I bet that you have taken more than one stroll down the “SELF HELP” section of your local bookstore or scanned Amazon’s self help pages? There are books, DVD’s and CD’s to guide anyone through life transitions, relationships, love, sexuality, spiritual teachings and meditation. We can reduce stress levels while developing habits that improve our personal effectiveness.  Trade our own attributes for those of highly successful people.

Is becoming a better parent a desire? There are multiple methods shared with readers as to how they can raise brainy, happy, healthy children; in other words perfect children. Suffering from a diagnosed or undiagnosed ailment? Self treating A-Z disorders is not uncommon these days; becoming informed about addiction, compulsions and personality afflictions. You name it; there is something on a shelf somewhere ready to help!

Industry observers claim that women make up approximately 85% of the buyers with self help books, retailers obtaining multi-million dollar sales in the North America, alone. Overall, the market for self improvement products and services in the US is at a staggering $9.6 billion according to Market Research.com. Amazon.com shared its list of The Top Ten Self Help Books with some recognizable authors and titles.  One creative author Tom Butler-Bowdon even created 50 Self Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life , a smorgasbord of ideas to change your life.

Can someone become dependent on the guru’s of self analysis and simply check out of their own life? Glued to the DVD, immersed in the CD, buried in yet another book; they yearn for clarity and the drive to implement new strategies for living. Each book has the potential to be like January’s inspired New Year resolution that culminates into February’s agony of defeat. I venture to guess that many of these consumers are in a constant state of evaluating their perceived shortcomings. 

Like any tool out there on the market, used wisely self help products and services could have value, however, not if they are in the hands of a self help addict. If the consumer has spent most of their years trying to find the meaning of life or motivation through someone else’s story maybe the pink drink or soup for the soul isn’t the right medicine.

Self help junkies are pretty thankful for those that write books about what they have learned through self introspection and they feel the rush from the prospect of setting and achieving similar goals.  Unfortunately, for many the DYI counselling is ineffective and their action plan remains to keep studying the plans. The door opening is a revolving one...coming right back into the Self Help section. An endless loop of taking an outsider’s advice intended to be inspirational that is often thwarted by self sabotage. Here’s the good news though, there are books to help overcome that too. Good Luck!