Take some time this year to explore a new genre, self-help, that will keep you motivated and feeling great this 2019. I Illustration by Khalid Al-Alawi/ The Cougar
As a college student, your current habits may not align with the greatness you want to achieve in your adult life. Me? I could be great if I woke up on time, ate breakfast before noon, or read before bed every night. I could be amazing—if I was a completely different person.
Not to say that you can’t be amazing if you don’t do these things, but that’s what it seems like for me. You don’t have to reprogram yourself in order to be the better version of you, and you definitely shouldn’t try to, either.
After reading a long list of You are a Badass-type books and routinely experiencing short-lived bursts of inspiration to change, I have come to the conclusion that self-help books don’t seem to be that helpful.
I’m not helpless, I just wasn’t reading the right thing. Whether you’re craving a change in behavior or want to start off the new year on the right track, you might consider purchasing a self-help book or two.
Depending on what you want to change, you might be looking at popular titles like You Are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding, or even Get Your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knight. These are more or less the Urban Outfitters of self-help literature.
Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t bad works. They’re just not the ones you should read if you truly are searching for some kind of enlightenment.
Newly-published Insight by Tasha Eurich is what I would call a self-help book for everyone. The book not only teaches better ways to implement new habits, but offers a genuine understanding of why such tasks can be so difficult. Insight takes into account the variety of reasons an individual may pick up the book and more.
Eurich takes on the task of breaking down what it means to have self-awareness and how misunderstanding it may manifest in our work or school environments. She explains the idea of self-awareness and how it acts as a tool in becoming our better selves or just plainly understanding ourselves the way we are now.
In Insight, Eurich mentions that this process isn’t easy and can hurt, but it’s for a good cause. She asks all the right questions to reach what can feel like wrong answers. These answers might make us uncomfortable, but that means they are answers that can help.
Shockingly, there’s a right way to be self-aware. The wrong way leads to stagnant rumination, self-critical views and not being present in the moment.
As said in Insight, self-awareness is “the meta-skill of the twenty-first century”. The right way to become self-aware involves a clear understanding of knowing where we are, where we want to be and why our sense of self and others’ perception of us matters on that journey.
Self-help isn’t just the implementation of new habits to become a better version of yourself, but it also offers the opportunity for self-reflection and understanding. It’s not just changing what you do, but how you approach decision-making. Insight will help you do just that.
Whether you are just beginning your self-help journey or are already on a path of self-awareness, discovering new pieces of literature is fun and helpful to the mind. Reading works such as Insight will do just that.
