Helpless Self-Help Books

An ambitious eagle in her comment over the last post asked the monkey’s eye view on self-help books and her opinion on people who read them. The monkey did some clanking over the laptop (yeah, we have internet in the tree-tops – have you ever wondered why the Wi-Fi symbol looks like a canopy? Ha!). After researching why these bipedal featherless apes, my distant cousins (a.k.a. Homo Sapiens) are reading self-help books, the monkey did come up with some observations.

Self-Help Books- An Irony?

Usually people write (including me) to convey their ideas to a larger public and so would be people who write self-help books. It is quite relatable being in a sense of loss of direction and all of us do look for someone to guide us. The monkey’s doubt pops out then- how can a man in mid-forties, sitting in his penthouse in Los Angeles be able to give his advice on how to lead a happy life to a confused teenager in Chennai? The monkey thinks that reading self-help books is an irony. As a matter of fact, reading a self-help book written by someone who is not familiar to your context and situation could even prove disastrous. Add to it, the oxymoronic situation where you want to help yourself, but you are asking for someone unknown fellow to guide you through things that s/he is remotely aware of. You know what, I don’t think even monkeys will do that and hence why would humans do it? Thought worth pondering?

A few hundred thousand years ago when the monkey’s ancestral aunt and her contemporary human-lady could remember the face of their mutual friend, a person among the humans came up with this advertisement – you want a land full of sweet fruits and orchards? Pray to the fire that’s burning the whole of our wilderness! The monkey’s ancestral aunt denied in a “hoo hoo” and the human lady said, “emm… zure (earlier word for sure)” – the last time monkey went to some “civilised world”, they still follow these rules for happiness in their own modified ways and as per her human friends – this practice is called religion! Whoa!

The monkey thinks self-help books are for people who are disillusioned (or mis-illusioned, or plainly illusioned). They bring in a belief that if you do “x” things in your life your “y” problems are going to be solved. They do not talk about the letters “a” to “w” while they talk about “x” and “y” – the way people generally think that the world is all sunshine and rainbow and forgets about the dark clouds. The monkey believes that humans have an ability to retrospectively look at their own lives and make course corrections if they feel so and that made them on the top of the nature’s pyramid.

Thoughts on people who read self-help books:

As mentioned earlier, a large number of humans are looking forward to self-help books as a silver bullet to all their problems. Well, what is human existence if there were no problems? What will prompt you to live? Now, the monkey does not have any grudge towards those reading these books, but only a sincere request to them – think for a second : What did you find different in the last self-help book you read other than something that would have popped in your common sense? If you are a lazy-cozy person and wondered about how to make your life better maybe the book would have suggested you to get up early and follow a schedule in your life. Well, the vocabulary might have been different and filled with verbose, but to the core it is mostly likely to have this message. Now, how different is it from common sense? All the monkey is asking you to try is – think, a power that most of the bipedal apes do not have.

P.S.:

1. Have I read self-help books? Yes, two in fact – Stephen R. Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – it was a gift from a very dear person and I did read it; Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck” – it was a brilliant read to be honest, or more of a self-reflection.

2. I’m sure you wouldn’t agree to all those the monkey has conveyed. Please feel free to post your opinions and suggestions in the comment box.