Opinionated! Self-help books

Hello, smart souls! How have you been? I'm great as always.

In today's Opinionated blog post I will discuss self-help/Self-development books.

So let's dive in:

I love reading non-fiction more than fiction, to be specific I love reading self-improvement books. And why not? They are great. We get to learn from other people's experiences and their mistakes. But, but, but... Self-help books have their drawbacks as well.  

It's true that people do improve from reading these books but there are some flaws too.

The major flaw is that self-help books create unrealistic expectations for the reader. They claim that once you read that book your life is changed, and you are successful. Your dreams will come true, and no more sad life. You will live a happy, fulfilling life. That's not true! If the world worked like that we all would have been successful by now. 

Moreover, this makes the reader demotivated in the long run. They think they don't deserve that life because even after applying all the context of the book in his life, he is still unsuccessful. It happens. The book creates a bubble of toxic positivity and thus it backfires.

On that note, it is important to apply the principles of the book in your life and experience it.(keeping your personal views aside) or else it's a waste of time.

The next flaw is that they are all repetitive. If you have read at least 15-20 self-help books you'll understand what I'm trying to say. The same old stuff with different words. No other changes. Nothing new. Most of these self-help books commonly cover topics like discipline, motivation, confidence, consistency, routines, etc. While it is true that these are important topics but there's no need to keep on repeating them over and over and over. 

For some odd reasons, I read a few self-help books specifically for women. And they all boil down to self-acceptance(accepting yourself as you are). As if that's all there is obstructing women from pursuing their careers.

Moving on, the next flaw is excessive examples. In most of the books, the important topic covers only 1/3 of the book, the rest is examples. For instance, let's say there is book A which talks about waking up early. The main topic can be summed up in 1/3 of the book and the rest of the book is examples of the people who became successful just by waking up early. 'Examples' are like there was a person who was lazy, who couldn't achieve his dreams and kept procrastinating, etc, and one day he read the book A and boom he is successful. Now he is a millionaire and has achieved his dreams and living a fulfilled life. Like wow! (seriously?)

And most importantly, these books are used as a guilt trap. If a person doesn't like reading, that person is made to feel guilty for not reading. Social media has created this myth that a reader is an intellect and a non-reader is dumb! Guys, now read this carefully, that's not true at all. I know a few readers who are dumber than non-readers and I have also met non-readers who are smarter than me. 

Reading books, and going to institutions for studies is just one of many ways of acquiring knowledge. There are plenty of other ways to gain knowledge. Just because a person reads doesn't mean that you should assume that he is intelligent. It is so frustrating to see people judging others on the basis of their education/degree/ college/etc. That's total bs.

That would all for today. Meet you all soon. This month's(August) 14th will be the 2nd anniversary of this blog, so if you have any ideas to make the day special I will really appreciate it. 

Over these two years, I personally have grown a lot, learned a lot, and made mistakes, a lot. But all the time I had you, readers to be there for me, to support me, to help me keep on going. I really am grateful. :)