Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Most would agree that some of the best self-help software out there are created and sustained by people just like you and me. But have you ever wondered why the self-help industry benefits some businesses far more than others? Steve Pavlina attributes it to over- promising and under-delivering in this fast growing market. What do you think?

At Scientific American.com, Michael Shermer accuses the $8-5 billion a year business as little more than prompts - to run from victim states on one hand or toward empowerment on the other. Is that your experience?   

It’s clear from this sudden explosion of self-help, that doubled its digits in the last 10 years, that people improve their lives daily through tactics and insights found in self-help materials.  Less clear, is how a person’s brain wires and reboots best to benefit more from self-help materials.

Here are a few tips that could add lasting improvements to your quality of life.

First, think of self help as a sort of research… where benefits rise faster to boomers who draw more from their intrapersonal intelligence resources.  How so?

For instance, Let’s say you try out a new software about health, diet or learning, in the morning? Then, watch for positive results or at least a clue that one exists for you, by that afternoon. If you eat less sugar, look for more energy within the next few hours? After a session at the philharmonic expect to create an aha moment of your own, following the performance?

Try on suggestions that resonate, by watching for concrete evidence of positive results at work -  within a time frame you set. Self-help works for those who act after they read, more than for those who read and criticize the concepts. If you are counting troubles instead of counting sheep atnight, for instance, another person might have figured a sleep solution that could work well to give you sleep you need in order to stay vibrant in your career.

Second, start with some of the more popular self-help books, which include … Living in the Light by Shakti Gawain, Seven Habits of Highly effective People by Stephen Covey… You can Heal your Life, by Louise hay … The Universal Heart by Stephanie Dowrick … Intimacy and Solitude by Stephen Dowrick. Move from the wider ideas in popular books to self-help tips on hobbies you do, problems you face at work, or dreams you hold.

Critics tell us that self-help books perpetuate a denial of life with its troubles,  and keep readers in a state of hope for a better future, in futile settings. Encouragers see more a spirit of hope and possibilities that heal the business and community we live in now, and spark value and hope into what we’ll face tomorrow. Any self-help insights from your intrapersonal intelligence,  that could tap your expertise and inspire the rest of us?