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Every year we sit and look at the calendar and decide that this is the year that we are going to do something. But is that something going to be? What part of ourselves are we going to try to improve? What are we going to fix? Well...how about everything? That's sort of what Beth Lisick decided to do thanks to the masters of the self-help genre in her book Helping Me Help Myself: one skeptic, ten self-help gurus, and year on the brink of the comfort zone.
I'll be the first to admit that when I first heard about this book I was skeptical about the whole self-help thing. But it did sound amusing. It has potential. What sold me on this book were Lisick's YouTube videos, particularly her fitness video about Richard Simmons. Now I'm not a Richard Simmons fan (he's just too...happy? perky? shiny?) but her comment about how he's probably kissed more women then Gene Simmons cracked me up. After watching her other videos I decided that I had to read it, which is saying somethingl since as a general rule I'm anti-book trailers.
Lisick starts of her year with The Success Principles: how to get from where you are to where you want to be by Jack Canfield. She actually had a somewhat personal connection to him - he's the father of one of her husband's friends. From there she moves into Covey. She makes a stop into parenting skills. She goes on a cruise with Richard Simmons (and did not throw herself or him overboard - something that impressed me greatly as I could simply not deal with a 7am workout with him). She looks at money with Suze Orman. And she calls John Gray a dipshit. Not to his face, of course, but it amused me all the same.
In the second half of the book you start to get the feeling that Lisick just wants it to be over. Looking at her financial situation with the help of Suze Orman probably didn't help things as she looked at how much money she had spent on this year long experiment. I personally interpreted this rush as her getting tired with reading all these books that were telling her how she should be living her life. Our lives are just never "right"...at least not according to the books and infomercials. I'm pretty sure a year of trying to change everything had to wear down on a person after awhile. But at the same time, she was still making the positive connections. Lisick was still finding those quirky coincidences - the good stuff that we can all see when we choose to focus on the positives in our lives. Those odd little connections between people and events that we don't see when we're not looking for them.
I've never read any of the books that she did. I've picked up Covey to read for work but then more work landed on my desk and Covey didn't get done. I don't think Covey would approved of my "work/life balance". I've skimmed a Suze Orman financial book for women but found too much of the information to be US specific and nothing all that new (although I'm sure if I had read her first before I would have loved her). I've often been curious about those professional organizational services. So what did Lisick and I get out of it? Well, first of all you have to do the work. Reading a book is one thing but if all you do is read nothing is going to happen. Same with a Richard Simmons workout video. I could stick it in my dvd player every day but if I sit on the couch and watch it rather than actually do the work out it wouldn't do anything for me. And while I know that I don't want to spend an entire year reading self-help books I did enjoy this CliffNotes-esque version.
See also:
Adventures in Parenting and Life said she could have written the book herself.
A post by Kim at Kim and Jason Escape Adulthood about finding more time, just like Covey wants us too, from an unexpected source.
Gatochy's ode to Richard Simmons.
Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book from a representative of HarperCollins US. No payment was received in exchange for this review. The suggested retail price of this book is in accordance with BlogHer's guidelines for free items.
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