Self-Improvement has been a massive trend for many years. In fact, 60% of the books now sold are nonfiction. People want to be better versions of themselves. I’ve read my fair share of self-help and thoroughly enjoy it.
As a highly malleable person, I’ve never consumed the content with scepticism. I’ve also never considered any of it a holy grail, and I thought that was enough. Adopting helpful beliefs and tossing the extreme ones seemed to be an adequate precaution. What I didn’t realise was that bad advice was not the only harmful side effect of the self-help industry.
Self-help often, scientific or not, explains our pains and provides solutions to our struggles. To anyone that’s struggling, the right form of self-help feels like salvation. We feel included and validated, and it gives our inner child something that we always look for in adulthood, a map. How we should be feeling, what we should do, what’s a better perspective?
There’s nothing wrong with that, a changed perspective is often beneficial. It is, at times, the much-needed rope that can help us climb out of many of life’s trenches. The problem is not the rope. The problem is collecting ropes.
As a chronic procrastinator and someone who loves reading, I’ve had many epiphany moments in my avid consumption of nonfiction. Moments that were promptly forgotten by the time I picked up the next book. That’s the part I hadn’t taken into account. No matter how noble, the self-help industry is still a commercial industry. It promises to change our lives, and sometimes we can forget that insight and revelations are all it can provide.
It’s hard to look back at our experiences and pinpoint one idea that changed our lives, despite the claims on every clickbait. So, I believe it’s important to realise where the collection of insights must stop and action, as per the ideas, must begin. We can intellectualise our problems as much as we want, but the fact remains that knowing how to win doesn’t win a battle. The work must still be done.
That’s the real dark side of self-help—the selling of dreams without an emphasis on the work needed in reality. No book can change our life. Neither can this article. They can just make life easier when we decide to make the changes ourselves.
Until next time,
Charizma
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