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12 Best Books to Read in 2022
Legacy

January 3, 2022

12 Best Books to Read in 2022

3 min read

by:
Anthony O'Neal
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12 Best Books to Read in 2022

One of the best ways to grow your wealth is by improving your mind. Like I say, your mind is your business, and in 2022, we’re growing our businesses through reading. We’re all busy with work, school, side hustles, etc., but if you’re on a journey to build wealth and leave a legacy, like I am, then you’re gonna want to make time for reading. So, here are 12 books that I think will change your life in 2022.

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1. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

This book is fire! Clear breaks down the science of creating good habits and breaking bad ones. He teaches us to reach our short term goals using incremental improvements, which eventually help us to achieve our vision. He also talks about overcoming lack of motivation, staying on track while you’re developing new habits and getting back on track if you get off.

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This book taught me how to fit new habits into my already jam-packed schedule, stay motivated with all types of goals, and actually change my thought patterns and environment to help me stay on track. It might sound complicated, but the book makes it simple and easy to understand!

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2. Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex by Pastor Michael Todd

This book is a best seller for a reason. Pastor Todd gives real, practical, biblical advice on relationships. If you’re single, married, or divorced this book can help you develop healthy, godly relationships. 

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As a single man preparing for marriage, it’s really challenged me to rethink my perspectives on marriage and dating. Pastor Todd breaks down how to pursue our God-given desires for love and intimacy in a healthy way. His advice can help you avoid relationship problems, work through breakups, stay hopeful, and understand God’s purpose for marriage. 

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3. The Perfect Day To Boss Up by Rick Ross

Love him or hate him, this book by hip-hop icon Rick Ross is incredible. It tells Rick’s rags to riches story of how he started from nothing and grew his businesses into an empire. He shares his secrets to success and how he persevered through adversity and setbacks. He also offers tips for managing and investing money, handling stressful and challenging situations and inside stories from his business and music ventures. If you’re into legacy building, this is a must-read in 2022. 

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4. Balance: Tipping the Scales, Leveraging Change, and Having It All by Touré Roberts

This book doesn’t drop until April 22, 2022, but I had to include it here. Why? Because it’s about the only constant thing in our lives: change. In this book Touré helps to equip us with the right tools and perspectives to handle change in any area of our lives. It’s an interactive book with self-reflective prompts to help us identify and respond to change, maintain healthy relationships through life’s ups and downs, and have peace when we’re facing big challenges. It’s going to be incredible. 

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5. Will by Will Smith

This is one of the most inspiring memoirs I’ve ever read. In it, Will Smith tells the story of his evolution from a kid in West Philadelphia to becoming one of the biggest rap stars and actors of all time. But it’s not just about his rise to fame. Will gets really vulnerable and honest about the difficulties of living in the spotlight, struggling to balance family, life and his career and trying to find inner happiness in a world that seems to demand so much from him. I’ll be honest, it’s a page-turner. Once you pick it up, you won’t want to put it down. 

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6. Destroy Your Student Loan Debt: The Step-by-Step Plan to Pay Off Your Student Loans Faster by Anthony O'Neal

Alright, shameless plug! But seriously, so many people have student loans that are holding them back from pursuing their dreams. If that’s you, then you need a copy of this book. It is jam-packed with motivation and practical steps you need to take to knock out your student loans quickly. It’s also in a quick-read format, so it won’t take long for you to read and absorb the information. If you feel like you’re drowning in student loan debt, give the strategies in here a try.

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7. Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

David Goggins is a beast! If you’ve never heard of him, he is a retired Navy SEAL, ultra-marathon runner and former Guinness World Record holder. But that’s not the most impressive thing about him. In my opinion, what makes Goggins amazing is the way he has hacked his thinking in order to achieve what most people dream of. In this book, he tells his life story and how he has used his mind to defy the odds and push himself into new heights. It’ll be hard to read this and not be inspired.

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8. For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn

If you’re a man seeking to understand women, then this is the book for you. I read this book and it changed my entire understanding of women. It helped me to see things from a woman’s perspective: what she wants, how she thinks, what she needs and how she wants me to connect with her. Guys, it’s like the cheat codes to understanding your wife or girlfriend. 

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The authors also wrote a book called For Women Only. Guys, I recommend reading both, especially if you’re single. It’ll make you a much better communicator with women.

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9. For Women Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn

I can’t forget about my ladies! For Women Only is the counterpart to For Men Only. Ladies, it’ll teach you how to understand us better. It’ll explain what motivates us, what we need, how we think and how to connect with us. It’ll help you understand how God wired us, so you can date better and be more equipped for a successful marriage. 

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10. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F**K by Mark Manson

Don’t let the title scare you. This book is excellent. Manson explains that not giving a f**k doesn’t mean you’re indifferent, it just means you're comfortable with being different. He also challenges us to refine our focus to care about what really matters and stop wasting energy on what doesn’t.

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This book gave me permission to really focus on what was important to me and give my full attention without feeling guilty. It also articulated the power of being my authentic self, without caring so much about what others think. In this society, where people are obsessed with cancel culture, social media and caring too much about other people’s opinions, I think this book will help you break free from those things and live a better life.

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11. Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change by Dr. Christian Jarrett

In this book, Jarrett challenges us to believe we can shape our personalities over time and shows us how. I love this book because it proves that we can change our personalities to become the kind of person we want to be. I think we can all identify at least one area of our personality that we’d like to improve. Maybe you’re too introverted or you worry a lot. This book is written with practical tips to help you change those personality traits. He also uses a ton of inspirational stories of how other people have used these methods to transform their personalities for the better.

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12. Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbro and Napoleon Hill

Many of you have already heard of Think and Grow Rich. A Black Choice is Kimbro’s adaptation of the book written specifically for African Americans. It’s full of stories of Black people who became successful in spite of descrimination, poverty and limited opportunities. He studied how these people built wealth within the context of the Black experience. And he offers his observations and evidence-based advice on how all Black people can do the same.

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As a Black man who’s committed to building generational wealth for my family, this book really hit home. Kimbro doesn’t shy away from the fact that Black people were intentionally left out of most wealth-building opportunities in America. But he doesn’t stop there. He uses testimonies of successful Black people to prove that we can defy the odds and generate wealth for ourselves and our communities. It’s up to us. We can either let our circumstances define us or we can adjust our mindset in order to define our circumstances.

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I know you’ll enjoy these books in 2022. Most importantly, I know that if you apply what you learn from them, you’ll see awesome results.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Full name

Anthony O'Neal is a bestselling author, speaker and personal finance educator. He teaches families how to get out of debt and build real wealth on any income through The Escape Plan, his show The Table with AO, and the In the Black app.

About the Author

Anthony O'Neal

Anthony O'Neal is a #1 national bestselling author of Debt-Free Degree, personal finance expert and host of the popular podcast and YouTube show "The TABLE." Since 2014 he has challenged cultural norms and equipped millions of people to live a debt-free life, break generational wealth-gaps and build true wealth. He has appeared on Good Morning America, Live! with Kelly and Mark, Fox & Friends, Rachael Ray, The Tamron Hall Show, CNN News and has been featured in Success Magazine, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Black Enterprise and GOBankingrates, among others. Anthony is a sought after, dynamic public speaker, speaking on stages with audiences of 40k+ people and an adjunct professor at Virginia Union University in Consumer Economics. He has been recognized by Black Enterprise as Top 40 Under 40 (2023) and Top 25 Personal and Professional Development Influencers to Follow by Success Magazine (2023). He is the author of Take Your Seat at The Table: Live an Authentic Life of Abundance, Wellness, and Freedom, and his latest book, Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck. He resides in the Washington, DC suburbs.

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