That oh so familiar lure of self help
"I am a self-help addict." I say it quite often. It's almost an ironic statement in and of itself. How much am I really helping myself if I'm addicted to the thing that's supposed to be helping me? Oh how I love paradoxes. Seriously, I do. I'm going to put that one on hold until the end of this entry, though, as I want to talk about it more in depth later.
With my addiction out in the open, I want to mention a book/philosophy that's recently come to my attention that has been around for quite some time. It's called "The Four Agreements," and it sounds good to me, like most self help books do when I first hear of them.
The actual four agreements are simple: be impeccable with your word, don't make assumptions, always do your best, and don't take anything personally. Seems like a simple enough plan, and like something that could actually help you out, right? Upon first glance, it seems like all the problems in my life could be attributed to one of these four things. It seems as if this book would be a great help to my life.
Now let me contradict myself here. I'm not planning on reading this book in the foreseeable future. Currently, I'm quite busy, and I've got another book on the way, (thank you Amazon, and the long overdue impetus that unfortunately turned out to be Hunter S. Thompson's death) so frankly, I don't think I could fit it in. Plus, I'm not entirely sold on self-help's effectiveness. Let me explain that a bit, as I've been dying to for the entirety of this post.
I've read all sorts of self help books, constantly trying to find the one that will make it all click. Most recently, it was Zen and the Art of making a living, prior to that First Things First, and so on. I guess the reason I'm a little leery of the self help methods is due to the fact that I'm always dying to read them. I mean, if self-help books were able to be implemented thoroughly, why would I ever need to read another? I should just be fixed, right?
Sure, one could say that the path to true self help is a never-ending one, but I should at least gain a little out of each book I read, right? What do I think I should gain? I don't know, some process to make my selkf-doubt evaporate, to make me confident that I'm doing everything right. I guess no one can tell me that but me, but I look back at the volumes I've read and I just see a bunch of pages and ideas, and no processes. God, do I love me some processes.
Eh, a bunch of pessimistic babble today, readers. Enjoy?
No worries, more to come.
Oh, and I will tell the story of the platypus I referred to in an earlier post soon, not to hype it up, but to provide other closure-fiends like myself with a glimmer of hope.
With my addiction out in the open, I want to mention a book/philosophy that's recently come to my attention that has been around for quite some time. It's called "The Four Agreements," and it sounds good to me, like most self help books do when I first hear of them.
The actual four agreements are simple: be impeccable with your word, don't make assumptions, always do your best, and don't take anything personally. Seems like a simple enough plan, and like something that could actually help you out, right? Upon first glance, it seems like all the problems in my life could be attributed to one of these four things. It seems as if this book would be a great help to my life.
Now let me contradict myself here. I'm not planning on reading this book in the foreseeable future. Currently, I'm quite busy, and I've got another book on the way, (thank you Amazon, and the long overdue impetus that unfortunately turned out to be Hunter S. Thompson's death) so frankly, I don't think I could fit it in. Plus, I'm not entirely sold on self-help's effectiveness. Let me explain that a bit, as I've been dying to for the entirety of this post.
I've read all sorts of self help books, constantly trying to find the one that will make it all click. Most recently, it was Zen and the Art of making a living, prior to that First Things First, and so on. I guess the reason I'm a little leery of the self help methods is due to the fact that I'm always dying to read them. I mean, if self-help books were able to be implemented thoroughly, why would I ever need to read another? I should just be fixed, right?
Sure, one could say that the path to true self help is a never-ending one, but I should at least gain a little out of each book I read, right? What do I think I should gain? I don't know, some process to make my selkf-doubt evaporate, to make me confident that I'm doing everything right. I guess no one can tell me that but me, but I look back at the volumes I've read and I just see a bunch of pages and ideas, and no processes. God, do I love me some processes.
Eh, a bunch of pessimistic babble today, readers. Enjoy?
No worries, more to come.
Oh, and I will tell the story of the platypus I referred to in an earlier post soon, not to hype it up, but to provide other closure-fiends like myself with a glimmer of hope.
posted by mars at
2.3.05
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