I Read 103 Books On Self-Improvement — Here's What Actually Works

Books I directly reference in the video:

On overcoming 'resistance'
The Flinch - Julien Smith

Attacking the right hill

On building habits

On systems

Tiny Improvements

Building Resilience

Focusing

Being nice to yourself

Videos about concepts / books I mention:

[debbiepayne]

I’m a 74yo woman and found your channel very helpful. A daily goal for me is “learn something new everyday”. Even looking up a word definition counts.

[Dihydrousoxide]

Dude, this video is absolute gold! 😎

Timestamps / Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:28 1) Starting Projects (Big and Small)
0:50 Eating the Frog
1:10 Thinking First
1:40 Overcoming Resistance / Flinching
2:27 2) Building Habits
3:05 Habit Loops
3:35 Habit Stacking
4:03 3) Creating Systems
4:17 If-Then Thinking
4:40 Checklists
5:16 Small Projects need Checklists as well
6:07 4) Making Improvements - Regular and Tiny
6:32 Break Skills down into micro skills
6:50 5) Building Resilience
7:30 Anti-Fragile
8:48 6) Focusing
9:52 Intentional Downtime - Percolation
10:19 7) Being Nice to Yourself
11:22 You can bring value to the world

[swekas]

Super useful, amazed by how you were able to encompass so many learning from multiple books in one one video!

[cristobalaguirre]

amazing content mate, really clear and well presented!

[JohnRadko]

Really enjoyed this video - very good "flyover" of the major topics in self-improvement, and solid book recommendations with reasons why you might want to read them. Thanks.

[silvestrossouthernitaly]

Just stumbled on your stuff in The Guardian and then found you on several platforms. Impressive and impressed that I hadn't heard of you earlier

[rimenahi]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! As a 22 year old guy trying to improve his life, this video is invaluable! ❤

[rohithreddy]

I am happy that i found your channel. You have unique insights on things.

[AngelaMontaguePhD]

FYI: eating the frog actually means doing the thing that you least want to do first, so you know that everything after that is infinitely better. It's a way to avoid procrastinating, which I see is how you are using it. But as a chronic avoider of the things I usually need to do, knowing that meaning is very helpful. It also is part of a system I learned while in grad school which is to always schedule in (like literally put it on your calendar) some time to relax or do what you enjoy. Even if it is listening to an album uninterrupted once a week.

[michaelhyndman]

I was going to ‘like’ this video, but there was so much valuable advice in it that I decided to comment. I discovered your Substack and this YouTube channel recently and as a sixty one year old lifelong learner, I’m bowled over by the clear way you express learning concepts. Currently using some of these to help improve my level of Spanish, but am tempted to try the piano soon too. Keep up the good work Joel.

[marionannmacredie]

Awesome video! Summarised almost every book I’ve ever read and hope I’ve remembered. Have saved this as a checklist to remind me. I wondered if you were going to include 4000 weeks and you didn’t disappoint 😁 haven’t heard of the last but keen to check it out 🌹🌹

[Oliviarw]

Very grateful I stumbled across this video

[quankstories]

After a lot of good events from my hard efforts, I realized whatever that is, just start (never overestimate something you haven’t tried, do things you have never thought you could do that and set challenges
and tiny improvement (“0.1% summary is more than 0%”/ “resilience >>”)

[zacharysimmons]

The rate at which you create highly digestible and quality content is outstanding. I get so much from your videos and I truly appreciate it. I’ve got wayyy too many books to read now thanks to you haha.

[belle_thegoldiegirl]

this video is PACKED with good info! 👍

[planlife]

You didn’t make it clear why not to hit the like button, but I took your advice anyway (joke). Great video and I have made lots of notes. My favourite piece of advice from you “be intentional about how you spend your time“. That is my biggest thing I need to change.

[setinews-bnvv]

perfect💘💘
it's very helpful joel
thank you

[lyrebird]

Can't believe this doesn't have more likes. But then maybe people just followed your advice not to waste time 'liking' things on social media 😄

[riselin]

Thanks for that compilation!
I'm not sure if I got Range after you recommended in an earlier video, but I agree that it's an amazing book. As is the "9 Out Of 10 Climbers..."
Are there other must-reads out of these 103 that you recommend? Maybe the ones in the description?

[GiannisKoutsis]

Greetings. Is it in any way possible you could provide as with list of all the titles of the books? Thank you in advance.