Unpopular Opinion: Why Self Help is Harmful
Wondering why self help is harmful? While self help may be a good starting place for personal growth, it’s a terrible destination. Here’s why.
As a motivational speaker and best-selling author, I've often been categorized in the genre "self-help," and I've always had a strong aversion to the term.
This isn't just personal preference. Self-help can be harmful, and I believe a "self-help" mentality gives people the fundamentally wrong framework for thinking about themselves and their relation to those around them.
Self-help implies…
1) That you always have to help yourself. Sure, you have to do this sometimes. But lives change--my life changed--when people help people.
2) You aren't helping others; you're only helping you.
My keynote and best-selling book Life at Performance Level aren't self-help, because self-empowerment isn't their goal--self-empowerment is the pathway to sharing that empowerment with others.
After working through each concept of Life at Performance Level in podcast episodes this summer, we have finally come to the end of our journey. And this last episode is all about striking that crucial balance between investing in yourself and investing in others.
It's not about self-help; it's about the ways that others empower us and we empower others to live our dreams and achieve our goals.
It's about working hard to gain the skills and the mentality you need to succeed, and then giving it all away so that others can do the same.
On this episode, you'll get to hear:
- The whole point of living your life at performance level
- Why you need to start thinking about your legacy today (don't wait!)
- How to be a life-changing mentor for other people
- Two men named Tommy who showed me what it means to be a giver
- Why mistakes are crucial for success
- The secret to taking time for you without being selfish
Thank you for joining me on this Life at Performance Level journey this summer, and if you haven't heard all of these episodes, start here.
You can find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play, and be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode!
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