You're in Need of Some Serious Self Help

Wow it's been a while since I've written here. And I've come to learn that blogging isn't easy. It makes me appreciate authors a lot more and I can only imagine how they feel when they must get writers block. And I'm not even short on material. Well besides my inability to remain consistent here, I have managed to develop some other habits including exercising using Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer, reading Ayn Rand's The Fountain Head and learning acoustic guitar. I've been practising guitar at least 1/2 hour every night and I'm doing well. So some habits are obviously easier than others. So enough riff raf and back at the topic at hand.

I first got into self help books I think coming out of University. Perhaps I was trying to figure out more about myself or even what to do next with my life. And I wasn't shy to admit, mostly to myself, that I needed some guidance in the area. But I felt weird about reading Self Help. In retrospect, I was only worrying over nothing because if you walk into Chapters and look at the Self Help section, well it's huge:) So I wasn't the only one. Good to know.

Now if you're the type of person who doesn't believe in Self Help because you think it's a lot of common sense. Well you're pretty much right. And there are a lot of rich people getting richer explaining the obvious. But my take is this: if you find something that can help you for the better, or if something works, then its legitimacy really doesn't even matter.

Ok, so let's check out some of my favourite authors in the order I learned about them:

1. Anthony Robbins
You may have heard of this guy. I think that's an understatement as he's a pretty big celebrity. When I first read and found out about Anthony Robbins I was hooked because his approach was very technical and practical. He gave real instructions and practical tips that you can apply in real life. Two of his books that I read are Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within.

Love him or hate him, Anthony Robbins seems to understand human motivations and behaviours. I really do believe that a chapter on mirroring that I read of his helped me through a job interview, with success to boot.

He has a bunch of cds that are pretty awesome as well. His most famous set is called Personal Power and is very motivational.

I really think that if you need a boost of motivation or encouragement, in the right dose, Anthony Robbins is your man.

2. Robin Sharma
A Toronto boy, Robin Sharma is the author of the book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. After he wrote that book, he went on and wrote a book called The Greatness Guide. After reading tons of self help authors, I found this title to be a good balance of life philosophy and practicality. It's an easy read and is broken into individual chapters that are only about a page and a half long.

I was fortunate enough to meet Robin at Chapters in Toronto and he's a great guy. He wrote a sequel to The Greatness Guide and it is also a great, easy, motivational read. He's all about being a leader without title. And I really like that seeing how I don't have a CEO title as of yet;)

3. Eckhart Tolle
Now before I start talking about how amazing I think Eckhart Tolle is, I have to put out a bit of a disclaimer: you're either going to get Eckhart Tolle or you're not. It really is that black and white. Even Eckhart himself acknowledges that his material is only applicable to people who are willing and ready for it. Kind of like hypnotism. So if you don't 'get it', it really doesn't matter and it doesn't make you weird nor shall you feel ostracized by it's recent popularity. The same can be said if 'you do get it'. That's probably the worlds mostly neutral disclaimer:) And what's worse, is no one should or can preach to you about having to read him. The choice is yours and all I'm going to do is share with you why I love him so much.

The first time I encountered Eckhart Tolle was through his first book The Power of Now. This book was actually rather famous but it wasn't mainstream, as in Oprah mainstream. Be careful when reading this book as it is literally life changing. I'm not even kidding. It is the first book I've ever read (and I'm not going to talk about religious books here), that has made me look at life entirely differently. And it opened my eyes. And I'm also not the only one who felt this way. Now what Eckhart claims in The Power of Now is pretty much rudimentary spirituality beliefs, but the way Eckhart writes, is the main distinguishing factor that I believe makes his writing resonate better than other spiritual authors. Thus his success.

Now after reading The Power of Now, I was waiting patiently for another book of is. And he followed up his first title with his next book A New Earth. In my excitement I rushed over to Chapters and tried to find his new book. To my incredulous surprise, there on the front cover of his shiny new book, was the always recognizable Oprah book club sticker. This changed everything.

The real irony or serendipty about Oprah finding Eckhart, is that in his first book Eckhart always wrote that the universe gave him signals to leave the UK and move to Vancouver of all places. He had no money and just escaped an attempt at suicide. The universe also told him to start a movement and awaken a lot of people. And what better way to start something than to start it with Oprah. She was so enthusiastic about this book she created the world's first online book review, which in its first day had 750,000 registrants. It obviously crashed. The following week it was up and running again. And for the next 14 weeks, about 800,000 people met online every Monday and watched Oprah and Eckhart talk about his book chapter by chapter. It really was amazing.

Again, A New Earth and The Power of Now are two books that you might not comprehend or even enjoy. And if that's the case then put it down, grab something else, and let it be. Otherwise if you find it does resonate with you, I can guarantee these two books will enlighten.

Now seriously, get yourself some help.

Zye