E126: The Self-Improvement Experiment - Part 1

Self-help books. Some people love them. Others hate them. Think they’re fake. That there’s nothing new under the sun. That they spend half their time convincing you that you need fixing so you pay them to help you do it. What’s the reality? We’re going to explore some together to find out. It should be interesting. It may be enlightening. At the very least, it will be entertaining.

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On This Episode

Rhythm of Life – Fear is Like March
Random Riffs – The Case for Logic
Feature Segment – Self-Improvement Experiment Part 1

Today’s Quote

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. –Ernest Hemmingway

Rhythm of Life – Fear Is Like March

I was trying to take action on a business Idea I had, and….after 2 weeks I had made NO progress. I had all kinds of “reasons”, but even they didn’t explain 2 whole weeks of inaction.

What caused much of the delay? Fear. Soo strong that it felt like the lion that is March. Not mild discomfort. Nope. A palpable fear, like a physical entity. All because I had an idea.

Steven Pressfield talks about this in his book “The War of Art”.

He says that if you’re paralyzed with fear, you’re closer to your true calling. Yet even though I know this, I let fear stop me. For a while.

Today I finally started on a project plan. With actions so small they will take 15 minutes or less. Because they shouldn’t be that hard, right?

I encourage you to do the same. And, as Elizabeth Gilbert says, don’t let fear drive.

See you on the road.

Random Riffs – The Case For Logic

Breaking News!!!! Notification of a violent event shows up on my phone. As I listen to the news app, I see comments scrolling on my screen. Two catch my eye, each claiming that the other party orchestrated this to take our attention off the impeachment hearings.

Since they both can’t be true, in the segment we’ll examine the logical case for either being true. And maybe, instead of touting our lack of logic, we could teach students logic so the next generation won’t simply parrot what they hear elsewhere without subjecting the statements to a logic test?

Feature Segment: Self-Improvement Experiment Part 1

What’s your favorite book? We can learn a lot about a person based on the books they like.

Some people prefer fiction. Others love biographies, memoirs, mysteries, children’s, or self-help.

And some don’t have anything good to say about self-help. On this episode, we:

Define what Kathleen includes and excludes from self-help.
Use a different term
Promise to read, review, and experiment with the principles in some newly-published self-improvement books.

Think of me as your virtual crash-test dummy, except on books instead of cars. It won’t be a rigorous double-blind study. I’ll just report on my impressions and experience. It should be fun. Possibly entertaining. And maybe even life-transforming. We’ll see.

I know which books I’m going to start with. If you want to join me, get the books in that order and read along. (If you buy with this link, I'll make about $.05.)

Everything is Figureoutable – Marie Forleo

Afformations – Noah St. John

Creative Calling – Chase Jarvis

If you want to recommend a book to me, leave a comment or send an email to kathleen@kathleenannthompson.com.

Here are the selection criteria: