What I Learned From 108 Self Help Books and 1 Midlife Crisis
The Secret is: Simply Tell the Truth.
Something remarkable happened this week: for the first time in my life, I read a self-help book and got it. Not only intellectually, but in a deeply satisfying emotional way. The book was “The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self” by well-known sociologist and life coach, Martha Beck, and according to my Amazon account, it’s the 108th self-help book I’ve read in the last ten years.
I was on a mission to find my purpose in life and I wanted a book to reveal it. I hopefully devoured each new release, sure that it would contain the secret I sought. Along the way, I learned a lot: how to prioritize effectively, maximize efficiency, eat less sugar, track my spending, communicate better, meditate and journal. But I never got what I really wanted: the mystical calling I yearned for. I wanted the happiness, joy and meaning the books promised. I felt like I was permanently perched on the cusp of something, teetering in the right direction, suspended just beyond what I wanted.
And then, four years ago, I single-handedly destroyed my career, catapulting myself into a midlife crisis. In the aftermath of that disaster, I finally learned the deceptively simple message in Martha Beck’s book (and in almost every book on the topic): to find real meaning…
