Reading self-help books for students is one of the best ways to improve their lives. Students often focus only on textbooks and academic education. However, reading self-improvement books teaches life lessons that they do not learn in school.
Every student must develop a daily reading habit. It does not matter if they read only a few pages a day as long as they are committed to reading.
If you read only for 30 minutes every day, you can efficiently complete 10-20 books each year.
Successful people are readers. Warren Buffet reads 500 pages every day; Bill Gates reads 50 books every year; Elon Musk credits his reading habit as an essential aspect of his success.
Read whatever you can get your hands on; fiction, biography, non-fiction, or literature. However, if you are looking to improve your life, reading self-improvement books will be helpful. Students are usually in a growth phase of their life and career. So, they should read books that help improve their lives.
This article discusses the benefits of reading and five self-help books every student must read early in their lives.
Benefits of Reading Books
The primary benefit of reading is obvious: You learn new things. Reading a book gives you knowledge of a particular subject or topic. You can implement the knowledge in life and create a better life.
Students are in the learning and growing phase of their life. When you learn about something, it increases your skills. So, reading helps you build new skills or improve old ones.
Reading has immense mental benefits. For instance, it stimulates your brain and reduces stress. Furthermore, it improves your memory, builds your analytical skills, helps your decision-making, and improves focus and concentration.
Reading increases your vocabulary. It also increases your writing skills.
Most people find reading a great source of entertainment, especially if they are reading fiction. Most introverts love reading because they find joy in it instead of going out and partying.
5 Self-Help Books Students Must Read Early In Their Life
As said before, reading self-help books is crucial for students. It helps them understand the different aspects of life. And they will be able to improve the quality of their life in various fields, including career, finance, productivity, health, relationships, and more.
Below are five essential self-help books that every student must read early in life. If the students apply the lessons from these books to their lives, they will surely achieve success in almost any area of their lives.
Every student must read these books at least once in their lifetime.
1. Mindset
Mindset by Carol Dweck is a must-read book for students and every individual. This book teaches you about how your mindset shapes your life and how it can impact your success or failure in life.
Carol discusses the two mindsets: fixed and growth. People with a fixed mindset believe that you can never achieve something if you don’t possess a talent or skill. They fail to understand that they can acquire the knowledge and build their skills to become successful in life.
On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe that their life is in their hands. So, if they want to achieve something, they can do it by working hard, acquiring knowledge and skills, and practicing a craft.
This book is packed with research and examples of the two mindsets that will help you understand them better. The book’s objective is to help you shift your mindset from fixed to growth.
Most students believe they are naturally unable to do well in school. That is because of their fixed mindsets. Those students with growth mindsets know that they will do better if they study well and work harder.
2. How to Win Friends and Influence People
Communication skills are crucial in life. Even if you have got the best academic or technical knowledge, you can have a hard time in life if your communication skills are not sharp.
Unfortunately, we are not taught much about the importance of communication in schools. When we enter the real world, we realize how crucial communication is for success.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is one of the best books ever written on human communication. It teaches how to get people to do what you want simply by changing your behavior.
You can understand people’s behavior, improve your relationships, and influence others’ behavior towards you if you use the principles from the book.
3. Rich Dad Poor Dad
The story of two fathers—one rich, another poor—teaches you the importance of financial education and building wealth.
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is a classic self-help book that develops your mindset about money, job, and career. It criticizes the status quo of working for money and instead teaches you about how you can make money work for you.
Furthermore, it shows how the rich become richer, and the poor and middle class remain the same. The primary reason is because of financial intelligence. Rich people are financially intelligent, and they know how money works. So, they stay rich.
The poor and middle class get stuck in the rat race and pursue making more money. As a result, they work all their lives instead of living and enjoying freedom.
This book will help identify different ways you can gain financial intelligence, which you do not learn in school. It teaches you the importance of investing, obtaining financial literacy, understanding money principles, learning, and paying yourself first.
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Our habits are responsible for our success in life. We create a better life by changing our daily habits.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey teaches you to change your view of the world and develop personal and professional effectiveness.
Moreover, the book discusses seven habits that make you capable of becoming successful. These habits are:
- Be Proactive
- Begin with the End in Mind
- Put First Things First
- Think Win-Win
- Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the Saw
With the seven habits, you will be able to see the world in a positive paradigm and find the path toward your dreams and ambitions in life.
5. Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear is another book on habits for a better life. However, unlike the previous book, this one focuses on building tiny, consistent practices that result in significant, positive changes over time.
James provides a definitive guide to breaking bad habits and building new and improved ones. Moreover, he shows how small, incremental, and consistent actions practiced over time will compound into significant changes.
The concepts in this book are applicable more to students than others because students learn to maintain discipline. Atomic Habits will help you become disciplined by building habits that will make you invincible. Following positive habits will help you excel academically and later in your career.
Reading is Not Enough
Reading hundreds of books won’t do any good if you do not apply the learnings in life. Never read for the sake of reading. Instead, read to understand. Read to learn. Read to act.
Take notes while reading. Understand every part of the book. And start taking action.
Read a book multiple times. It will help you acquire the complete knowledge the author is trying to give.
Here are more reading tips:
- Set the intention regarding why you are reading a book. Identify the goal you are trying to achieve.
- Understand that reading is a habit, not a hobby. Read at the same time every day. It helps you develop the habit of reading.
- Research a book before you buy it.
- Stop reading a book if you don’t like it.
- Read multiple books simultaneously. Switch them.
- You don’t have to finish every book you read.
- Have fun
Conclusion
If you don’t already have a habit of reading, start doing it today. Reading is the best investment you will ever make.
Students should build a reading habit early in life. We recommend reading self-help books so that they can understand life better. In school, students only learn the academic stuff—the things that their curriculum demands.
If students want to improve their lives and excel in all areas, they must develop a reading habit.
The self-help books listed in this article are the basics to begin the reading journey. There are hundreds of other books that will help students become better in life.
Below is a list of other recommended self-help books for students.
- Deep Work
- The 4-Hour Work Week
- The Power of Habits
- Think and Grow Rich
- The Psychology of Money
- Influence
- The Magic of Thinking Big
- Attitude is Everything
- The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Biliz is a writer, creator, and entrepreneur. He writes about self-improvement and online writing. If you want to get inspired and learn more from him, subscribe to his newsletter. Also, check out his writing on Medium. See all his links here.
