How to Get the Most from Self-Help Material? Avoid These Three “Tips” …
While there are many great personal development (“PD”) writers and speakers, the PD industry is huge (and lucrative) and thus attracts many folks who merely regurgitate what someone else said, give vapid advice, or give misguided advice. In this post, I am going to discuss three P.D. “tips” of which you should be very wary.
1. Follow your passion and the money will follow
Er, not exactly. I strongly believe in following your passion, but sometimes simply being passionate isn’t enough. Obviously hard work is required, as is talent. Sure, if you are a passionate hard worker and you are good at what you do … the odds shift in your favor. But I have read too many posts on personal development forums wherein some young dreamseeker quits her day job to follow her passion … and ends up living on Ramen noodles. Even if you follow your passion and the money does follow, there is likely to be a period of time (even if it is only a few months or a year) during which you generate no income from your passion. Blend passion with practicality. Plan, work hard, be honest about your talents, and have a plan for transitioning from what you do now to what your gut tells you to do.
As Miguel de Cervantes said:
“Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.“
So be practical and diligent in following your passion … and the money will follow.
2. Damn all the naysayers
Often, people critical of your dreams are just that — critical people. But sometimes they are people who have your best interest at heart (and more experience) and are merely trying to gently (or not so gently) steer you away from a major life disaster. Now, disasters often turn out okay … so even that wouldn’t be the end of the world. But don’t think that everyone who questions your dream is a bitter, dream-sucking goosestepper. Some of them are, of course. Feel free to damn these naysayers.
But try to carefully pay attention to criticism and ascertain whether it is well intentioned and comes from a knowledgable source. Even then, you may decide to proceed with your plan — and it may turn out fabulously. But take valuable, free advice when it is given … and then decide what to do with that advice, based on your own intuition.
For example, I have had many people in my life criticize me. Nevertheless, I have had a fairly successful life. This is due to many reasons, but one of these reasons is that I pretty much ignore advice or criticism from people who clearly don’t have my best interests at heart. For the people that do, I listen carefully and decide whether I agree. Sometimes being a critic doesn’t mean someone is a naysayer … it just means that they are your friend.
3. Visualize and receive.
There are certain folks who would have you believe that if you visualize what you want, it will drop into your life like magic. I concede that this may happen sometimes (well, every once in a while) … but generally more is required. As many critics (and even proponents) of The Secret DVD have pointed out, that something more that is required is action. If you want to be rich and you sit around visualizing winning the lottery … well, good luck. Don’t quit your day job.
Similarly, if you want to attract a loving partner and go about your day not changing any of your routines, habits, or behaviors … then you might find that special person soon. But more likely, your repeated patterns and ways of being will keep producing the same results. So no partner arrives; it’s just you sitting in your chair visualizing that perfect person.
You have to take action. If you want to be wealthy, start taking practical steps toward that goal. Read, become informed, and then take action toward that goal via tangible acts. Whether you start a business, begin investing in stocks and mutual funds, become a real estate mogul, or simply start an aggressive savings plan, your key to wealth is action. If you want to attract a life partner, take action towards that goal — join a dating service, join a gym, update your wardrobe, become comfortable with your own self, etc.
Of course, you are in the meantime visualizing your success via vision boards and other means. But the key is action.
Visualize, act, and receive.
What’s the Big “Yes!” Burning Inside You?
“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage–pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically–to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.'”
Stephen Covey
5 Positive News Stories — The Search and the Results
I wanted to quickly find and post five inspirational or positive news stories for the day. Incredibly, as I sloshed through webpage after webpage, I realized that finding even five such stories was going to take some time. I finally came up with five, and hope to try this again in the future, but I certainly won’t try for 10. Perhaps next time I will stay off the sites of traditional media. Oh, and I have to admit that most of the articles aren’t from today — they’re from this month!
1. Cuba embraces open-source software
2. A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years.
3. Consumer confidence approaches elusive positive zone
4. U.S. Kids Share Education with Kids in Cambodia
5. HIV Stigma on the Decline in Rwanda
Give *Yourself* Permission
“Don’t make the mistake of waiting for someone to give you permission to do what you love.”
Unknown
The Abundant Life 