Take a break from self-improvement.
Hi there!
Welcome to this week’s episode of Charlie’s Toolbox. Today, we are discussing self-help and why you should take a break from it. But, before we get into the main topic, please feel free to like, subscribe, and comment on my content. It is a free way to help my content rise to the top.
Over the last five years, there has been a noticeable increase in self-help content, driven by a collective trend of openly exploring and learning about oneself. Personally, I've embraced this trend in my daily life and integrated it into my content. Even in my downtime, I find myself liking one video on my for you page, and then after that, I am constantly served content about self-help, self-improvement, and personal development.
Now, it is amazing that what was once unfamiliar and uncommon is now accessible to those who would typically not have access to it, but with all things we need balance. We know the balance won’t ever come from the platforms that profit from your attention. So, it must come from you and there are some pivotal reasons why you must take a balanced approach to indulging in self-help content.
When you are healing, your self-perception is skewed, and with that your self-assessment. So, you may view something as simple as a quirk and part of your personality, as a problem, a pathology, something that needs to be fixed, and with the readily available self-help material and therapized talk it is easy to do that.
It is easy to diagnose yourself when there is nothing to diagnose at all. It is easy to find fault in yourself using this information. It is easy to make yourself a project when you need to let yourself be.
When you have a skewed perception of yourself you constantly see yourself in the state of becoming. In essence, you are never quite complete. Always a project. Always in search of an answer. Always never quite there. And when you indulge in this vicious cycle you will notice that for the most part, it is distracting you from simply accepting yourself and being.
The impact of constantly needing to be found, to heal, to be better, to have answers is that you eventually become self-absorbed. You comb through every action. You look at every single point in your history. You over-analyze yourself for fear of being wrong, making a mistake, or being unhealthy.
You forget that the purpose of life is to live it and not analyze it. You forget that people are the key to your happiness and that for you to connect, you need to be present. But You can’t possibly be present because you are too busy being in the past analyzing your actions and the actions of others. Or you are too far in the future trying to reach an ideal person- a person who you “should be.” And the imaginary person you create to condemn your present self.
It is time for you to take a break from that content and stop. It is time for you to decide who you are and be it. Life is to be lived. Life will have mistakes that you will learn from. Life is not a puzzle that you must spend your days analyzing and solving. Log off right now and be present.
Love Charlie!