Are You A Self Help Junkie?
March 20th, 2007 by Ken D
You know the person. They read all kinds of self help books and attend self help seminars as often as they can. They come back home spurting the new truism for the day and try to convert you to their ‘way’. In a few days they are talking about a completely new system that is superior to the last one. They move from one program to another and seem like they are scattered all over the map.
You’ve known them for a long time, but when you look at their lives objectively you can’t really see any positive changes that have manifested due to their self help programs. You know they’re running off to do seminars and you see them with their ipods listening to programs and they even give you the books they’ve read, but something seems to be missing.
Perhaps when you hear this you think, “That sounds like me.”
If it does, maybe you’re a self help junkie. But don’t fret, there is an escape. For most self help junkies it becomes an escape from really dealing with their everyday problems. Or it’s just a form of procrastination. At the worst case it’s an addiction. They seem to avoid dealing with the real issues of their life by escaping into the ‘feel good’ moment of going to a seminar or listening to an audio program or even reading a book.
The problem is even thought this person feels better, the positive changes that self improvement bring about don’t ever materialize in their lives. The actual application of what they hear and read never makes it from their minds into their actual application in every day life. All the areas of their lives remain unchanged although they have absorbed a lot of life changing information.
It is really like a drug addiction where the self help addict must absorb more and more self improvement material to feel good. The problem is they still feel empty after the quick fix has its day. So they continue to search for the Holy Grail of Self Help….the word or audio or program that will end their addiction. Deep down they know they have an addiction and their pursuit seems in vain. But there is another side of them that believes if they can just read the right book, or hear the right audio, or see the right seminar, their lives will definitely change for the better.
The problem is they jump from one subject to the next. Reading part of one book then switching to another. They chase down every self help link they see in the belief that if they don’t they will miss the one point that will release everything they’ve learned and make them totally successful in their lives.
There is nothing wrong with reading multiple books or attending many seminars. The problem comes when you find yourself hopping from one thing to another and never realizing the benefits of self improvement in your lives.
I appeal to you to stop for a moment and check if you are addicted to the self help information or if you’re actually applying the self improvement material into your life.
If you find yourself jumping from one book to another or one program to another–
Just stop!!
Take the principles or exercises from one of the programs and apply it right now. Stop all the rest and just apply one of them for a week and see what happens.
You can break away from the addiction by realizing you are one of the addicted people and understanding this behavior just keeps you on a circular treadmill that goes nowhere.
Pick an item or a principle from the program you are reading/listening to/following and try it our for a week. If you can do it for a week do it for 2 weeks. If you do that, do it for a full month. Thirty days is a nice length of time to test out a new principle or theory.
Whatever you do, stop the cycle of mentally absorbing the material without actually applying it to your life. This will get you nowhere except beating yourself up in the end. It’s in the actual application that you will see the results that you seek.
Stop being a self help junkie and start being a person who is taking control of their lives and their path of improvement. Start following the exercises and applications and stop just absorbing the information from an intellectual level.
For truly it is in our application of knowledge that sets us apart from the rest. For to know is to know, but to apply is to experience. And experience is worth a thousand knowings.
One way to check if your just a self-help junkie or someone who actually applies the principles of self improvement is to check your life. If it is improving then you are actually applying the personal development ideas and principles. If you find your life is staying the same or getting worse, then your application may be lacking.
Just remember it’s not the knowledge but the application that truly matters. Apply what you learn and check if the results are in line with your goals. If they aren’t, you need to find new principles to try.
April 13th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
[…] It’s really up to the individual and circumstances you find yourself in. I’ve found a great deal of my ’searching’ was really just me stalling and procrastinating. If you determine it’s just another ruse, you may be suffering from self help junki-ism. Related ArticlesAre You A Self Help Junkie? […]