If you’re new to NLP and looking for a good book to start with, here’s my list of Top 5 NLP Books for Beginners.

All the books I have selected for you in this list, have been written by the person who knows NLP best – Dr. Richard Bandler, the founder and co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. And in my opinion, these books are ideal for beginners, because they’re simple to understand, practical and most importantly, they’ll be fun for you to read.

The first book on my list is “The Ultimate Introduction to NLP” And it really lives up to it’s title. It’s written from the point of view of a character named Joe; about how he’s being overwhelmed by the challenges in his life and he decides to attend a workshop by Dr. Richard Bandler. Essentially, it’s like an NLP workshop between the two covers and its narrative style gives you a benefit of sorts, of effectively “sitting in” the program and really follow along easily. 

If you want to steer away from the technical jargon and terminology, and instead just want the easiest way to get the main idea of what NLP is about, then this book is perfect for you!  

The second book on my list is the sequel to “The Ultimate Introduction to NLP”, and its title is “How to Take Charge of Your Life”. The main character here is the guy named Joe, the one you got to know in the first book, who is now attending a different 3-day NLP training program with Dr Bandler. You get to experience each workshop day through Joe’s eyes and explore a few more specific NLP concepts and tools, and as the title promises, it does give you a few simple How-to steps that you can experiment and play with to create a better awareness of how your mindset and your beliefs have an impact on your daily life. 

Now, this book will still make perfect sense to you even if you skip the first one – “The Ultimate Introduction to NLP”, but in my opinion, it’s best to get both, they’re like part 1 and part 2. Both are very easy to read and you’ll probably be through both in just a few hours.

By the way, each of them is available as Kindle and as an audio book on Audible.com

“Thinking on Purpose” will be your personal Life Coach. And it will be particularly useful for you if you do not yet have a clear structure for your personal development and goals. It’s designed to give you a 15-day plan of action. 

Each day (or chapter) starts with a certain theme or question that leads you to explore that particular aspect in your life; followed by a few tasks in the form of coaching questions or NLP techniques. 

So this means that you will first create a better awareness of what’s going on in that particular aspect of your life, and then you’ll be able to use the NLP tools and concepts you’ve learnt to create a change for the better. This book will serve you as a workbook or manual, you can even write things down inside the book or get the worksheets as a download. 

The main benefit of this book is that it helps you to realize that the quality of your typical thoughts determine the quality of your life. And therefore, choose to get in charge of your mind and therefore you will be in charge of your results.

This book is available on Amazon as paperback and also as Kindle. 

The next on my list is the book called “GET THE LIFE YOU WANT”

If you have a list of your typical personal issues and problems, that you like to complain and whine and bitch about, but now have reached the point where you say “Enough is Enough!” – then I highly recommend this book for you!

The first chapter of this book helps you take a mental inventory and introduces the NLP tools you’ll be using in the subsequent exercises. 

Then in Chapter 2, 3 and 4 you’ll learn lots of step-by-step NLP techniques and exercises to tackle those personal issues of yours… 

Don’t read this book purely for the sake of getting some information. Use this book as your coach. Whenever you decide to overcome a certain issue, look it up in the directory, find the exercise, simply follow the steps and do it. Notice the difference, notice the change and keep practicing it until it becomes your new habit. 

This book is also available as an audiobook and as Kindle. 

The book number 5 on my list is “Using your brain for a change” 

This one is the oldest out of the top 5, it was written and published in the 80’s. Similar to the first 2 books, it’s based on the transcripts of several NLP seminars and workshops conducted by Dr. Bandler in the earlier days and you once again you become a participant in one of his workshops. It’s filled with great stories, anecdotes and real life examples of the ordinary everyday people, making it very relatable for you as a reader. It doesn’t delve into any technical explanation of the psychology, but rather guides you through the How-to process of using NLP tool to start changing the way you think, changing the way you feel and as a result changing the way you respond towards your environment and your perceived problems. 

I would not pick this book as your very first book to venture into NLP, instead I’d recommend to ready it after you’ve finished the other books, I believe that way it will be easier to understand the instructions and it will make better sense to you. I hope you find my recommendations useful. Have fun reading! 

For other useful tips and other life changing ideas, please read our other blogs and learn the #AuthenticNLP™ with NaviGo® NLP Center.

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