I've Stopped Recommending Self Help Books - By: Willie Horton

Over the last couple of years, I've been recommending a new self improvement book to readers of my Personal Development Ezine ' a new book every Monday. But I'm not going to do it anymore! All the evidence suggests that the only people who are truly benefiting from the personal development craze are the people who are writing, publishing and selling the books. I use the word 'craze' advisedly because, according to Forbes, Americans spent over US$11bn ' yes billion ' on self help books and products in 2008 and, as far as I know, that figure has since increased. Now what I don't know is how much of that $11bn was spent on books. But, if you consider that 'The Secret', Rhonda Byrne's bestselling book that told you that you didn't have to do anything to achieve abundance other than believing that you already have it(!), has grossed US$350m, you might just begin to get what I'm talking about. The self help authors are helping themselves!

So what - if it's helping people. But it's not! The LSE places the United States - the ones spending all the money on self help - 46th in the world in terms of happiness, well behind countries like Ghana, Latvia, India and Croatia. According to US research by The Conference Board carried out in 2010, 55% of people are unhappy in their work - the figure is over 60% for those aged between 35 and 44 years. On top of that, a number of surveys in the UK and United States have confirmed that over 65% of people say that they are continually worried about not having enough money to make it comfortably through 2011. And I'd like to finish off our statistical magical misery tour in the UK where the Health Service Executive believes that nearly 10m working days were lost in 2009 - due to something that actually doesn't exist except in the sufferer's mind - stress! Oh and by the way, all these key indicators of dissatisfaction are increasing at an exponential research over the last two decades.

Now, here's the key question. If all these people are buying self help books, why are more people unhappy than ever before?

I think that I've come up with a couple of answers. Firstly, I think that most people do actually read the book or books that they've bought - but then they don't do anything in their daily lives to follow it up. One particular individual that springs to mind has been recommending self improvement books to me for fifteen years and, from where I'm sitting, little has changed in his life - by the way 'from where I'm sitting' means that he constantly telephones me about his problems, his useless thoughts, his money worries, his sleepless nights, etc., etc., etc.! It's akin to picking up an armful of holiday brochures, getting all excited about the exotic locations that you want to go to and then not bothering to purchase a ticket!

And that's a key problem with self improvement books. They're feel good books but make no difference six weeks later. You might as well read a good novel, thriller, romance - delete as appropriate! - or, God help us, even a true crime book! Even worse, you feel good about how someone else has benefited from sticking a 'Universal Bank' cheque to themselves for a million dollars on their fridge and the million dollars was beamed down from the clear blue sky (I can't resist having another pop at 'The Secret') and then you feel rotten that it hasn't worked for you. In the end, you come to the conclusion that it's all a load of rubbish - which, need I mention, 'The Secret' is. Sorry, I won't mention it again!

The other problem with self improvement books is that, in the main, they're written by multi-millionaire personal development gurus. It's very easy to write nice feel-good things about how the universe gives you what you want if you've got it already! I don't think the likes of Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins or Deepak Chopra are having sleepless nights about paying the mortgage or the kids' school fees - but their poor unhappy readers are! And, you know, it's simply not a problem to practice the seven habits of this or the ten steps of that if you're laughing all the way to the bank! These guys just keep churning out the stuff in name of self improvement - yeah, their own!

Is it any wonder that I've decided to never recommend another personal development book to you again - not even my own. These books don't give you the instructions that you need to put what amounts to a few simple, practical steps, into everyday action. And even though I did my best to provide simple instructions in my own book, 'To Succeed... Just Let Go' most of my readers clearly haven't taken the leap yet! On the other hand, if I bought a new electric saw, which I did recently, I'd be pretty annoyed if it came with a glossy book that told me how the saw had changed other people's lives. I'd expect my saw to come with a user's manual. I'd read it and I'd use the saw accordingly.

Unfortunately, neither you nor I were delivered with a user's manual and there doesn't seem to be one available - at least not in book form. At the start of each week, subscribers to my Personal Development Ezine receive a short video. And, from the feedback that I get, I think these are a little more helpful - I try to be to the point. I try to provide simple tips and ideas about the small things that you need to start doing every single day. Yeah, that's another problem with your average self help book - nobody has explaine to you that you need to be fully committed, day in day out, during the course of the day - in fact, moment to moment. But, if you do make the commitment - and I'm not suggesting that major work is required. In fact, you just need to do small, almost tiny, things - but each and every day - then the benefits are enormous. I know - and some of my clients can confirm this. I'm no millionaire, no desire to be one. I have a nice life today and, as today is all I have, I'm happy and content. And that, my friends, is the purpose of self improvement.

Copyright (c) 2011 Willie Horton

About the Author

Willie Horton launched his now acclaimed Personal Development Seminars in 1996. His clients include Pfizer, Deloitte, Nestle, KPMG, G4S & Allergan. His Personal Development Workshops are now online, together with hundreds or 'quick tip' articles and videos, at Gurdy.Net, Willie's Personal Development Website.

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