the same person, Edith Eger, a Holocaust survivor and Viktor Frankl protégé:

• The Choice: Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible
• The Gift: 14 Lessons to Save Your Life

If you are going to read only one, I recommend The Choice.

Best Books from Prior Years

• The Five Best Non-Fiction Books I Read in 2023
• The Five Best Fiction Books I Read in 2023
• The Five Best Business/Leadership Books I Read in 2023
• The Five Best Fiction Books I Read in 2022
• The Five Best Non-Fiction Books I Read in 2022
• The Five Best Business/Leadership Books I Read in 2022
• The Five Best Non-Fiction Business/Self-Help Books I Read in 2021
• The Five Best Fiction Books I Read in 2021
• The Five Best Non-Fiction (Other) Books I Read in 2021