100+ Books on Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem To Read All Time

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The significance of self-esteem and self-confidence is well known. An overall emotional evaluation of one’s worth as a self or as a person is what we call self-esteem. 

Self-confidence, on the other hand, is something that is related to a person’s beliefs as what they believe about themselves, their abilities, and also about doing things. 

High self-esteem and high self-confidence are associated with success in life. Self-help books are the best resource for learning self-confidence and self-esteem.

However, there are hundreds of self-help books out there, ranging from fiction to nonfiction on or around self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth. 

Some are written by psychologists or therapists, some are written by authors, and some are written by other people.

What books should you read when you want to build self-confidence and self-esteem?

Actually, there is no specific answer here. The only factor that matters in choosing the right book for yourself is what works for you. 

If you want to read books on self-confidence and self-esteem, then go ahead and pick them up. Just remember to take notes, and don’t forget to apply what you’ve learned.

Here are the best self-help books on self-confidence and self-esteem that you must read : 

Table of Contents

Top 30 Books On Self-Confidence And Self-Esteem That You Must Read

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field – Nathaniel Branden 

In this book, Nathaniel Branden explains how self-esteem develops and what you can do to improve it.

He also discusses the six pillars of self-esteem: competence, autonomy, relatedness, power, purity, and purpose. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to build self-confidence and self-esteem.

Nathaniel Branden composed all his collections of his research,  clinical studies, and observations in his book for the readers. 

The book is very creatively written, focusing on the benefits of working on your self-esteem based on his given six pillars. 

The author also explains why having high self-esteem is important for a healthy body, soul, and spirit and suggests practical ways to nurture it.

If you are going to get yourself only one book from this list, it has to be this one. Why? He wasn’t just another self-help writer. He was actually a psychologist.

And that’s not it! He was also the torchbearer of the self-confidence movement that occurred in the 1970s.

Also, he used to know more than the other authors there.

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (Abridged Edition) by Eckhart Tolle 

This is an abridged edition of Eckhart Tolle’s bestseller, “The Power of Now.”He is considered to be one of the most influential spiritual teachers of this era.

In his book, he teaches us about the nature of reality, the true meaning of life, and how we can achieve enlightenment.

Eckhart Tolle is a German author who has penned many books on meditation. 

In his latest book, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (Penguin Books), he presents an explanation for how we can find peace within ourselves and live without fear.

The Power of now provides us with a way to understand our world and ourselves through a new lens. The book depicts how you can change your life and your relationships.

His books and ideas have helped millions of people across the world.  

Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – Steven C. Hayes

Accepting yourself means accepting who you are, including your weaknesses and underachievements. 

ACT aims to help people understand their thoughts and feelings by helping them accept them and commit to doing something about them.

The process of ACT focuses on helping people distinguish between pain and suffering, which is an important part of well-being.

There are highly useful scientific techniques that are shared in this book, helping to overcome struggles of life. These techniques also help you to look at life from a broader perspective.

The approach that this book takes towards dealing with depression and anxiety is quite new and groundbreaking.  

This self-help book will help you to address one’s pain positively. It also teaches readers to find their strengths from their suffering in order to live a fulfilled experience. 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson

Don’t let the title of the book fool you or make you take it lightly. This book talks about a very simple yet very powerful idea that positive thinking is not always healthy or constructive.

Instead, the author suggests accepting your failures and embracing the struggle you go through. You will become a better person gaining more confidence and self-worth by doing what the author suggests. 

A lot of people are skeptical about self-help books, but they’re wrong. A lot of these self-help books are just dancing around simplistic and clichéd advice. 

On the other hand, this book is a fresh breath of air amongst all other kinds of self-help books out there. It is also ideal for those who are looking for something more serious than their usual self-help books.

The New Psycho-Cybernetics – Maxwell Maltz

The New Psycho-cybernetics has been a bestseller for decades, with more than 30 million copies sold so far.

When you set your goals and are going to execute crucial life plans, this book becomes quite helpful. 

The content of this book has been consistently updated by the author, so they will be able to add contemporary aspects of resources as well. 

From weight loss to professional success, this book covers every aspect of life.

It is a highly recommended book for professionals or students who are going to start applying for jobs. 

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are – Brené Brown

Brené Brown‘s book, The Gifts of Imperfection, helps readers achieve their wholesome well-being. It talks about unapologetically accepting yourself for who you are.

The book was extremely successful, selling over two million copies. Some famous publishers, including Forbes and The New York Times, regard this as a transformative self-help book.

You can learn about your true selves and find out to be more than what you believe initially. The author talks about how common it is to feel low, sad, or unworthy of yourself. 

There are certainly some meaningful and effective strategies on how you can accept your inner critic and utilize that to embrace your imperfect life in the best possible ways.

Unf*ck Yourself – Gary John Bishop

As mentioned above, Mark Manson’s success led to dozens of copycats. And while most such books are just cash cows and hence just trash, this book stands out to be better.

It was actually written to help people who actually want to change their lives.

You will find this book crafted in the same “take no prisoners” style you are familiar with in the subtle art of not giving a f**k.

Once again, this is a book for people who are sick of the usual positive thinking nonsense.

If those so-called “self-help gurus” bored you due to the same generic advice over and over, this book is a great refresher to have something new in this genre. 

So, it’s not just entirely fresh and very easy to read through in only a few sittings. 

Awaken the Giant Within – Tony Robbins

Practical exercises are included throughout this book, which is widely regarded as one of the best self-help texts ever written.

It gives readers a scientific approach to controlling negative emotions and building positive self-esteem. 

You will not just learn the art of influencing others but also the ability to craft plans for your own future that you can actually achieve.

The main reason to buy this book would be because it was written by Tony Robbins. There is a reason why he is known to be one of the most renowned motivational speakers in the world.  

It’s probably one of the most inspiring books you’re ever going to read. Tony has an energetic, infectious style that will not fail to motivate you, even if your challenges are difficult.

Mastering our emotions, whether they’re positive or negative, is the key to building a healthy self-system.

He has shared some life-changing methods and techniques that you can apply and change your life significantly. 

The book follows a simple step-by-step method for becoming more independent and in control of ourselves.

If you’re struggling to find meaning in your life, this book can help you increase your self-love and acceptance by helping you understand who you really are.

You Are a Badass – Jen Sincero

‘You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero is not your traditional self-help book on self-worth or self-confidence, but it focuses on those aspects interestingly.

Also, when you combine it with other self-improvement topics, it can help you strengthen your overall sense of self and, with that, your overall confidence.

Not to forget that there is a chapter called “Fear Is For Suck­ers,” which focuses on boosting self-confidence. 

You are going to learn so much from this chapter regarding how to tap into your confidence and deal with your fears. 

What to Say When You Talk to Yourself – Shad Helmstetter

Self-talk plays an important role in people’s lives. It can create a huge impact if done positively and constructively.  Most people underestimate how powerful it can be to your self-worth.

Our thoughts and words play a huge role in determining the quality of our lives, so it makes sense that they should be taken seriously.

If you’re always thinking about negative aspects of your own personality, there are higher chances of you feeling low self-esteem. 

Shad offers this book as a practical and helpful guide for those who want to overcome this issue.

According to Shad Helmstetter, there is an inner critic that is present in all of us, which often ends up damaging the sense of self you have. 

You get this highly accessible and easy self-help guide bombarded with cutting-edge information on doing positive self-talk and more. 

This book provides practical and helpful tips on how you can overcome low self-esteem and learn how to be happy. 

It follows a simple and straightforward approach and is easy to read for people of all ages.

You might be the type of person who gets plagued by negative thoughts then very often than others. In that case, this book can be very helpful.

Remember, if we start by thinking about something, then we’ll end up doing it. 

The Power of Self-Confidence: Become Unstoppable, Irresistible, and Unafraid in Every Area of Your Life – Brian Tracy

The Power of Self-Confidence teaches its readers how they can live by their values, achieve clear and realistic goals, improve themselves, reprogram their minds to be positive, and develop confidence and courage.

Self-confidence determines how ambitious you are and how hard you’re willing to work towards achieving your goals.

This practical book helps executives, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and ambitious people everywhere get their voices back.

Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway – Dr. Susan Jeffers

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway is a classic self-help book written by Dr. Susan Jeffers. In this book, the author provides a great range of advice and tips that are helpful in conquering the paralysis of fear and the inaction that comes from it.

She draws upon her extensive experience as a lecturer on the subject of transforming fear, indecisiveness, and even anger into powerful, action-taking, and confident behavior.

Susan Jeffers shares her insights and data, all from her research over many, many years. 

It also comes from her practice of lecturing on the same topics, such as changing your fear, indecision, or anger into power, action, and extreme confidence.

There are also a few practical insights and practices that you can learn and implement right away in your life. These exercises are really effective for your confidence which needs practice just like a muscle that needs movement and a workout.  

The Magic of Thinking Big – David J. Schwartz

If you’re looking to build immense self-belief in yourself, this is a good pick.

The Magic of Thinking Big is such a detailed, descriptive, and elaborate guide or more of a manual that helps you to boost and uplift your self-image. 

If you are not going to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, then you won’t be able to break chains from the cage of being an under-confident person. 

This book is written in very comprehensive and accessible English; not just that, it is highly effective and empowering for the readers. 

The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

This book is a step-by-step guide for women who want to overcome their self-image issues and live an awesome lifestyle.

It includes the latest scientific research from various fields, including cognitive behavioral therapy, body language, genetics, and more.

The author uses this scientific research to show why it’s easier to change your thoughts. And how you can also change your feeling towards yourself and other things.

The writing credits of this book are shared between two highly successful women. They both work in broadcast journalism and appear on outlets including BBC, NBC, and GMA.

Since this book is penned by women themselves, so this is a great pick for women readers.

 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

A New York Times Bestseller, this book was written for one woman’s quest to understand what truly makes people happy. 

This book seems to be very helpful, specifically for those people who want to do better in their lives. 

You don’t just find self-help techniques in the book. Rather, it offers a much more comprehensive overview of the field.

Instead, we follow her as she recounts twelve months in which she attempts to figure out if there is an answer to the question of whether or not one can be happy.

Ten Days to Self-Esteem – David D. Burns

Want to improve your life quickly? This is the book for you.

What’s really great about this book is its focus on cognitive behavioral therapy. This book offers a proven method that helps to treat mental health issues.

It’s a lot better than most other self-help books because it’s essentially a textbook that teaches cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). 

It becomes easier to identify the issues that are reasons for your stress and unhappiness using e given tool. So, you can lead your life in a much happier and more productive way.

If you’ve ever felt bad about your accomplishments in life or if you’re struggling to cultivate productivity in everyday activities, then this book may be just what you need.

Ten Days to Self Esteem by David Burns takes you through a magnificent and explorative journey of self-discovery.

This book certainly can be counted as one of those books which you can say is a ‘must-read.’

The book talks about accepting yourself, having compassion for yourself, and innovating yourself as vital components to building an inner security system within yourself.

The methods and examples described here are personalized and embrace human frailty. It’s practical, evidence-backed, and effective in today’s business environment.

Ten Days to Self-Esteem lays out a step-to-step plan for improving self-esteem. It has lots of useful information as well as worksheet templates. 

This is something that sets this particular self-help book apart from others, as it asks for more than just reading. 

What’s Right With Me: Positive Ways to Celebrate Your Strengths, Build Self-Esteem, and Reach Your Potential – Carlene DeRoo and Carolyn DeRoo

We tend to think more about the things that didn’t go right than about the things that did. 

This book is all about giving out positive thoughts and encouraging its readers to enjoy their lives as it reveals themselves to them. 

You will find this book inspiring and helping people to improve their sense of themself.  

There is a scientific explanation regarding why posi­tive thinking is the first step toward healthy self-esteem, along with various small and big lifestyle moderations that you need to do.

Healing Your Emotional Self: A Powerful Program to Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem, Quiet Your Inner Critic, and Overcome Your Shame – Beverly Engel

Early childhood experiences play an important role in building and shaping your self-system. Growing up in an emotionally abusive, physically abusive, or unappreciative family can be extremely detrimental to a child’s self-esteem and overall well-being.

This book talks about a wide array of early childhood experiences that deeply impacts a person’s self-worth. It also lays out different methods to deal with all these experiences.

The book is insightful to parents, teachers, counselors, and anyone who deals with child and adolescent issues and wants insight into the underlying causes of poor self-esteem.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living – Carnegie 

If fear, doubt, and worry are crippling, possessing just one of them can indeed stop the best among us from reaching our highest potential.

How so? Because they kill self-confidence. And, if success demands anything, self-confidence is essential.

This book is composed mainly of recipes Mr. Carnegie gathered from his night classes for adults on how to overcome worry, which he then compiled into one book.

‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a cure for anyone who wants to eliminate the debilitating effects of fear and worry from their life so they fortify confidence and get on with achieving success in their life.

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy

Your subconscious mind is a driving force behind everything you do.

Joseph Murphy has written a book called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind which explains some practical techniques on how we may be able to change our destinies by redirecting positive energy into ourselves.

This book blends together different parts of religion, culture, and literature to help us understand what happiness means and suggests ways to cultivate it within our own lives.

This enlightening book is an excellent read for anyone who wants to learn more about self-love and self-power.

Psycho-Cybernetics – Maxwell Maltz

Don’t be scared by the name of this ebook. It may seem daunting and super scientific, but there’s no need to worry — the material contained in it is easy to digest, and it’s even easier to implement toward building up confidence.

Maxwell Maltz, who is the author of this bestselling book, also has a Ph.D. He very well utilized his years of research, experience, and study regarding self-esteem and its role in achieving one’s goals. 

You’ll learn about how important perception is, how much of an impact our image has on our ability to achieve, how we can change our perception, and why we need to be aware of our own self-image.

Moreover, you’ll learn some power­ful strategies you could employ to instantly and positively affect your confidence level. 

If you are looking for a well-researched and scientifically proven book on self-confidence, then this is a good pick. 

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living – Dalai Lama

If anyone could personify tranquility and a strong sense of self, the Dalai Lama would certainly be somewhere on the list! His story is enlightening and teaches the true essence of being human.

This book is simply a wholesome collection of the Dalai Lamas’ stories, meditation practices, and holistic messages on his ways of living. His views on how one can bring more happiness to their own life.  

The book presents a number of one-on-one interviews with different people at different points in their lives. It is an essential book for endless inspiration, loving yourself, and meaningfu­l existence – a must-have for all.

If you have a special interest in Buddhism and also learn its methods for living a happier and wholesome life, then you will love this book. 

Negative Self-Talk and How to Change It

It’s a good read for anyone who wants to improve their confidence levels.

The premise of the book focuses on the ill effects of negative self-talk. It also speaks of great lengths about why one must reduce the amount of negativity they throw at themselves.

But more importantly, it teaches how to change it and do a better job at self-talk. 

This will help you develop your self-confidence because that plays a crucial role in positive self-talk. It also matters when it comes to your feeling toward yourself.

Simply put, more and more negative self-talk makes you feel less confident, whereas positive self-talk will eventually make you feel more comfortable.

If you want to learn how to stop, control, or manage your negative inner voice, then this book does the job best.

Unleash The Warrior Within – Richard Mactowicz

Unleashing The Warrior Within is written by former Navy SEAL Richard Mactowicz.

The author offers you tons of confidence-building guidance and strategies that he learned while serving in the military over the years.

Richard teaches his readers how to break down their fears into smaller, bite-size components, making them much more manageable. He also talks a lot about the significance of mindset for their readers in the book.

As part of a warrior culture, the Author here tackles those aspects of life that can hold us back from achieving our goals. If you’re looking for more confidence, read this guide, you won’t regret it.

The Art of Extraordinary Confidence – Aziz Gazipura

Comfort is the kiss of death to success. And in the book, you’ll learn why.

So, you’ll often find lots of advice in this book to step out of your comfort zone, which will help you dramatically increase your confidence levels.

If you’re okay with real talk, honesty, and no punches being pulled, you’ll enjoy this book. Be warned, however, that this isn’t a PG book. 

Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be – Rachel Hollis

Rachel Hollis, in her early career, was a Hollywood party planner. But later, she changed her career when she founded The Chic Site.

It is an online community for women who want to improve their lives by taking small, actionable steps every day.

You will see a similar approach in her books when it is about exploring the mindsets that get people to turn their life around.

Each chapter starts with a specific lie Hollis once believed about herself, and then she analyzes it and provides ways for other women to stop believing it themselves.

Chapter one begins with the lie, “I’ll start tomorrow,” followed by the ways Holli found the motivation to always make promises she makes to herself.

The Confidence Gap – Russ Harris

This book is a good confidence book to complement the others already mentioned. It does what it says, filling the confidence gap.

It does this by offering a novel solution to overcoming confidence. Russ Harris encourages you to form a different kind of relationship with your confidence.

The author provides very helpful solutions to gain confidence by encouraging the readers to develop a different kind of relationship with confidence.

He states that it is not about forcing yourself to just overcome the limitation of your self-confidence but rather coming to terms with it.

You’ll learn about the power of mindful awareness and some techniques for keeping negative thoughts and feelings at arm’s length so your confidence levels can rise.

This book is definitely worth reading, and it will really help fill some of the confidence gaps that we all face.

List of 100+ The Best Self-Help Books On Self-Confidence, Self-Esteem & Self-Worth

  • The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle 
  • How To Win Friends And Influence People By Dale Carnegie 
  • The Road Less Travelled By M.Scott Peck 
  • How To Make Anyone Fall Inlove With You By John Maxwell
  • The Secret Life Of Your Mind By Daniel Goleman 
  • Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead  By Brene Brown
  • How To Get Anyone To Like You By John Maxwell 
  • How To Be A Confident person By Dr.Robert Anthony 
  • How To Overcome Shyness By Dr.Edward Hallowell 
  • Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations By Alex and Brett Harris
  • How To Stop Worrying And Start Living By Dale Carnegie 
  • How To Be Successful By Brian Tracy 
  • The Power of Positive Thinking By Norman Vincent Peale
  • The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens By Sean Covey 
  • Braving the Wilderness  By Brene Brown
  • How To Build Wealth By Richard Daughty 
  • Chocolate for a Teen’s Soul: Life-Changing Stories for Young Women About Growing Wise and Growing Strong By Kay Allenbaugh
  • How To Change Your Thoughts By Michael Toms
  • How To Become An Effective Leader By Stephen Covey
  • The Real Rules for Girls By Mindy Morgenstern
  • How To Raise Happy Healthy Kids By Alfie Kohn 
  • ​​ Ultimate Confidence: The Secrets to Feeling Great About Yourself Every Day by Marisa Peer
  • Tomorrow I’ll be Brave By Jessica Hische
  • How To Be Creative By Steven Pressfield 
  • The Unlimited Self: Destroy Limiting Beliefs, Uncover Inner Greatness, and Live the Good Life By Jonathan Heston
  • The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson 
  • Where Oliver Fits By Cale Atkinson
  • The Way Of The Superior Man by Daniel Goleman 
  • The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer 
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 
  • The Seat of the Soul by Anthony DeMello 
  • The Power of Focus by Brian Tracy 
  • The Self-Love Experiment: Fifteen Principles for Becoming More Kind, Compassionate, and Accepting of Yourself by Shannon Kaiser
  • Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins 
  • How To Be More Productive By David Allen 
  • 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 By Gretchen Rubin
  • How To Improve Communication Skills By Mark Forster
  • How To Think Straight By Bruce Lee
  • How To Manage Your Time Better By Peter Drucker 
  • How To Find Work You Really Want By Gary Keller 
  • The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (Amazon)
  •  Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill 
  • The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy 
  • Feel the Fear…and Do It Anyway By Susan Jeffers
  • The Magic Of Thinking Big by David Schwartz 
  • How To Stop Procrastinating By James Clear 
  • The Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt by Russ Harris
  • How To Speak So Others Will Listen & Believe By Marshall Goldsmith 
  • How To Stop Being Lazy By Tony Robbins 
  • How To Be Happier By Ryan Holiday 
  • How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People by Les Giblin
  • The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field by Nathaniel Branden
  • How To Learn Anything By Josh Waitzkin 
  • How To Say No By Joshua Pellicer 
  • Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself By Dr. Kristin Neff
  • How To Be Yourself By Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
  • How To Create Happiness By Wallace Wattles 
  • The Art of Extraordinary Confidence: Your Ultimate Path To Love, Wealth, and Freedom by Aziz Gazipura

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