Self help generally refers to learning and growing as an individual by reading and experimenting. Many concepts and lifestyles can be learned by oneself or through social groups and communication. The basis of all personal development is a self-help-oriented mindset. The belief that you can learn from others indirectly and take control of your fate. This attitude is extremely important. It allows you to learn and grow as a human, and it allows you to gain knowledge and wisdom that that you can apply to the work place, relationships, or anywhere you see necessary.
The Challenge of Self Help and Self Development Junkies
A lot of people flee from the term “self help” whenever they see it somewhere, for example in a bookstore, in a magazine or on the internet. They wouldn’t want to be one of “those self help people” who seem to have all the answers but their own lives are disasters. The reason for this is that there are a lot of people closed to self help with attitudes like: “Self help is for people who are not able to handle their lives”, “Self help is for bored, lost men and women”, “Self help is a big lie from people who want to take your money” or “Self help is for failures”…
None of that has really to do with what self help is about. If you look at the term “self help” and forget about all the clichés and pictures in your head, you get a more accurate picture of what self help really means: Self help is for people who want to help themselves experience the most in life.
Self Help Improvement and Self Help Motivation Is What Most People Seek
What do most people want to help themselves with? Most of the time they want to help themselves
- to be happy
- to find peace
- to be motivated
- to attract and maintain a happy relationship
- to have a healthy social life
- to find a career they love
- to find out what they want
- to be more productive
- to be financially independent
- to spend more time doing what they love
- to be healthy and fit
- to practice spirituality
- to get a deep understanding of the world
This is less about specific skills which you would need for a job, for example, but about life in general. Maybe that’s why the personal development industry has a negative reputation: People think that you got to have serious problems in life in order to be interested in helping yourself to have a better life.
Self Help Courses and Articles Will Only Take A Person So Far
I remember a conversation with someone who believed my website was for people with “problems” but not for average people. But think about it, everybody has “problems.” We want to have things and don’t know how to get them. We want to feel a certain way but don’t know how to get there. We want to be in a certain situation but we aren’t there yet.
The self improvement industry, life coaches, self development book authors and motivational speakers do nothing more than say: “Hey there! You can help yourself and solve this problem! – “these are my suggestions or this is how I managed a similar problem.”
Basically, self help makes you aware of your responsibility: Only you can solve your problems! You don’t need to wait until the circumstances change, until your parents say yes, until you get a raise, your business is successful, you lose weight or until your lover takes you back. You can be happy right now. You can begin to get what you want using the hypnosis downloads, personal development coaching, guided imagery, NLP, visualization, meditation and other resources available on this site.
The Downside of Self Help Programs, Seminars and Self-Help Gurus
There are people who just want to make money off your misery and are not genuinely interested in helping you. But that’s not a problem that’s specific to self help. You can find those sort of people everywhere. If you’re turned off by self help because you think you’re getting scammed, there’s a good way to differentiate between scammers and experts: If someone promises you results for nothing (no significant investment of time, money or self discipline… ), it is probably a scam.
The biggest Self Help Secret is That There is No Silver Bullet, Magic Potion or One Time Cure
Self help is not magic. It requires usually lots of work over significant periods of time. Ask anyone who’s had success in this area. Most people have worked years (not 2-3 years but more like 5-10+) before society would define them as “successful”. On the inside it’s often different: High quality self help programs can give you new ideas that will change your perspective on the world and your life forever. So even if self help doesn’t transform your life in the first year, it may very well motivate you to stay with the process as it opens up a spectrum of opportunities throughout your life.
Trust the process.
