The mayhem of Self-help

Prabal Jain
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

With the efficacy of human beings falling to an all time low in twentieth century, the self help industry has become so tumultuous as if it has solutions to all the problems people face on a daily basis. Self help, as is promulgated these days, has become a Modus Vivendi, a decision people deliberately make every second as to continually strive for the improvement of the current self. Are we merely being insipid about our way of life or are we on the right track?

In the late nineteenth century, people used to be complacent about their life but the advent of technology has led us, the purveyors of this mayhem, to repeatedly look after the touchstone of an “ideal life”. Ideal, a word which a self help veteran may take as long as an year to describe, is just an easy way of saying that you have a lot to improve, that you are not living your best life and that you have a scope for improvisation. While there is always a scope, the ostensible chasing of this unheralded image may make you look like “one on the run”, forever. The knee-jerk solution to any problem in life has a simple, easily accessible and a distorted answer — just google “7 steps to do so and so shit”. Where is the ideal life we have been dreaming from a long time? Sure, it may exist and if it does, are we getting any closer? I think not.

The cacophony of our internal dialogue, our constant dichotomy between right and wrong, our abhorrent bigotry between this and that have all harboured the self-help industry. In reality, I really don’t see self-help industry serving any purpose rather than continuously defeating you to believe that you are 'yet' not on the right track or if you are, you are still far away. Self-help may help you overhaul your life in short term, but in the long term, you are defrauding yourself of the happiness which really comes from stillness and greater outlook towards life.