There are a LOT of self-help books out there. A quick search on Amazon will return over 5600 different titles to choose from. That's a lot of self-help, and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. After a quick persual of a few of them you'll see that they all follow the same basic format:
- Introduction of the basic problem (including horrifying examples of how it will eventually ruin your life)
- A never before heard-of and practically foolproof list of steps to take to turn yourself, your problem and your life around
- A closing section, usually brief, on how to apply these steps to your own life
Seems simple doesn't it? Then why is there a continued need? Why do people buy volume after volume? Do they aquire new problems? Do the old ones come back? If these books aren't an effective method for improving one's life, why continue to buy them?
I believe one reason is that people can't help but think that if some improvement is good, then more must be better. If they are able to improve one area of their lives there must be another that could stand to be next. So they go looking for the next area to trim down, shape up or manage away. This works very much in the favor of the selp-help gurus.
Unfortunately it also wastes a lot of time. Time that could be used productively someplace else. Is it any wonder that we are always 'improving' yet not accomlishing as much as we feel we should? After all there is no better way to give the impression that things are moving forward than by implementing a 'new process' or a 'change in management' or an 'action plan'. People are moving, they are getting things done. Things feel different. So it must be better right? Right?
I'm not so sure. I don't think it's enough to make change after change, just because things aren't perfect yet. Like the dreamer searching for the ever-elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, you can never quite get there. Now that's not to say that change is never good, or that self-help books aren't sometimes quite useful. I think it's more a matter of optimizing their use; applying your efforts to the areas that need the most improvement, and then actually paying attention to the quantifiable difference between the old you and the new improved you.
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