This is what I learned from reading self-help
And what you can learn too
Self-help books.
Love them or hate them, they’re not going anywhere. That’s a fact.
From the beginning of my journey as a reader, I was prejudiced against this type of literature. After all, what was the fun? There was no epic battle being fought on those pages or breathtaking romance.
Or was there?
However, I reached adulthood – or something close to it, since I don’t feel very “adult” – and started reading non-fiction books. Discovering this genre and the knowledge it could provide me with was intoxicating.
Every non-fiction book I read broadened my view of the world and the people in it. It gave me points of view that I didn’t even know were possible.
It’s like Einstein said:
The mind that opens to a new idea Will never return to it’s original size
And how right that guy was, you have no idea!
“But what does your discovery about non-fiction books have to do with your prejudice against self-help books?” you may be asking yourself.
A fun fact about self-help books: they’re non-fiction books, right? A subcategory to be exact.
So I continued on my journey as a voracious reader. Still ignoring self-help books.
Until I came across the book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg (by the way: what an incredible book!), considered by many to be a self-help book, and my outlook changed once again.
This time radically.
So, for a long time – basically my entire adolescence – I repudiated this literary genre and even rolled my eyes when I passed its section in bookstores. Who hasn’t, right? I preferred to stick to my sugary novels and fantasies full of political intrigue.
I started reading, among romance books, self-help books about aspects I wanted to change or improve in myself.
And I had to admit: they were good. Or at least some of them. There are some you can’t defend. We try, but we can’t.
I used to think that self-help books were rigid manuals on how to achieve a certain goal. And many have this premise that if you do X things, you’ll achieve Y goal.
But let’s just say it’s not quite like that.
The more I read this subgenre, the more I realized that some of them had valuable lessons, even though they were stating the obvious. However, sometimes the obvious needs to be stated.
I realized that every self-help book existed because of human pain and/or suffering. I realized that, deep down, these books could really help people if a filter was applied to the information and each piece of advice adapted to specific realities. I realized that, within those pages of non-fiction, epic battles were being fought, but not by wizards or armies in Westeros, but within the souls of those who were reading.
Battles I had to fight myself
Yes, I was prejudiced against this type of reading.
So, yes, I “fell off the horse” when it came to self-help books.
What I mean by this text is that we can’t assume or classify something we don’t know. Much less despise and minimize it – guilty, I know!
Perhaps your next great read (you know, the ones that revolutionize our lives?) could be a self-help book.
Who knows, right?
Give it a chance, maybe you’ll be surprised, just like me.
