Self-Helping Ourselves

So readers...

I know this seems like a cop-out, but I am copying my assignment answers for this blog. Why you ask? Because I like my answers. :) This is for my Developing Human Potential Class. We are supposed to be self-helping ourselves through the reading and reflecting on a self-help book. I'm also reading 3 other books (at least I'm supposed to be...). I am--believe it or not--getting off FaceBook to do my homework! Yay me! So here goes...

I chose the book Embracing the Real Work: The Black Woman’s Guide to Life After College by Chaz Kyser because this book is precisely where I am in life. I’ve been in school for the past 18 years and am not about to embark on a new journey—where there are no textbooks and no professors. I’m not a smoker, working on getting skinny, relatively calm most days, non-menopausal…it took a while to figure out where my self needed help. When I looked on Amazon, this book appeared with a light from above, and I knew it would be perfect! I may not be a smoker or a habitual liar, but I am PETRIFIED of my future—specifically my future beginning in 10 months…

I think by my being proactive—which is the first step in Covey’s book—is paramount in beginning a self-help process. You have to buy the book, actually OPEN it, and at least skim it, consider doing something that it says before it a self-help book will do you any good. I’ve survived all of those steps and am liking how I see myself in my future as a result of this book. Secondly, I have to Begin with the End in Mind” which is Habit 2. Here, I practice looking beyond my next step, whether that step be physical, mental, spiritual, etc., and look towards my future where it really counts. After looking there, I have to come up with a plan to get to the end destination—this destination is a successful 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd career.

In this 2^nd book, Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins, it says that “[An] attribute great leaders and achievers have in common is that they operate from the belief that they create their world…” I’m not sure how wholly I believe in this ideology, but I do know for a fact that if I perceive myself as a victim in all circumstances, then I will always be 2 steps behind success and freedom from chains of subordination. SO, that means that I must take control over my world and learn to take precedence over my situations—good ones and bad ones.

In the 3^rd book, Top Performance: How to Develop in Excellence in Yourself and Others, Zig Ziglar talks a lot about how to be a leader in life. One thing I like from this book is the question: Why should anyone want to follow you (me)? My life is creating a social footprint in society. People should look back and know that I was here. That I did great things. Not-so-great things. In order to influence people, you have to be influential—one of those “DUH” things… So how does this question have anything to do with my self-help book? Lots. People should see me as an example and want to be like me—not all of me. But there has to be something in my life that is worth emulating and taking to heart—otherwise, what’s the point? So in my self-help pursuit, I am fixing a part of my life that will one day be worth emulating.