Tags » ‘self help books’July 19th, 2010 by selfimprovementmomma I’m not sure exactly how many personal development or popular self help books sold over the last year – but I do know that it is the fastest area of growth in the publishing world with millions of books being bought every year. In addition, I know that, if you turn on your TV, look at your newspaper or go browsing the web’s discussion groups and forums, these self help books aren’t making a blind bit of difference. Many recent surveys testify to people being more fearful, stressed and worried than at any other time in modern history – even a world war didn’t give rise to such abject fear as we are witnessing in a millennium where we all fell for the notion that humankind was finally rising to a new plane. Indeed, the wartime spirit that galvanized nations into powerful forces during the second world war, is conspicuous by its absence from a world where obsession with money – and constantly wanting more of it – is the order of the day and it’s every man for himself. What the hell has happened – and I use the world ‘hell’ advisedly because it seems to me that everyday life for many is much nearer to hell than heaven. Books like ‘The Secret’ or ‘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 self improvement field since 1996 – having started out before it was fashionable to confide in your friends or colleagues that you were ‘into it’ – I firmly believe that people who read these books are not only fooling themselves but are a danger to themselves and those around them. They read a little, experience the ‘feel-good’ after-glow, perhaps put a bit of what they’ve read into practice for a short while and then convince themselves that things are either better or, even more dangerous, about to get better – this is a general excuse for taking no action while the wheels come off your life. 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 everybody reacts, we’re experts at is and it makes our lives worse instead of better. So, put away your self help books and ask yourself this probing question? What action could you take today that will make your life better? As I don’t know anything about your life, I’ve no idea whether something major needs to be done or, maybe it’s just something small. But I do know this – I am regularly questioning myself, challenging myself making certain 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. July 16th, 2010 by selfimprovementmommaRead lots of self help books? Because I know plenty of people who are constantly reading, forever learning, endlessly searching, Unfortunately, however, it is not reading that changes your life, but doing. Continually reading self help books is just like collecting loads of holiday brochures and travel guides about some beautiful place that you’ve no intention of visiting! You’ve seen photographs, read all the reviews, imagined yourself relaxing on that beautiful white sandy beach, immersed yourself in the idea of having arrived. But, then, you’ll never pluck up the courage to buy the ticket. What’s my point? Reading about how to achieve the life that you really want and doing something about it are two entirely different things. Reading the feel-good stories about how others have changed their minds and, as a consequence, changed their lives, will give you that longing feeling inside. But tomorrow morning, when you drag yourself out of bed for another day of going through the motions, what has changed? Little or nothing! When wake up to another day of hassle, anxiety, financial shortage or low self-esteem, what good will all that books have done you? If anything, you’ll find yourself even more restless and more dissatisfied than you were at the outset. Reading, understanding and intellectually appreciating what it takes to change your life will make no difference to your life until you put what you’ve learned into regular practice. And here we encounter an obstacle that is simply too big for most normal people – they’re afraid to take what they think of as some risk-laden leap of faith. If you’ve been lucky enough to come across a self improvement book where you’re given step-by-step instructions on how to change your life (and they’re few and far between – most of them are ‘feel-good books’) then it should have dawned on you by now that you don’t need to make any leap of faith. All you need to take is take gentle steps, every day, that shake you out of the self-induced hypnosis in which most normal people are only existing. To change your life, you’ve got to change the way you’re living day to day at present. You start small – by doing something as simple as changing your morning routine – because small changes get your subconscious mind out of its comfort zone. Once out you will start to understand that absolutely everything in your life can be done differently. When this realization dawns upon you, you’re going to find yourself in a completely different place – where things that were otherwise unthinkable suddenly become obvious – and effortlessly doable. In other words, it’s you who has to start doing the things that will change your life, to stop reading and start doing. June 20th, 2010 by selfimprovementmommaGiven the exponential growth in sales of self improvement books and the proliferation of personal development websites, don’t you think that you would by now have seen an important shift in human consciousness – a demonstrable improvement in the human condition? In fact it’s not just that there little sign of improvement, all the evidence points to the opposite – increased levels of anxiety and worry as the economy nosedived having been hijacked by a small number of people obsessed with their own greed; a rise in violence and anti-social behaviour and the ongoing inappropriate behaviour of people who should know better on the international stage of politics and international diplomacy. So, what are all those people who are reading self-help books doing? in fact, in the course of my work I speak to or meet quite a few of them and, undoubtedly, whilst some are making major strides in their lives, there are many who, as in every other facet of their lives, are going through the motions, fooling themselves into thinking that their attitude, mental state, behaviour and lives are changing for the better. It’s all too easy to follow a course of personal development and slip into a routine similar to all your other routines – habitual, repetitive, automatic and ultimately mindless. The moment anything becomes routine, it becomes useless to you in the pursuit of a better life. And, so, I come across many people who have convinced themselves that they are developing their mindfulness – but who have ended up doing something else mindlessly! I’ve met plenty of people who meditate, who tell me that they are calm and focused in their lives – but, if they were to stand back and take a look, they would discover that their lives are crumbling around them. If you have begun to pursue the journey of self improvement you should immediately see benefits in your everyday life. If you see no benefits, no tangible results in terms of both personal effectiveness and the downstream benefits in your professional, personal and financial life, you are fooling yourself. And the longer you fool yourself the more dangerous it becomes – because you will convince yourself that your life is changing for the better when, in fact, you are becoming further divorced from the real world. There are hugely useful and practical personal development resources available – but they are tools that have to be put to the right use. They must be used during the moment to moment cut and thrust of your day – not just whilst you’re sitting in the lotus position at six o’clock in the morning! Mindfulness – and all that flows from it – is something that must be practiced within the day – not in preparation for it. Until you bring what you’ve learned in your self-help books and personal development courses into the very moment to moment behaviour of your daily life not only will things not improve, they’ll get worse. June 12th, 2010 by selfimprovementmommaA good friend recently suggested one of his favourite self-help books to me – it was the most recent in a long list of recommended reading. In discussing it with him, I enquired as to how he was progressing putting into practice what he was learning from all his reading. It emerged from our conversation that, in fact, he was a life-long student of self improvement but was unlikely to ever actually take the plunge. He informed me that a friend of his had suggested to him that he “stop reading all the books and starting doing it!” Bookshops are full of personal development books. This is big business – apparently the fastest growing sector of the publishing market. Also, personal development websites abound – offering all types of inducements to buy their package which will change your life in five minutes! None of these websites, packages or books will change your life. They might well point you in the right direction, provide you with an understanding that had been absent from your range of experience or knowledge or give you concrete suggestions on how to get more out of life, change your life, transform yourself or whatever. Undoubtedly, there is some excellent information available – and some innovative and practical personal development online help – but it will be no use to you if you don’t put it into practice for yourself and keep putting it into practice. It’s down to you to change your life. Only you can grab control of the awesome inner power that is simply waiting for you to muster up the courage or energy to unleash it. The interesting thing is that most of the advice provided by websites or books requires very little work of you, demands that you make only very minor alterations to the manner in which you use your mind. Sadly, however, having been in this business for over fourteen years, I have seen far too many people who will not take five minutes each day to make the other twenty three hours and fifty five minutes so much better. And this leads me to the main point – one that I’ve already alluded to – you have to keep putting what you learn into practice. No book, program or package will change your life in five minutes. You won’t change your life in five minutes. However, five minutes each day is an entirely different proposition – if you make or take the time to make sure that your mind is up to speed every morning then your life is going to change beyond all recognition. Psychology tells us in no uncertain terms that normal people perceive only what they expect to perceive and experience only what they expect to experience – that the normal life is created by the sadly closed normal mind. Open your mind every morning, change your expectations and you will change your life. But, at the end of the day, it’s entirely up to you – no one else is going to do it for you. June 9th, 2010 by selfimprovementmommaMost people are going through each day wishing, wanting, hoping or waiting for something to happen. “I wish I could just get that lucky break.” “I hope that tomorrow will be better.” “I want to win the Lottery!” Unfortunately, what most people don’t realize is that nothing “just happens” in life – you have to do what you have to do yourself to get the party started. To make matters worse, there are far too many self-help books out there that give the impression that, to get abundant success, all you have to do is believe. And, as a result, I’ve met far too many people over the years who have convinced themselves that they believe in some great outcome and, having convinced themselves, they now believe that all they have to do is sit back and wait for it to happen. That’s the same as believing that you’re going to win the Lottery but believing that you don’t need a ticket! You’re the one who makes things happen in your life – only you can change your life. You’ve got to get up of your ass and start doing the brave and courageous things that the normal person wouldn’t dream of doing – that’s why they’re normal, not-too-bad, not-too-uncomfortable on the trudging sorry-go-round of their ordinary everyday lives. And this is also the reason why highly successful people are highly successful – they do what has to be done, taken the brave and courageous decisions, put their heart and soul into getting what they want out of life. Of course, there’s nothing brave or courageous about doing something that will lead you towards the life that you really want – what would be viewed as courage or bravery by the normal poor soul is simply the obvious and logical thing to do for those who believe and are driven to succeed. But where will you start? Well, for starters – and this is pretty damn obvious – if you want something different to happen in your life, you’re going to have to do something different. Not necessarily outlandishly different – start with something small, you’ll be overwhelmed where it will take you. By small, I mean something as ridiculously insignificant as brushing your teeth with the other hand! Yeah, you heard me – you’ve read that sentence correctly! Doing something this small in a non-routine way will break the habit of an adult lifetime of doing all routine things automatically. In breaking little habits, you re-set your mind to take a totally different view of absolutely everything that’s happening – you’ll start seeing opportunities that were there already – you just couldn’t see them. On the other hand, what if you’ve already done something brave or courageous and it failed? Didn’t you know – only losers quit! Statistics show that the most successful people in every walk of life, take failure in their stride, see failure as another opportunity to try again. After all, if you really want your life to change, you’re not going to quit that easily, are you? January 31st, 2010 by selfimprovementmommaThere’s no doubt that many are perplexed by the large number of self-help books in the bookshops, and in fact the personal involvement in picking out and reading self-help books could be be a healing exercise on its own, but by virtue of so many writers, each suggesting their personal method to the subject matter and a range of self-improvement applications which can render self-help subject material perplexing for a person with incomplete knowledge about the subject
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It is dependent on the method of the author as to whether they will have a positive affect on the recipient.The Positive-thinking texts by Norman Vincent Peale were the earliest of the self-help genre, and since ‘The Power Of Positive Thinking’ (1952) there have been many subsequent titles to provide the help and support to positively affect many peoples lives..
Self-help manuals embrace a range of areas including… Addiction Low self worth Divorce Wealth Raising spiritual awareness Stress and depression can be caused by concern over commonplace stuff and self-help books have shown to be valuable for putting events in perspective. By absorbing a self-help book, your attention will be directed towards the solution of the problem which alone has proved to help you to produce a solution on your own. The key point is to uncover an author whose style you can empathize with and while this is a very personal choice it will in addition be very satisfying.
Even though the answer may possibly be generic, each writer has their technique of developing the best manner of approaching the issue and this results in many experts in the diverse segments of self-help and readers find those whom they identify with with as being most effective. The most certain manner to acquire valuable self-help books is to study the numerous authors and maybe try out a few of their books to see if you empathize with their method. Psychological approaches used to develop improvement in performance, both physical and mental involve NLP(Neuro Linguistic Programming), EFT(Emotional Freedom Technique, or ‘tapping’) and Energy Psychology and there are numerous self-help titles with information on how they can be learned and applied at home, Other types of widely available psychological tools that can be learned solely with self-help titles include learning to increase intuition and clairvoyant senses
learning to dowse with a pendulum,
learning muscle testing,
learning special methods of chakra clearing,
learning to make use of crystals to alleviate illnesses and more… A familiar practice linked to most of these methods is visualization, which combined with deep relaxation can be enormously commanding. This is the basis of the Law of Attraction which defines that what you consistently think about is that which you magnetize in your life. If you perform visualizations as regards what you really want in your existence and replicate the emotions allied to the experience , your vibration will be resonated to the state necessary to attract the outcome. To facilitate you to achieve this you need to get in the mood to induce these emotions and this is where you have to work on your emotional level. To achieve the necessary Alpha state, there are a variety of frequency sessions and hypnosis therapies accessible such as the collection supplied by the Unexplainable Store which can help you to locate the correct frequency to attune your brain enabling you to attain success in several areas you once thought to be inaccessible. Learn more with reference to self improvement and lifestyle issues at self improvement books The following are all tremendous authors in their field but as they can all differ in treatment of the subject relatively considerably you may find that you favor the writing style of one of them more than some of the others Deepak Chopra – Spirituality and laws of coincidence and applied principles of universal law
Wayne Dyer – Functional writing style to manifesting and developing self-consciousness.
Anthony Robbins – Plain-spoken approach to self-empowerment.
Tolle Eckhart – Mystical approach to the self-awareness and existing in the now.
Barefoot Doctor – Tao writing style suggesting meditation, raising natural energy and principles of manifestation through visualization. If you would like to find out how the positive influence of hypnosis can be applied to all of these areas to generate a potent and beneficial affect on your situation feel free to look at self hypnosis CDs Find helpful things to know about the topic of emotional freedom technique – please go through the publication. The times have come when concise info is really within one click, use this chance. | |