I Believe!

Since I have purchased a few books on amazon that they consider to be "Self help", when I go there now they seem to recommend quite a few more for me to buy. This got me to thinking: there must be a rather large selection of these types of books in order for them to show up with that frequency - and there are. So I looked at a few of the titles to see what the authors were writing about. Pretty much all the same topics, but all taking a different approach to that topic. The topic: you can do it. That is pretty much all that they say. If that was the point of this blog post, it would be kind of boring, so on to the actual topic.

Looking at all of the various methods that authors claim will unlock the limitless power within you, I saw a pattern. That pattern was that there was no pattern. Each author had such a widely different point of view, it is hard to imagine that they all came from the same research. That was the realization, there was no research. All of the books are full of anecdotal evidence! And a lot of it contradictory. Yet, if the claims are to believed, each of these methods worked for at least one person...

So, this takes me back to a topic I have hinted at before: no one is born with a book of knowledge in his or her hands. The only information one had about the nature of the Universe is from what others tell you. The question that popped into my mind: why is what any one author telling equal to The Truth? I have the answer: it isn't. Each truth is true for the person who tells it. Some people pray and get windfalls of money, yet that doesn't work for others. Some people think that if they wear their lucky underwear, then they will get lucky in some way, and they do, while others don't.

What is the defining characteristics of all of these things? That the person believes in his or her system. Sure, the system doesn't always work, but it seems to work sometimes. But, if a person has no believe in a system, nothing ever works. People seem to need a system in which to believe, and there are a lot of people trying to sell you theirs.

The overall thing that I realized is that I can create my own! Sure, I could read "Think and Grow Rich", but there is no real content in that book. Instead, I should believe that I already know the answer to my problems, then just follow this made up advice. I can say "If I eat nothing but bacon and eggs with chocolate cream pie for dessert every day, I can live forever!" I could! But I would be wrong, but not for the seemingly obvious reason, but because I actually got that from a book called "Money is my Friend." Someone actually believes that, and it is something that seems to be so at odds with what most people believe. And yet it might work for him.

So, what I am saying is that there really is no belief too "whacky"! You can make up anyone you want, and as long as you can make yourself truly believe it, it will be the reason you succeed in your goals. So, go ahead, pick something wild, I guarantee it will make your dreams come true!

The Edward