Talk About It
I’m not sure exactly how many personal development or popular self improvement books were sold in the last twelve months – but I do know that it is the fastest area of growth in publishing with millions of books being sold every year. In addition, I know that, if you tune into your evening news, look at your newspaper or go browsing the web’s blogs and forums, these self help books make little or no difference.
Surveys conclude that we are more anxious, stressed and worried than at any other time in modern history – even a global war didn’t give rise to such abject fear as we are witnessing in a century where we all fell for the notion that humankind was finally rising to a new plane. In fact, the wartime spirit that galvanized nations throughout the second world war, is nowhere to be seen in a brave new world where obsession with money – and constantly wanting more of it – is the the way most people in the developed world now operate – it’s a case of every man for himself. So what the hell is going on – and I use the world ‘hell’ deliberately because it strikes me that everyday life for many is far closer to hell than it is to heaven.
Bestsellers like ‘The Secret’ and ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ point towards a brighter, better life if you use your mind in the right direction. On the other hand, Barbara Ehrenreich in her book, ‘Smile or Die’, claims that positive thinking has destroyed the US and ruined the world.
Having worked in the personal development ‘business’ since 1996 – long before it was fashionable to confide in your friends or colleagues that you were ‘into it’ – I am firmly of the belief that people who read these self help books are not only fooling themselves but are a danger to everyone around them. They read a little, get high on a little ‘feel-good’ after-glow, perhaps put some of what they’ve read into practice for a short while and then convince themselves that things are either better or, worse, about to get better – this is a general excuse for fiddling while your very own Rome is burning.
Reading books doesn’t change your life. Action changes your life – real action every day – action that you’ve got to take yourself. And I’ve seen precious little evidence of action. Sure, I see lots of reaction – but everyone reacts, we’re experts at is and it makes the world we live in worse instead of better.
So, put down your self help books and ask yourself this searching question? What action could you take right now that can improve your lot if life? As I don’t know anything about your life, I’ve no idea whether major change is called for or, perhaps, it’s just something small. But I do know this – I am regularly questioning myself, challenging myself making sure that I keep taking the little and large actions that need to be done to push – yes, you’ve got to push yourself – my life in the right direction. And I’ve the results to show for it.
Tags: personal development, personal growth, positive thinking, Self Help Books, Self Improvement
Posted in Self Improvement · July 10th, 2010 · Comments (0)
Most of us want more out of life. This is not to say that you’re unhappy with what you’ve got. In fact, the secret to happiness is wanting what you have. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t strive to scale higher heights of success and happiness because you can’t stand still in life.
And, then, of course, there are others who are completely unhappy with their lot in life – the majority of people appear to be unhappy in their job, a frightening number of people worry about their finances and then there are people who are simply and often deeply unhappy with who they are.
But you will get precious little out of life by wishing or by being unhappy with things as they stand. The one thing that stops you getting something different out of life is – and this is kind of obvious – that you continue doing everything the same. Keep doing the same things and nothing will change. If you want change in your life, you’re going to have to do actually change your life!
But what? Like all great journeys, changing your life starts with the first step. A little step will do for starters because you’re going to have to gradually recondition your mind – to get yourself used to the idea that, in all that you do in life, you have a choice to do something different, something new. Perhaps the most powerful exercises that I offer to my personal development clients is that they use the very routine that has transfixed them in a normal life to dismantle the habitual, repetitive patterns of behaviour that have so constrained them, their view of life and the boundless possibilities that life holds for them.
I offer the same powerful mechanism to you. Break routine by using your routine. Every morning, you are presented with a load of routine tasks that you’ve done in a routine manner every day of your adult life. If you were to brush your teeth with the hand that you don’t normally use, you will have reached two, potentially life-changing, milestones. First of all, you will have woken up to the obvious truth that, in every single thing that you do in your life, you can choose. This awareness will enable you break every single destructive habit that is holding you back from the life that you really want. Secondly, by virtue of the fact that you will be brushing your teeth in a different way, you’ll have to pay more attention to the task. Highly successful people call this ‘focus’. Focus only means paying attention – to whatever it is that you’re doing right here, right now.
Your life is lived in moments – each moment that you pay attention is a moment well spent – you relearn how to be fully focused, fully aware of what has to be done when life’s big decisions call for real action – not the habitual reaction of the normal mind that will never change.
Tags: Change Your Life, Personal Change, personal development, personal growth, Self Improvement
Posted in Self Improvement · July 1st, 2010 · Comments (0)