BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Life Coaching Self-help books. Like 'em or hate 'em...?

Hi Robin,

Thank you so much for your kind thoughts.

Self-help/life coaching is not meant to replace spiritual or religious beliefs or practices.

As I mentioned, I look at self-help the way a mechanic would look at a book on repairing engines. I also look at self-help books the same way I view cookbooks.

Long before allrecipes.com (my go-to site for recipes) existed in 1998, I decided I would cook only vegetarian meals at home. I had been raised on meat and potatoes so this is another situation where I *had* to turn to books to learn this new skill because no one else was going to teach me. I purchased and borrowed cookbooks and through lots of trial and error I learned. Now I am teaching my children.

In the same vein when I wanted to learn how to write saleable short stories, I turned to a self-help book that taught me how to plot, format and then sell. It was similar to following the recipe in a cookbook. I followed the instructions and within a few months of purchasing the book, I sold a short story to Dorchester.

Self-help is usually very goal specific. Life coaching is about setting and achieving goals. I’ve seen people set goals to deepen their spiritual practice. Currently on 43things.com, more than 3700 people have a goal to “Read the Bible” others have a goal to “be a better Christian” and to “have more faith in God.”

Yvonnie,

Regarding the oldies, one of the things I want to do with the Life Ccoaching site is to spend one year rereading "the best of" the books I've read over the years like Martin Seligman's "Authentic Happiness" and Ekhert Tolle's "The Power of Now," David Allen's "Getting Things Done," etc.

Debbie and Susan,

What's the most useful self-help book you've read in say the last two or three years?

When we first found out about Michael's Asperger's, we read tons of books on dealing with Autism. Some were very helpful while others - not so much. But it helped to feel like I was doing something.

I don't read them so much anymore, my reading time is mostly spent on fiction.

Michelle,

Yes, most self-help is meant to be very goal specific. You get the books, you learn the information, you use the information and then you move on. That's the process for most people.

I know my 100 self-help book a year habit puts me in a completely different category.

Love Soup by Anna Thomas - so many useful tips!