ARE the feelings of others more important than your own? Do you tend to suppress your feelings? Do you place the needs of others before your own? Are you an enabler or disabler? Perhaps your life is spinning out of control? Is there really help for you? Maybe you should get a book? You know what I mean don’t you. Those nifty books that can coach you how to manage your time in 3 minutes flat, manage yourself and others or get you that six pack you always dreamt of besides the variety that’s in your refrigerator – I am of course talking about self-improvement books.
Millions of people turn to self-improvement books when they find that their lives spinning out of control. The market for self-improvement products – books, audiotapes, life-makeover seminars and regimens of all kinds is big business.
Research firm Marketdata estimates the “self-improvement” market to be roughly around the $8.5 billion ballpark and there seems to be no end in sight to the growth. In Self-Help Inc, they have solutions from everything ranging from smoking cessation in seven simple steps to balling down your lousy no-confidence self to make-extreme-make-u-over as the new terminator complete with a Cheshire cat winning smile.
It’s attractive enough for any sensible person with a respectable baggage of manias and quirks such as I to ask: do any of these self-improvements books really work? What’s behind all this hype? Is it another sales gimmick conjured by the marketing manifesto trying to sell me another quick fix solution? Do self-improvement books really work? Or am I just too dumb and stubborn to see what they can really do to improve my lot? Read the rest of this entry »
THE INTELLIGENT SINGAPOREAN 