Who’s going to help you if you don’t help yourself? Well, lots of people actually. But, before all the therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and clinicians come knocking, the buck usually stops with you when it comes to triggering an important change in your life.
Self-help audiobooks have a long list of benefits for those who listen to them. As well as the convenience of being able to take them with you wherever you go, it’s possible to listen and learn in public, without the somewhat daunting prospect of someone casting opinions of you based on the cover of a book.
It’s unlikely that anyone would bring it up, but if self-consciousness is one of the issues you’re facing then it’s a very real concern.
The other major benefit is that many of them come with accompanying self-help worksheets. As useful as the many pages (or many hours) of advice are, it’s often these simple and practical resources that are the most memorable and valuable parts of any self-help title.
As you listen, they can be used to jot down ideas and thoughts of how the concepts covered in the book apply to your own life. Over the course of the chapters, a unique picture will start to build that not only identifies and isolates the changes you want to make, but also the actions you need to take in order to achieve your goals.
You can scribble notes, cross bits out and add and amend them as you see fit before coming to a point where it’s ready to be put on the fridge or pinned to your office wall to help visualise the future.
It’s like getting a guided map to your life. And the best thing is that it'll be created entirely by you.
Audiobooks with free worksheet downloads
In the same way that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for solving life’s woes, the self-help worksheets you come across will come in various forms. Some will be tables, some complex diagrams and some flow charts. But they will all share the same purpose of helping you make the most of the audiobooks you’re listening to.
The following titles offer just a small selection of those in the Audible library with free self-help downloads that come along with your audiobook.
Best Self: Be You, Only Better | Mike Bayer
Following a foreword from the influential Dr. Phil McGraw, Mike Bayer (or Coach Mike, as you’ll get to know him) takes on the narration of this powerful audiobook that will make anyone sit up and listen.
Being better isn’t about becoming something or someone different. It’s about finding out what’s holding you back from becoming everything you want to be. As Coach Mike says, “We all have within us the answers and abilities to change and become our authentic selves.”
This is a book that will help you dig into what you see as the authentic you, then extract all the positive and negative elements of that to form a finely-tuned version of the person you already are.
The chapters are structured around the seven SPHERES of life. That’s an acronym of social, personal, health, education, relationships, employment and spiritual development. They’re the big topics that impact everyone’s life in different ways.
When you purchase and download the audiobook, a PDF will be added to your Audible Library, ready to be printed and populated with your own empowering words as you stop going through the motions and start to become the best possible version of yourself.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Techniques for Retraining Your Brain | Jason M. Satterfield
The idea of retraining your brain may seem strange to some, but for those who have tried Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), it’s a life changing concept that has helped them overcome some of life’s biggest hurdles.
As complex and powerful organ as the brain is, it can be pretty susceptible to weakness, Addicted to drugs or alcohol? That’s your brain making you crave that feeling just one more time. Struggling to quit smoking? Say thanks to your brain for reminding you how much better things are after a dose of nicotine. Can’t seem to shift a few pounds? Your brain is the one making the decision to order pizza instead of heading to the gym.
Addiction, insomnia, anger management, anxiety and a whole host of other issues can be overcome with practical techniques that focus on self-awareness, critical analysis and putting in place a series of steps for change. By understanding the relationship between your emotions, your behaviour and your health, you can identify the triggers that are preventing you from having a better quality of life.
This audiobook comes in the form of 24 half-hour lectures, accompanied by reference guides and worksheets that will be available to download after buying the title. It all builds into a toolkit that will help you take an objective look at your life from the view of how a physician or psychologist may view your mental health.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perserverance | Angela Duckworth
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. It’s a phrase that’s been uttered for centuries. In fact, it’s so common that it seems to have lost impact, with the underlying meaning of the quote falling on deaf ears.
This audiobook aims to put a fresh spin on the old adage, with award-winning psychologist Angela Duckworth providing an impassioned endorsement for perseverance.
Whether it’s in sports or business, others may be more talented than you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be successful. They may have the natural ability on their side, but you have determination, passion and stubbornness to deploy.
The Grit Formula focuses on hope, effort, precision, passion, ritual and prioritisation and is available as a valuable worksheet to those who purchase the audiobook.
If at first you don’t succeed, download this audiobook, fill out the worksheet, then give it another try and see how you get on.
Designing Your Life | Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
If you could take a blank sheet of paper and design exactly what your life would look like, what would be on it? The concept of this intriguing title is that, regardless of how old you are, where you’ve come from or what you’ve done so far, the future of your life has yet to be mapped out.
Everything that you see around you has been designed by someone at some point, and your life is no different. By putting yourself in the shoes of a designer, suddenly you start to see your life differently, full of problems with solutions that can be overcome. Authors and narrators Bill Burnett and Dave Evans guide you through how to take this alternative perspective.
You can actually get a sneak preview of what’s in store for you with free worksheet downloads available from the authors’ website. The Energy Engagement Worksheet lets your plot your energy giving and draining activities on a graph, while the Love, Play, Work, Health Dashboard Worksheet lets you visualise your current and desired life dashboard.
Obviously, these are far more useful with the audiobook to help guide you through, but as a taste for the valuable insight a self-help worksheet can offer, they’re a great starting point.
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