The best books to implement and manage change

Why am I passionate about this?

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino is the founder of The Best Ever You Network and co-founder of Compliance4. Through these companies, she has helped individuals and organizations around the world be their best and achieve world-class excellence with gratitude-based behavior and belief systems. She is one of America's foremost personal and corporate development consultants specializing in mindset, change management, strategy, leadership, and taking action. Elizabeth is also the author of the award-winning personal development book PERCOLATE - Let Your Best Self Filter Through (Hay House) and multiple children’s books as a contributor and author. Elizabeth lives her daily life with life-threatening food allergies. Elizabeth and her husband live in Maine with their four sons and three rescued cats. 


I wrote...

The Change Guidebook: How to Align Your Heart, Truths, and Energy to Find Success in All Areas of Your Life

By Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino,

Book cover of The Change Guidebook: How to Align Your Heart, Truths, and Energy to Find Success in All Areas of Your Life

What is my book about?

Many of us know we need a change, an overhaul of the way we “do” life. We feel the need to move forward but we aren’t sure where to place our feet to take those first steps. There are countless manuals for bettering our lives, but we crave something that will truly help us to change for the better once and for all.

The Change Guidebook ends the search for self-help that works, serving as a life-long companion guide and resource to complement your life. It offers ten points for making a change or adapting to unforeseen circumstances and allows you to become a change master by using the provided solutions to change, grow, and become your bravest and boldest self.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Why did I love this book?

If you want to change any aspect of your life, Jack Canfield is, in my opinion, one of the best teachers and resources we have. I believe success and change are intertwined and this book does a fantastic job of showing us just that. This is a book I refer to often. I also often give it as a gift. Jack is masterful in his teachings. Jack knows how to help you change your life and help you become your best version of yourself. This book is a wonderful tool for your Best Ever You toolbox.

By Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Success Principles as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, a revised and updated edition of Jack Canfield’s classic bestseller with a brand new foreword and an afterword for succeeding in the digital age.

Since its publication a decade ago, Jack Canfield’s practical and inspiring guide has helped thousands of people transform themselves for success. Now, he has revised and updated his essential guidebook to reflect our changing times.

In The Success Principles, the cocreator of the phenomenal bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, helps you get from where you are to where you want to be, teaching you how to increase your…


Book cover of Change Your World: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make a Difference

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Why did I love this book?

This is a very relatable book from everyday people who have created change for good. I firmly believe that the practice of change starts with us individually and this book supports that concept. I believe that to be our best and live our best lives, we must solidly and whole-heartedly look within.

By John C. Maxwell, Rob Hoskins,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Change Your World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

John Maxwell and Rob Hoskins have invested their lives as champions of change. Maxwell's organizations EQUIP and the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation have transformed communities by training more than five million leaders from literally every country in the world. Hoskins's One Hope has transformed the lives of more than one billion children and youth in 120 countries around the globe.

Now, for the first time, these two leaders have partnered to write a book about how anyone, anywhere, can transform their world. Offering practical principles based on solid research and real-life experience, the authors teach how to recognize where and…


Book cover of Who's in Your Room?: The Question That Will Change Your Life

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Why did I love this book?

Dr. Ivan Misner is the father of modern networking. It stands to reason he knows a thing or two or three about change. When you are trying to make changes in your life or be successful, it is very important to surround yourself with the right people to foster your growth and success. This book shows you just how to do that. This is one of my favorite books to recommend to people when they feel stuck.

By Ivan Misner, Stewart Emery, Rick Sapio

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Who's in Your Room? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

People may be out of your life, but they're still in your head. Learn how to control the ongoing psychological impact of all your relationships and achieve happiness, success, and fulfillment.

Who’s in Your Room? is a metaphor and a method for understanding how our relationships, past and present, impact our lives.
 
Imagine that you live your entire life in one room. Inside are all the people with whom you have ever had a relationship. The room is infinitely large, and anyone you let in will be in your room for the rest of your life. Neurologists report that as…


Book cover of Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Why did I love this book?

Who Moved My Cheese? is a timeless book. The book tackles the fear of change. It provides perspectives on why change can feel so hard to make in both work and home life. To love this book is to love metaphors. It has sold over 30 million or more copies worldwide. 

By Spencer Johnson,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths. It is the amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life, for example a good job, a loving relationship, money or possessions, health or spiritual peace of mind. The maze is where you look for what you want, perhaps the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. The problem is that the cheese keeps moving.

In…


Book cover of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Why did I love this book?

This is a very thorough book about creating and breaking habits. I strongly believe that small changes create waves of change and this book is masterful. If you fear change or if change feels so overwhelming, this is one of the best books on where to start and how to be successful in what you really want to do.  

By Bj Fogg,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Tiny Habits as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Improving your life is much easier than you think. Whether it's losing weight, sleeping more, or restoring your work/life balance - the secret is to start small.

For years, we've been told that being more healthy and productive is a matter of willpower: that we should follow the latest fad and make constant changes to our lifestyles. But whether in our diets, fitness plans or jobs, radical overhauls never work. Instead we should start with quick wins - and embed new, tiny habits into our everyday routines.

The world expert on this is Silicon Valley legend BJ Fogg, pioneering research…


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Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption

By Rebecca Wellington,

Book cover of Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption

Rebecca Wellington Author Of Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I am adopted. For most of my life, I didn’t identify as adopted. I shoved that away because of the shame I felt about being adopted and not truly fitting into my family. But then two things happened: I had my own biological children, the only two people I know to date to whom I am biologically related, and then shortly after my second daughter was born, my older sister, also an adoptee, died of a drug overdose. These sequential births and death put my life on a new trajectory, and I started writing, out of grief, the history of adoption and motherhood in America. 

Rebecca's book list on straight up, real memoirs on motherhood and adoption

What is my book about?

I grew up thinking that being adopted didn’t matter. I was wrong. This book is my journey uncovering the significance and true history of adoption practices in America. Now, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women’s reproductive rights places an even greater emphasis on adoption. As a mother, historian, and adoptee, I am uniquely qualified to uncover the policies and practices of adoption.

The history of adoption, reframed through the voices of adoptees like me, and mothers who have been forced to relinquish their babies, blows apart old narratives about adoption, exposing the fallacy that adoption is always good.

In this story, I reckon with the pain and unanswered questions of my own experience and explore broader issues surrounding adoption in the United States, including changing legal policies, sterilization, and compulsory relinquishment programs, forced assimilation of babies of color and Indigenous babies adopted into white families, and other liabilities affecting women, mothers, and children. Now is the moment we must all hear these stories.

Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption

By Rebecca Wellington,

What is this book about?

Nearly every person in the United States is affected by adoption. Adoption practices are woven into the fabric of American society and reflect how our nation values human beings, particularly mothers. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women's reproductive rights places an even greater emphasis on adoption. As a mother, historian, and adoptee, Rebecca C. Wellington is uniquely qualified to uncover the policies and practices of adoption. Wellington's timely-and deeply researched-account amplifies previously marginalized voices and exposes the social and racial biases embedded in the United States' adoption industry.…


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Interested in change, success in life, and personal development?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about change, success in life, and personal development.

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