On Wednesday night, I went to a presentation of an author who had recently written and self-published a self help book. I couldn’t help but notice before the presentation that he appeared to be on a slightly different wavelength, in his own little world of sorts. He kept slightly apart from the group with a continuous smile on his face, giving the impression that his experience was that of observing himself interacting with the group rather than just focusing on the other people in the moment. He was extremely affable, and commented to me on how “blessed” he and his wife are to live where they do. I recognized a Tony Robbins seminar-attending type, the kind of guy who tells you to have a “fabulous day” on his voice mail and who seems oblivious to (or simply rejects) the age of irony we currently live in.
His book is basically a summary of current self-help ideas, like what someone would write if they camped out at Banyen Books & wrote a general summary of the major books in the genre, ie “you can design the life you want and live it fully”, meditation is good for you, visualize your goals and say positive affirmations, recapture childlike wonder …
That said, I found that his book was also full of common sense, the sort of things we all know to be true but lose track of when inundated with the demands and trials of every day life:
– don’t forget to take care of your body as it’s the only one you’ve got
– you alone are responsible for your own happiness
– to have better relationships with people, eliminate expectations and forgo judgement
– shrink your ego, as it’s the source of envy, dissatisfaction & fear
– forgive, yourself and others
– be grateful for what you have
– fight negativity and embrace positive energy
– love isn’t something that happens to you, it’s a choice and an action
– the path to success is an abundance not a scarcity mentality
– be kind to and help people and give without expectation
– despite what it may appear on the surface, we are all basically the same
I realize that this is all extremely schmaltzy, but I genuinely felt better after reading it.