Today, as a service to all readers of books, I’d like to post the industry’s secret recipe for mind-blowing success as a self-help author:
Step 1: Insist that no “method” for achieving any level of change actually works.
Step 2: Propose a new method that’s guaranteed to work in their place.
I ran across a mention of this neat little book called “This Year I Will…” in a news article somewhere and decided to order it up from the library. Every year I make resolutions– at New Year’s, and at Lent, and again sometime in the fall when I can see the end of the year coming and want some progress to show. And every year I have trouble with them. My own methods, which frequently involve spreadsheets (since learning to use Excel better is frequently one of my goals, it’s a handy little program), are easy to lose, and so the main idea of the book looked good.
Here it is: Nobody’s “universal” method for achieving success is going to work because everyone has his/her own specific way of motivating and disciplining toward goals. So in order to succeed, you have to develop your own personalized system of motivating and rewarding yourself, by discovering who you really are and what you respond to. Here, the author says, try this system I’ve worked out for discovering your real self that’s guaranteed to work for everybody.
There’s a strong scent of irony in the air, and the book is pretty basic after this. Find out what goals you’re really passionate about. Make promises that you can keep. Be accountable to someone. All common sense stuff. Bottom line; if a friend owns the book, borrow it and see what nuggets you find in it.
