Self-help industry is there to make money. Nobody wants to pay for something way too obvious.
Every day we are being told how we can become successful. We get the information from books, movies, tv-shows, self-help coaches, seminars. The similarity of all this "education" tends to be the simple complexity that is easy to understand but difficult to believe - and if you don't believe - hey, that's your problem right there, that's the reason why you are not successful - you just don't believe what we are telling you. Or if you do believe, you are unwilling to act on those beliefs because you don't believe enough, you think it looks foolish or not something meant for you.
The reason for this simple complexity can very easily be understood if we look at it from business perspective. Self-help industry is there to make money. Nobody wants to pay for something way too obvious. So some level of complexity needs to be added - lets bring in the good vibes and the bad vibes. Preaching that the good you do will come back to you two fold and the bad you do will come back to you three-fold. Even if the theories happen to say something that actually makes sense, they talk about the bits and pieces, the things they think you should know. Almost never do they clearly state how they came to this conclusion.
Honestly, even the word self-help has been demoted by this type of theories. It didn't really use to be a bad thing. People read, people learn, afterwards feeling just a bit good about themselves, until they need to get back to the self-help materials. It's becoming addictive. It's like saying that if your head aches, take that drug; if your foot hurts, take another drug; and if you're out of breath go to your doctor's office and get some tests done. What they, the sayers, forgot to tell you, is that instead of watching hours of tv followed by computer games you could have gone for a walk or jogging, or out with your friends; what they forgot to tell you is that you shouldn't kick stones with your bear foot; what they forgot to tell you is that simple excercise could help you with your breath problems a lot.
It is hard to say if the reason for not talking about what should be talked about is the will to make more money continuously selling more and more self-help courses; or maybe they just don't know more than you do - they have successfully achieved the state of mind and state of being everyone would love to be in, but don't actually know why or how. They say you should take action - because they did it. Or they say there are strange unexplained vibes all around us and by influencing your mood, you influence the vibes next to you which results in these vibes influencing the vibes next to them - and by the end of the day, if you send out good vibes, all the vibes around you are good and success will follow. And this entire theory came to be just because someone was happy when he became successful. Or he made the story up to make some money. Who knows.
Being a fan, follower, believer of logics, this all doesn't work for me. In order for me to believe in something, I need to understand it. Now comes the guy with his light bulb theory or discussions about radio waves - we can't see it, most of us can't explain in in a simple manner. Heck, I'm not smart enough to say I know for sure someone actually does. Whether someone does or not doesn't really matter for the sake of my argument. There are things out there that most people (maybe in some cases all people) can not logically explain, but success definitely is not one of them. And yes, if you're reading this and you believe you became successful only because of some luck factor - I can't even dissagree. Heck if I know. Luck might have done it for you. Yet, in most cases, even luck is based on logics.
Take a moment to think about it for a second. Please, stop reading now! If you're still reading - don't! At least for a moment. Just think. I believe 95% of you didn't stop reading - that's the logics why most self-help book don't give you enough - you read, you consume, you feel better about yourself, but you don't really put your mind to it, and thus it ends up giving you just a temporary effect...until you need a new boost. Well, that...and the fact that most self-help books actually seem to have been built this way anyhow - to keep you on a short leach. The thing is that most self-help books don't lie. And they do contain useful information. Useful, yet not extremely helpful. Just to check - did you notice the NOT before the word extremely? Thought I'd make sure.
Difference between useful and helpful in my eyes, at least considering the current context, is that the information has the value of educating you, reminding you things you had forgotten. But it's not helpful because of the complexity of things. Pardon - not complexity but the overflow of information - page after page after page after page of examples, ideas, reminders, things you should know. I assume you know the result of this useful information already, don't you? Or actually 80% of you don't. But the answer is - it's just the type of information you end up forgetting again soon. Helpful information in my mind is just that one thing you need to remember in order to restore everything else in your mind yourself again.
Let's repeat that again -
USEFUL - everything you have just read before this line.
HELPFUL - the word "logics".
All the information you have read thus far in this article has been, well, we could call it background information, maybe some of it was even useful. But was it helpful? No. It might have been good to read it, you might have started thinking how right I am. Or that I should burn in hell. That's already up to you. But all I have really written so far have been words combined into sentences of which some have had some thoughts in them. If it was a book of fiction, why the hell not. But our current topic is just a bit different. Do you even remember what the initial topic was? And have you noticed I have really not said anything I said in the title yet? I'm starting to feel like a self-help coach.
Although I have intentionally repeated the world logics a few times, I haven't really said anything about it. I do however, hope, that some of you are starting to see what I'm trying to say. That is, except for the theory (well, fact, but I'm not smart enough to claim to be the only person talking truth in this world) that self-help industry doesn't really carry out its mission too well.
Lottery winnings
Getting dates
Finding business partners
Earning more money
Becoming a millionaire
Feeling happy
What's the common factor for all of them? I say logics. Some say this lucky son of bitch won a lottery again. Hmm, no I didn't, even though I wouldn't really mind winning it. Then again, I haven't bought a lottery for years either. Have you? Of course, winning a big prize from a national lottery - your chances are slim. But not impossible. And yes, in case of lottery, there is the luck factor as well...which actually is randomness. But in order to win, you need to play. That's the logics. And when did you buy the ticket? Okay, now you say he was lucky to buy the ticket at that right time from that right location. But what is the reason he did that? There are logics behind it. There was a specific reason he bought it from there - maybe it's close to his office?
All good, or bad for the matter, that happen to us in life, have some kind of logics behind them. Why can't I get any dates? Maybe you're an asshole - might that be true? It doesn't mean you're unlucky. Why can't you find business partners or new clients? Are you searching for them at all? Are you talking to people and let them know you're searching? Have you left a reputable impression of your business - do you have a great-looking website? Do you have it all but still things seem to go the wrong way? Do you like your job? If you don't, you might not be enthusiastic enough and end up leaving not so great impression of your business. There's always some kind of logics behind EVERYTHING.
Look at your life, look at your business, think what you like and what you don't. Then think what has caused the current situations. Base everything on simple logics and you'll know what you need to do differently or what you have done right in the past.
There's only one thing from this article you need to hard-burn into your brain and it's LOGICS. Everything is based on it. Think about it.
