Help or Hoax? Life coaching, personal development workshops and self-improvement seminars take place somewhere on the planet everyday. In a hotel conference room, at a Learning Annex, in a church fellowship hall, in a community college classroom, or in the privacy of one's own home; somebody, somewhere is signing up to be shown The Light. But is it just a bunch of snake oil salesman selling us stuff we already have? What is the purpose of these workshops, seminars or motivational meetings?
Dale Carnegie, author of the book “How To Win Friends and Influence People”, was certainly one of the first self-improvement seminar speakers. Back in the Great Depression of the thirties, he recognized this need in people to improve themselves. He worked out a deal with the local management of his hometown YMCA and got the word around that he was holding classes on self-improvement. The rest is one of the truly classic unemployed-to-multi-million-dollar success stories of our time.
Today, self-improvement gurus like Tony Robbins and Dr. Wayne Dyer make millions monthly by teaching their faithful followers to "Unleash the Power Within" and to make "The Shift". They invite their followers to think positively, act positively and believe that things will change positively. It sounds so simple, but people spend millions of dollars to attend these seminars and purchase the supplemental books, DVDs and CDs so they can tune in and tune the world, with all of it's negativity, out. Have these motivational maharishis discovered what ministers have known since Moses? That is, that the average person needs someone to tell them not only what to do, but how to do it. And what is “it”? Be Successful. Be successful in one’s career. Be successful in one’s relationship. Be successful and comfortable in one’s own skin. What is it that successful people know? What is the definition of success?
Both Tony Robbins and Dr. Wayne Dyer are at the top of the self-improvement, life coaching and personal development game. Both men provide information on how to have a happy, fulfilling marital relationship, yet both men have been divorced. No judgment, just making an observation and stating a fact. I happen to be a fan of both of these men and since I am not married, I really don’t pay attention to the “happy marriage” portion of their programs. Furthermore, I don’t think anyone can really give advice on how to have a happy marriage because what works for one marriage would be utter disaster for another. There are cultural differences, religious upbringing, social, sexual and financial paradigms at play that make it impossible for one person to give another a cookie cutter solution. So what makes a marriage successful? Again, how do we define success? Why do millions of successful businessmen and women, politicians and celebrities pay men like Robbins and Dyer millions of dollars to teach successful behavior?
Well, in my humble opinion, I believe that we are all looking for something to get “high” on to distract us from the hardships of this life. Whether it be listening to Gospel or Contemporary Christian music or watching a T.D. Jakes or Joel Osteen broadcast, or jamming at a hard rock concert with friends or bonging with Mary Jane-we all share the need to feel free. We don’t like being told what to do. The irony is, we need someone to tell us that. We need someone to tell us that we already know what to do. That is exactly what a good self-help guru does; he or she gives us the placebo. We do the rest.
KEYWORDS/KEY PHRASES: SELF-HELP, PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, LIFE COACH, SEMINARS, WORKSHOPS
http://www.dalecarnegie.com/about_us/history.jsp
http://www.tonyrobbins.com/index.php
http://www.drwaynedyer.com/
Related News Links:
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/personal-development-the-dysfunction-of-the-herd-2131591.html
http://www.prlog.org/us/tag-seminars/
http://www.personaldevelopmentplus.com/category/life-coaching/
Personal Development Companies:
http://hospaud.org/hai/index.htm
http://www.seminarsforthesoul.com/
http://www.hai.org/
http://www.insightseminars.org/about.htm
