For centuries, people have sought ways to improve the quality of their
lives, and there has often been no shortage of sources of advice on how to do
that. You might say that the Proverbs of King Solomon, found in the Bible, are
an example of ancient self-help literature. A much later example is the Meditations of
the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, presenting his Stoic philosophy.
It was in the twentieth century that the self-help literature really
took off in a big way. True, a lot of it was helpful. But much of it has turned
out to be wrong. For example:
- Despite what Maxwell Maltz
wrote in his famous self-help work, Psychocybernetics, there’s
no evidence that visualizing a positive outcome to a project will lead to
the desired result. Research has demonstrated that you will
actually be less likely to get the outcome you want.
- It’s widely accepted that
setting goals is a useful self-improvement technique, but reports of a
Yale study on goal setting (claiming that the 3% of students who had
written goals amassed more wealth than the 97% who didn’t) are completely bogus.
- We’ve been told for years
that we should drink eight glasses of water a day. Apparently,
there’s no scientific basis for it.
- Although the so-called law
of attraction sounds, well, attractive, unfortunately there is no reliable evidence that is true.
Additionally, a lot of self-help literature is not well researched.
Often, it’s littered with inaccurate quotations. For instance, consider the
statement “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an
action but a habit.” Very interesting concept, almost invariably attributed
to Aristotle. But Aristotle never said it. Goethe is quoted as
saying: “What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness
has genius, power and magic in it.” He
never said it.
That might seem like a small thing, but is it? If someone is giving you
advice, shouldn’t they do their homework and research properly? Can they be
trusted to advise you on more important matters?
Over the past few months, I’ve been tweeting about
self-improvement. The response has been overwhelming. I’m looking forward to
researching this exciting field and presenting my findings. Look out for
further articles on this blog about what works and what doesn’t.
