One of the things that keep me in a perpetual state of outrage is the self help movement particularly the self esteem part of it, you know, affirmations, think positive, the “secret,” and other crap.

You feel good about yourself when you accomplish things, when you do actual work and when you have concerned yourself with living in harmony and joint support with other human beings.

But that’s difficult. That’s hard. That would mean you would have to have some kind of perception of responsibility or, gasp, duty.

So, we tape stuff to the mirror, convince ourselves that our thoughts draw money, love and other goodies to us, and a host of other activities designed to make us feel momentarily content without justification.

I was reading an article by a fellow named Tony Schwartz. This is what he says:

In work with thousands of people, we’ve found that it’s possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way you do a muscle: regularly push past your comfort zone, and then rest. We’ve seen people dramatically improve skills ranging from focus, to empathy, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.

He then lists the six elements of achieving success.

You might give his short essay a read. Of course, you could always tape something to the fridge.

James Pilant