I believe I’ve already offended/disappointed a lot of folks just by that title. But then we now get offended even by the way people breathe. Why bother?

For folks with attention span on the verge of extinction here is the TL;DR.
Self help books don’t work for me and I strongly believe self help books only help the author by minting him/her money.

For the ones who are still with me. Thank you. Please read on.

I’m not making things up or thinking in my head without a proof in place when I state the title of this piece.

Stating the obvious does not help anyone. For fiction it is fine as I can make things up in my head while reading.

See, reading is a personal activity, unless you’re reading it out for/to someone. When I read, I imagine things in my head. I imagine different voices in my head. At times it is Morgan Freeman saying things, at times it is Mrunal Thakur. Sometimes it is just me! And my mind doesn’t stop there, I imagine the description in my own way. My interpretation is unique to me. But I guess this is only for the fiction books.

What about non-fiction? Well in that case, my interpretation is different as well, based on my intellectual level and understanding. All that is okay.

My problem starts when I read self-help books. My creative voices die and I’m stuck with my own voice alone. And to top it, I feel like I am repeating the same thing again and again in active and passive voice. And then again in direct and indirect speech! Where is the stuff which is supposed to help me?

I recently read the book – Don’t believe everything you think. This was supposed to help me learn how to overcome anxiety, self-doubt & self-sabotage – and this is what I understood.

It is the thought which troubles us and if you stop thinking, you can stop anxiety, self doubt and overthinking.

Really Sherlock! What an amazing advice. Though why limit it to just this issue?
Want to stop global warming – stop burning coal. Simple! How? What are the replacements – who cares right? We just realized the solution was right in front of our eyes but we never bothered to look carefully. Damn the humans, ugh!

The only thing I take away with such books is the talent to

1. Think of writing a self-help book, and
2. Being creative enough to say the same thing over and over again over 200 odd pages
3. Go on and sell over a million copies of the same

Having read such books, I think self help books should just be a quote and that would pretty much sum it up.

If I want to listen to the obvious solution for my problem, I would rather go to therapy because

1. Even if they state the obvious, I can question them and understand why would they quote me what I already know
2. They generally don’t state the obvious
3. They have multiple solutions and hacks in place which actually work
4. They don’t state the same things in active and passive voice over and over again!

Having said all of this, one fine day even I want to write a self-help book. Because who doesn’t love the money eh?