Book Review - Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick
Category Book Review
The premise to this book sounded interesting... Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone by Beth Lisick. Lisick, who isn't exactly living the dream life, decides that she will commit one full year to working on different areas of her existence with the input of many of the best-known self-help names in the business. Her caustic sense of humor makes for entertaining reading, as well as viewing the juxtaposition of her current situation with where the gurus say she could be. But I didn't necessarily come away with any deep insights or revelations.
Contents: Introductions - Splits!; January - A Lesson in Cringe-Stifling; February - A Career-Defining Moment; March - Hug It Out; April - Shape Up and Ship Out; May - Place For Everything (Is Not The Basement); June - The Hammer That Rocks The Cradle; July - Party Over Here; August - Stalled Out; September - Creation Theory; October - Add It Up; November - You Are Not Here; December - The Existence of God; Afterword; Acknowledgments
In style, the book reminds me of The Year of Living Biblically. Lisick and her husband are both freelancers, and a steady income is a luxury neither has seen for a long time. As such, they seem to be forever mired in money issues, as in what gets paid, what doesn't, what broken item stays broken, etc. Rather than continuing along this draining path, she sets off to improve her life in one year by living it as self-helpers recommend. Rather than just read about the programs, she actually shells out money (in many cases, money she doesn't have) to go to seminars and programs run by these individuals. Along the way, you read about her experiences with people like Steven Covey, Richard Simmons, Jack Canfield, John Gray, and Suze Orman. When you mix a cynic trying to overcome her normal tendencies with all these "fix your life" people, the blend leads to plenty of funny moments as she chronicles her quest. Such as when she frantically cleans up each room before taking pictures to send to an organizational expert... but she won't take pictures of the basement... :)
Even though it was a fun read, I don't think I got much more out of it than that. You did get a glimpse of which personalities seemed to be real and committed to their followers, and which ones seemed to be going through the motions for the money. Much to my surprise, Richard Simmons probably comes out the best in all of these encounters. From what I could tell however, I don't know that Lisick's life changed all that much, as she was still doing banana jobs half a year later to make ends meet (yes, you need to read the book to figure out what that means). I was also disappointed in the July/August sequence. Since this is a "real life" chronicle, I realize she has to write it as it happens (or doesn't happen, as it turned out). But I felt that somehow I was cheated out of the full "year-long" experiment in those four pages...
For entertainment value, it's definitely worth the read. It's also worth reading in order to get a first-person look at the self-help movement from someone who isn't completely sold on the concept to start with. Traversing much beyond that with your expectations might be pushing it, however...
The premise to this book sounded interesting... Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone by Beth Lisick. Lisick, who isn't exactly living the dream life, decides that she will commit one full year to working on different areas of her existence with the input of many of the best-known self-help names in the business. Her caustic sense of humor makes for entertaining reading, as well as viewing the juxtaposition of her current situation with where the gurus say she could be. But I didn't necessarily come away with any deep insights or revelations.
Contents: Introductions - Splits!; January - A Lesson in Cringe-Stifling; February - A Career-Defining Moment; March - Hug It Out; April - Shape Up and Ship Out; May - Place For Everything (Is Not The Basement); June - The Hammer That Rocks The Cradle; July - Party Over Here; August - Stalled Out; September - Creation Theory; October - Add It Up; November - You Are Not Here; December - The Existence of God; Afterword; Acknowledgments
In style, the book reminds me of The Year of Living Biblically. Lisick and her husband are both freelancers, and a steady income is a luxury neither has seen for a long time. As such, they seem to be forever mired in money issues, as in what gets paid, what doesn't, what broken item stays broken, etc. Rather than continuing along this draining path, she sets off to improve her life in one year by living it as self-helpers recommend. Rather than just read about the programs, she actually shells out money (in many cases, money she doesn't have) to go to seminars and programs run by these individuals. Along the way, you read about her experiences with people like Steven Covey, Richard Simmons, Jack Canfield, John Gray, and Suze Orman. When you mix a cynic trying to overcome her normal tendencies with all these "fix your life" people, the blend leads to plenty of funny moments as she chronicles her quest. Such as when she frantically cleans up each room before taking pictures to send to an organizational expert... but she won't take pictures of the basement... :)
Even though it was a fun read, I don't think I got much more out of it than that. You did get a glimpse of which personalities seemed to be real and committed to their followers, and which ones seemed to be going through the motions for the money. Much to my surprise, Richard Simmons probably comes out the best in all of these encounters. From what I could tell however, I don't know that Lisick's life changed all that much, as she was still doing banana jobs half a year later to make ends meet (yes, you need to read the book to figure out what that means). I was also disappointed in the July/August sequence. Since this is a "real life" chronicle, I realize she has to write it as it happens (or doesn't happen, as it turned out). But I felt that somehow I was cheated out of the full "year-long" experiment in those four pages...
For entertainment value, it's definitely worth the read. It's also worth reading in order to get a first-person look at the self-help movement from someone who isn't completely sold on the concept to start with. Traversing much beyond that with your expectations might be pushing it, however...