Self help books are a dime a dozen. You can find them at any bookstore, online, or in the library. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why? Why do we feel the need to read self help books?
The answer is simple: because we’re not happy with our lives. We want to be better people, but we don’t know how. We think that if we just had the right book, or the right advice, then everything would change for us.
We’ll explore why self help books might be doing more harm than good.
Why self-help books don’t work for you?
Self-help books don’t work for you because they’re not personal enough. They might give you general advice that doesn’t apply to your specific situation. Or, they might be too focused on the individual and not on the bigger picture.
In order for self-help books to work, they need to be tailored specifically to you and your needs. They also need to be realistic – giving you achievable goals that you can actually achieve.
People often read self help books in order to escape from their current situation
We feel stuck, frustrated or depressed and don’t know how to deal with it. When you’re feeling down about your life, the last thing you want is more advice from someone who doesn’t really understand what’s wrong with us in order to make things better.
Self help books are not a cure-all for all of our problems; they will not magically transform us into confident individuals overnight (or at least that’s what most people believe). They can however provide some comfort during difficult times when nothing seems right anymore.
Self help books can be repetitive and unhelpful
We’ve all been there. We read a self help book, and it seems like everything the author is saying has already been said before. And not only that, but we can’t seem to apply any of their advice to our own lives.
This is because self-help books are often based on personal experiences, which might be completely different from our own. What works for one person might not work for us.
Most self help books are written by people who are not experts in the field
They might be psychologists, life coaches or authors, but that doesn’t mean they know everything about how to improve your life.
In fact, most of them don’t – which is why it’s important to take their advice with a grain of salt and figure out what will work best for you based on your own individual needs and preferences.
Lack of scientific validation
One of the main problems with self help books is that a lot of their advice lacks scientific validation. This means that it has not been proven to work in controlled settings, and therefore we can’t be sure that it will actually work for us if we try it out.
Self help books are often based on personal experiences or anecdotal evidence, which might not be applicable to our own lives. So before you take any advice from these texts, make sure to research it further so you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Contradictions between different self help books
It’s common for people to read multiple self help books and find contradicting advice. This can lead them down a path of confusion, as they’re unsure which book is right or wrong.
This happens because there isn’t one single way to live your life; everyone has different needs and desires that need satisfying in order for them to feel happy with their lives. A lot of the time if you follow all the rules laid out by just one text it won’t work – but two conflicting ones might do wonders!
False hope
One of the main problems with self help books is that they often give people false hope. This happens when we read about somebody’s amazing transformation from being a total mess to becoming a successful individual, and we start to believe that this could happen to us if only we followed the same steps.
The truth is, not everybody can or wants to become a millionaire entrepreneur. And that’s okay! We should be striving for realistic goals in our lives, rather than aiming for something that might not be possible or desirable for us.
When self-help has gone too far
Finally, we need to be aware of the fact that self-help can go too far. This happens when people become obsessed with improving every little aspect of their lives, and they lose sight of what’s truly important.
This is often referred to as “the perfectionism trap”. When we’re constantly trying to better ourselves, we might end up feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
Final Thoughts On Self Help Books
Self help books can be a great resource for motivation and inspiration. But they should not be used as guidance on how to live your life, because everybody has different needs and desires that need satisfying in order for them to feel happy with their lives.
So should you stop reading self help books altogether?
Well, that’s up to you. Personally, I think they can be helpful – but only if we take their advice with a grain of salt and figure out what will work best for us based on our own individual needs and preferences. And always remember that not everything in these texts is applicable to our lives! There are bound to be contradictions between different authors’ advice, so find the ones that work best for you and stick with them.
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