Self-Help or Over-Promising and Under-Delivery?
Without question, some of the best do-it-yourself materials out there are created and sustained by boomers. But have you ever wondered why the self-help industry benefits some readers far more than others? Steve Pavlina attributes it to over- promising and under-delivering in this fast growing market. What do you think?
At Scientific American.com, Michael, Shermer accuses the $8-5 billion-a-year business of doing little more than pushing people from their victim states on one hand, toward empowerment on the other, while making them feel guilty in between. Is that your experience?
Look at popular leaders and topics behind this thriving market, and it’s clear that boomers launched an explosion of self-tools. They certainly benefited business, as evident in the fact that the industry doubled its digits in the last 10 years. It’s also obvious, that many improve their personal lives through tactics and insights found in self-help materials.
Less clear, though, are methods used to wire and reboot boomers’ brains through these popular renewal practices. Here are a few tips that could increase your benefits from self-help tools you use to improve your quality of life.
First, think of self help as a sort of research… where benefits come as you draw more from your intrapersonal intelligence resources - to transfer what you read into how you live. It’s often a bit like becoming the person you’d like others to see in you.
For instance, Let’s say you start your day with a new idea to improve health, diet or learning. Try the suggested tactic, and then watch for a few positive results, or at least look for clues that some improvement followed, say, by that afternoon. If you eat less sugar, look for more energy within the next few hours. Following a philharmonic performance, expect to create an aha moment of your own, inspired by music but expressed in what you’d most enjoy doing.
Try on suggestions that resonate from self-tools, but then watch for concrete evidence of new growth - within a time frame you set. Self-help works for those who act after they read, more than for those who read and merely criticize the concepts.
When self-help strategies bring smart people together, stubborn problems often find solutions. If you are counting troubles instead of counting sheep, for instance, another boomer out there might have figured a sleep solution that could work well tonight – one that’s worth a try.
Second, start with some of the more popular self-help books, which include … Living in the Light by Shakti Gawain, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey… You can Heal your Life, by Louise hay … The Universal Heart by Stephanie Dowrick … Intimacy and Solitude by Stephen Dowrick. Move from the wider ideas in popular books, to tips about hobbies you do, problems you face, or dreams you hold.
Critics tell us that self-help books perpetuate a denial of life with its troubles, and keep readers in a state of unrealistic hope for a better future, in spite of futile problems they face. Encouragers see more a spirit of hope and possibilities, that heal the world we live in now, and spark value and hope into what we’ll face tomorrow. Any insights from your intrapersonal intelligence, that could inspire the rest of us to improve ours?
When people have no hope they perish. To have hope to overcome a problem such as lack of confidence can mean everything — and change a life. People need to be careful not to takle issues which require medical assistance, but for most other problems, I feel Self-Help works like a springboard for change. You’ve made some excellent suggestions to have more than mere good intentions about this, but to actually try out, in bite size pieces, strategies to learn needed skills. Thanks for looking deeper at this current trend to see the advantages.
By Robyn McMaster on October 20th, 2006 at 8:49 am
I think the key to self help books is for the reader to move from a conceptual understanding of the content to the stage wher they become a new person. In order to embark on the latter journey, I find that I critique the ideas that I read about in such, often I make notes. I reflect about whether any of the concepts are applicable and I implement the ideas and review the results.
I feel that a self help book becomes a transformational tool when a person consciously and consistently applies their energy to the rewarding task of operationalising the concepts, ideas and approaches that one has been exposed that one finds are meaningful. Of the books you list, I’ve read Covey’s 7 Habits. I find it to be outstanding. I find the Habits framework to be very powerful and I try to consistently live by these habits. Perhaps the simplicity of the framework imprints the principles in my brain.
I’ve also found Louise Hay’s book very helpful. She encourages a level of introspection that helps me to make deep personal change. What Colour Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles is a great book also. It shows that if one takes the idea of career change to a deep level, one can make fundamental changes in one’s life. (I know I did) . I think these writers try to have an engaging conversation with me as a reader. Their writing strikes me as being lacking in ego and full of sincerity. This is my take on the issue. l’m curious to learn how others see it.
By galba bright on November 10th, 2006 at 8:38 am