It's Pulling Me In

Every time I go to the bookstore or library, I am drawn to those shelves. You know the ones. You've wandered there, too, trying not to appear too interested in how to organize your inner space or the three habits that will renew your vision.

Self-help is big. In a way, that's a good thing: at least we are admitting that we need help. We're taking a little time to think about why our lives are so busy, hectic, unfulfilled, absent of beauty. We're comparing a little more with the rest of the world, wondering if we might have lost some universal truths in the race for the American dream.

But the term "self-help" should warn us. We're still enamored of the do-it-yourself independence that got us into all these messes. We're not willing to change our "Quick, fix it so I can get back to work" mental rut. We cruise the self-help aisle and grab the title that's brightest and laid out in the simplest, bullet-point format. That way we can just skim the chapters, get the basics through the headings, and avoid all the time wasted on wading through those extraneous words. We'll be fixed and good as new by lunchtime.

Sound the "RRRRR, try again" buzzer.

Self-Help or Personal Growth: Semantics?

Acknowledging what is worthwhile about the self-help movement, in an effort to be fair (and to justify the row of such books on my own shelf at home), here's what I find: 1) we do need help, and 2) it does start with self. There are lots of other sound principles encompassed in those self-help pages, as well as unsound theories, but I'm talking about the founding philosophies.

The two basics above give us firm ground, but most self-help instruction drifts into problems. You can't trust a quick-fix problem to ages-old, universal problems.

Personal growth (or personal development) can be just another term for the same old stuff. It's all shelved in the same place. If we take what is valid about the self-help movement, however, and build on it different ideas, we come up with something that might actually help. Personal means it starts with me; I can't fix you. Growth means lifelong, a daily effort, not a brush up during my coffee break.

The Basics

1. It's about character, not personality.
2. You're a responsible creator, not an (un)empowered victim.
3. Your choices today determine your life tomorrow.
4. There is justice in the world.
5. Hard work isn't just a fad.

I'll dive more into each of these over the coming days. For now, read that article below.
Resources/Credits:

Suzanna Kamphuis identifies four half-truths of self-help at Today's Christian Woman.

"No" Symbol graphic from Fibonacci, Wikipedia Commons.