Stop Reading Self Help Articles!

At some stage, its time for action

You’ve just read the heading. And this is potentially a self-help article. So you are conflicted. Do I follow the advice and stop reading? Or continue?

Take the plunge and read this, and then together, we can work out the next step.

The internet is rife with life hacks and self-help articles. How To Live Your Best Life. Life Lessons from Famous Person X. Why? How? Some of these are great. Many are useful. A lot are rubbish.

Evidently, there is a need for these articles. There has been a shift in recent years to people looking after their mental health. Investing in their personal growth and development. All very valid and worthwhile. The self-help industry is worth over $11billion and continues to grow, spawning books, seminars, classes and coaches. Lots of coaches.

But at some point, there is a need to stop reading all of these and start actioning them. Too many people get caught up in the endless loop of advice.

My own journey is a good example. I had spiralled down over several years: Insomnia, anxiety, stress — all combining to change my behaviours and moods. The journey to redemption consisted solely of reading articles.

I would research mindfulness and meditation and affirmations and sleep solutions. Research what food to eat, what exercises to do. And that was all that I did. Research. Lots and lots of reading.

Of course, nothing changed. Solely reading won’t do much. It got to the stage when I even stopped reading. I purchased Mark Manson’s bestseller, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Amazon duly delivered it, and I unwrapped it and placed it on my bookshelf. Its pristine, bright orange cover was teasing me each morning, as I got out of bed, tired, grumpy and in dread of what the day held for me.

Put yourself in my shoes. What would you do? It seems obvious, perhaps.

Take Action. Implement some of the advice I was reading.

It took me several years to realize this. I booked myself into a wellness retreat for a week, to be surrounded by experts and vowed to follow their advice. To try everything and anything and come up with a model that worked.

I wrote down the best of what I told and made a contract to myself to follow it. To escape the endless Self Help Advice and move to Self Help Action.

And you know what happened, don’t you? I took their advice and used it. And it worked.

The problem is, how many people do this? Are you sitting here now, reading this, nodding? Thinking, this is the hundredth personal growth/self-help article I have read this month. But I don’t do anything.

This is so common. I did it. You do it. Many of us do it. And so the self-help articles continue to churn out. With various modifications. The people that are writing them want to help. They want to pass on what has worked for them, what research has shown, how it can help you.

But they are only words on a page. Until the words cause action.

So promise me one thing. The next time you find a self-help article, you like that resonates with you. Take action. Follow the steps if it works — awesome! If it doesn’t, then move onto the next article.

Just don’t, accrue article after article.

The Takeaway

Yes, we are already at the end and there is no list!

I am not going to list five steps or seven insights or three takeaways. I am just going to leave you with one quote. That’s all you need.

“Action is hope. There is no hope without action “ — Ray Bradbury