Inspirational books are just these 11 principles
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Editor’s note: Inspirational books and articles can be said to be enduring topics. After all, who doesn’t want to live a perfect life? Who has not been confused and helpless? However, if you read too many inspirational self-help books, you may feel the same as before. Why do you say this again? So Chris Taylor made a comprehensive summary of all the inspirational self-help books, trying to summarize these 11 principles in one article. With this one, maybe you can throw away all other inspirational books. The original title is: Every self-help book ever, boiled down to 11 simple rules. Due to the length of the book, we will publish it in two parts. This is the second part.
All the inspirational self-help books can be summarized in these 11 simple principles (above)
Key points:
Life is too short, be an interesting person
Be a useful person to others
Perfectionism = Procrastination
Eat and sleep well, exercise more, and relax. Repeatedly.
Write it all down
You can’t get everything just by reading a book
6. Be an interesting person
The beginning of “On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck” (2017) is one of the most unusual of all inspirational self-help books: the book begins with the Celtics fan, the nerd Jeremy How Fry was performing Bon Jovi’s famous song “Living on a Prayer” in the arena auditorium facing a webcam. That video later became popular with more than 19 million views. why? Because Fry was completely free to show himself in front of thousands of people with the craziness we all hoped.
This is another cliché, and the point is not that Fry is dancing and cheering on the sidelines. But because he was dancing with everyone, he was fully aware that everyone was looking at him and liked it. This is when the “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck) literature comes in handy. It reminds us of a very important truth: Life is too short. So when you are living your best life, leave it alone, don’t care what others think of you. And it’s strange that when you do this, others will be attracted to you.
Not only that, you should also actively cultivate some of your own quirks. More and more creative self-help books are beginning to make this very clear, such as Felicia Day’s Embrace Your Weird (Embrace Your Weird, 2019). James Victore said in “Feck Perfuction: Dangerous Ideas on Life of Life” (2019): “The thing that made you look weird when you were a kid is your creativity Source. These are the basic elements that define who you are. Don’t be perfect. Don’t cover up. It’s yourself.” Just as Buddhists will tell you, to be the truest self is The troubled selfThe most after the easy to handle method.
No matter how difficult the task is, you can make it interesting. This rule can never be used to recover from a serious illness, right? But game designer Jane McGonigal used a “SuperBetter” (2015) to prove that this is possible. She almost wanted to commit suicide because of a severe concussion, but then she developed a digital game by herself and rewarded every small step she made in the trauma. More than half a million people have now been helped by this rehabilitation game.
7. Be a useful person to others.
What is the oldest inspirational suggestion? In the loosest definition, this may be the golden rule-Do not do to others what you do not want it to. This basic principle seems to be present in every culture in the world, dating back at least to China and Greece in the 6th century BC, and Greece around 2000 BC. There are a lot of talks about making a change, from “love your neighbor” to the name of a self-help book in 2020, “Just Don’t Be An Assh*le”.
However, if your neighbor does not want you to treat him the way you want, then this golden rule may cause you problems. You may be too enthusiastic to help and become a bastard. CS Lewis pointed out in his classic “Scretape Letters” (Scretape Letters, an inspirational self-help in the form of a devil’s book) published in 1942: “She is the kind of person who lives for others. Through the restless You can know who the other person is.”
So a better way of thinking is to see if it works. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to be productive and useful.” This sentence is true. The same true in the 19th century. Being useful to others will not only give us a root of being evolved by the tribeThe warm feeling embedded in our bones can also allow us to use our special talents and quirks and give them directions. Find the thing that makes you yourself, and use it in a way that helps humans as much as possible: In this way, we are most likely to find the meaning of life.
In this case, wouldn’t the answer of loving each other be more concise? Indeed, finding new stories that can clear the fog to remind us of this basic fact is the support of inspirational self-help writers (not to mention novelists, missionaries, and screenwriters). The poet WH Auden wrote: “We must love each other, or it is better to die.” According to our fifth principle, he later rewritten it as “We must love each other, and then Death“.
8. Perfectionism = Procrastination
Over the years, I have bought many books to solve the problem of procrastination. Ironically, I was waiting for a rainy day to read. I am still looking for books that can deal with my perfectionist behavior. But it wasn’t until I watched “The Imperfectionists” that a simple fact became clear: in fact, these two are the same thing and the same problem.
This world cannot have a perfect result, so if you expect to get such a result, it will naturally delay. Perfectionism is not fun. Perfectionism cannot make you accept your shortcomings, or that habit changes should be gradual and relaxed, so, if anything is beyond your ability (say hello to the New Year’s resolution!), Just wait for all your efforts to change your habits to fail.
Similarly, another Japanese way of life is also very useful: The beauty of wabi-sabi, accept and love all imperfections in the world. How can it be put into practice? Whether you are ready or not, just start doing it. Sometimes, doing is the best way to learn, to face the difficulties that you have not anticipated. Borrowing a somewhat annoying basis in the 1970s: Fake it’til you make it.
9. Eat well and sleep well, exercise more and relax. Repeatedly.
Being human means accepting the limitations of the physical body and maintaining it well. The Roman poet Juvenal summed it up best: A sound mind resides in a sound body (Mens sana in corpore sano). People needTo eat (but do not overeating, do not eat junk food), need to sleep (about 6 to 10 hours, depending on our age and DNA), and pay attention to our type of work and rest, no matter how many books we read Inspirational self-help books that make us a morning person (such as “The 5 AM Miracle”) cannot change these facts.
Yes, I’m sorry, we have to exercise every day. This is indeed a silver bullet that can enhance our elasticity while reducing pain, inflammation, depression and the stress hormone cortisol. However, the battle against cortisol will not stop at your running/walking/jazz. Meditation and mindfulness is also a recommendation for a large number of self-help books, not only books on Buddhism, but other books also provide ample scientific reasons for doing so.
Then Lin Yutang’s “The Art of Life” in 1937, this inspirational self-help book popular in the United States at the time, suggested that you should relax, waste your time, and follow the trend. A whole chapter is devoted to the best posture when lying on the bed. Lin Yutang wrote: “If you can spend a completely useless afternoon in a completely useless way, then you have learned to live.”
That being said, this is not to say that we should not try to do more, we should not look for the purpose of life and imagine goals. However, if you do not leave room for some pure fun, the farther away from the cortisol-stimulating smartphone, the better, you will never be able to fully recover and be ready to give back to the world. Lin Yutang also said that a sense of humor is very important to you. He also gave this formula: “See reality, have dreams in mind, and face it humorously“.
10. Write it all down.
No matter what kind of self-help guide you plan to follow, you cannot do without writing. You need to make a plan. You have to visualize. You have to make a list. David Allen’s 2002 classic “Getting Things Done” provides a to-do list with the best system I have ever seen. This can be boiled down to: Take you Write down everything you think you want to do or want to do now or in the future. Then, for the above matters, either execute it immediately (if it takes less than 5 minutes), postpone it (to a specific date or “someday/maybe” list), or delegate it to someone (if you are lucky, someone If I can do things for you).
Even if you are not a writer, you can and should write freely and spontaneously. This is Julia Came, author of the 1992 best-selling book “The Artist’s Way” (The Artist’s Way)Ron’s suggestion introduced a practice of “morning pages”. That is, within an hour after getting up in the morning, do nothing, pick up the notebook and start writing, think about what to write, but must write 3 large pages. Subject: Anything you think of. The first two pages are mostly nonsense, such as “I don’t know why I want to do this, it’s boring”, but on the third page you will have some surprising epiphanies.
Then the gratitude diary. This concept still stuns me, but its scientific nature is hard to deny: Just write a few sentences and list a few things we need to be grateful for every day, it’s just such a simple act. It has been proven to reconnect our brains and bring us mental health improvements, even after only a few weeks of practice.
11. You can’t get everything just by reading a book.
If you see authors claiming that you can get everything you need by reading their books or articles, that kind of book is not a self-help genre, it should be a cult. Fortunately, almost all writers will admit this. For a comprehensive life improvement plan, reading is limited. At a certain point, you still have to put down your books and start action. And you have to recognize your limitations. Your fall is inevitable. Saint Augustine in the fifth century AD knew this when he wrote two parts about the self. One of the two parts is the self who stubbornly likes to do wrong things, and the other is the self who wants to kick that self ass. Neither of these two selves can achieve an overwhelming victory.
Even people who are independent and autonomous still need help to go far enough on this path. That was the final stage (the interdependence period) of “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. In this stage, we changed from the rebellious teenage independence period to the adult understanding of interdependence. Many authors of inspirational self-help books suggest nominating an “accountability partner” to keep yourself honest, and accordingly, you should do the same to them.
If you are lucky enough to find someone who can put your heart to heart, then do everything possible to get along with him. But family, friends, and colleagues who love you may not tell you everything you can’t see because they worry about your reaction, just as you would have this kind of worry. So, go find a therapist and see maybe a better solution. For example, you can learn all about cognitive behavioral therapy through readings such as the best-selling book “Feeling Good” (1980). However, only with professionals who can apply it to your caseAfter the conversation, you can put it into practice.
Since the publication of “The Road Few People Walk” in 1978, self-help bestsellers have been recommending heart-to-heart therapy. But the stigma for this therapy still exists: if you go to see a therapist, it must be a proof of failure. You must be psychologically flawed, right? wrong. Even the therapist himself needs the therapist. In the end, this is also part of the meaning of life: Not only to be useful to others, but also strong enough to make others useful to us.
Translator: boxi