I've heard mixed opinions about self-help books- some say they're life-changing, while others dismiss them as useless. For those who have read them, what are your thoughts? Are they worth it? Any specific recommendations for someone new to the genre
by Much-Sir-7
13 Comments
I guess it depends on the person. The problem with self help books is if you are going to apply what you learned or not? I am practicing my self awareness that is why I love this kind of books. Honestly, some self help book are repetitive. Ya just have to choose the right book if your interested. I suggest 7 habbits of highly effective people or think and grow rich.
They are helpful – but they are helpful because they help you do things that you mostly *already know* you should be doing. People think they are not helpful because they do not understand this.
A good self help book provides a fair amount of concrete advice, but there will also be a lot of repetitive exhortation, so people see the repetitive exhortation and they think the book is useless. That is the wrong way of thinking about it. The exhortation is there to get you to actually do the thing, which is really important.
For example, Jordan Peterson famously tells his readers to clean their rooms. I promise that nearly everyone reading Jordan Peterson already knows on some level that they should keep their room clean. However, the self help book puts it in an appealing and inspiring framing, and that helps you do things you need to do.
So yes, I think you should read self help books. They’ll give a lot of concrete advice about how to improve yourself, wrapped in a lot of exhortation and inspirational stories and so forth. I would expect most people to benefit from such books.
Personally, I like *Atomic Habits* by James Clear and *Limitless* by Jim Kwik.
I’ve read some self help and also some philosophical classic books. Everything u already know is written in self help books, it’s actually more worth it to just watch TED talks, podcasts, or other YT vids touching that topic so u can get visuals and more insights.
But classics? They’re more profound and offer more wisdom. There’s a difference between author telling u something and an author chiseling down to ur core to make u realize what u are, why u’re alive, why u are thinking the way u are, the reasons behind ur actions & mindset, etc.
Like I *know* I should stop procrastinating, I know the reason I’m procrastinating is bec of my phone & my attention span blah blah. But reading someone’s deepest thoughts that *you would have never realized on ur own* is much more impactful. And they say it so beautifully and poetically and almost always bullseye.
I don’t think self-help books are useless tho, they’re just more forgettable, personally.
I think it just comes down to personal preference
It depends on the book. Some are helpful others are just making a problem worse. The term toxic positivity comes to mind for some.
It’s about finding the self help that resonates with you. The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Caroll gets a lot of use with me, as does the You Need a Budget book (don’t remember the author). I use the things I learned in those books daily. Meanwhile, something like Atomic Habits did not stick to me at all. I also read a book about social anxiety and although I took pretty good notes, I haven’t felt a need to go back to them.
I would say they’re worth it.
It may just depend on how you prefer to consume information. Some folks just prefer reading to videos? Sounds like you prefer videos. Maybe check out Brene Brown’s Netflix special and then decide if you want to read any of her books after watching it?
The Secret to Mental Health by George Pransky
nedra glover tawwab, reading her books/posts feel like good therapy sessions to me. also ‘conversations with james baldwin’
The power of now by ekchart tolle is a really good one
Honestly, moral philosophy and positive psychology are way more useful! Anyways, a few self-help books are good, a lot of self-help books are simply commonsense wisdom, many are false.
I read “the 7 habits of highly effective people,” by Stephen Covey, which is considered a classic in self-help. I read ot like 15 years ago. I also read books by Jack Welch and Tony Robbins, but they were.. meh. I also read principles by Ray Diallo and Great Courses on energy and CBT.
The parts I remember about the 7 habits was:
He interviewed a CEO who found a way to prioritize his family through a “shared vision” of a home they wanted to build. This was a sort of time effective way to connect with his family around a shared dream.
He acknowledged that “women with small children” were the one group where the 7 habits were sort of ineffective. I love this because as a guy with a newborn baby, I figure I can forgive myself for not being as effective. I mean, the baby sucks up all the air in the room, the baby constantly needs something, and it interrupts your sleep, your eating, your work, etc.
My current favorite book is “The Myth of Modivation” which is mostly about weight loss. The book argues thar you just need to do something today, and tomorrow, and just keep doing it to reach your goals.
Books focused on very specific subject matters tend to be better than general books, but my issue is that most of these books are written with a lot of filler which feels disrespectful to the reader’s time.