One sized self-help doesn't fit all.

Guest Article - by Dr. Robert C. Worstell

Of course, this is how the self-help industry fits the definition of a scam: (whine) "I didn't get what I expected (or was sold)." And while reputable distributors honor repayments quickly, it still doesn't help that you didn't get what you wanted.

Because self help is supposed to do something for you. Something you can apply yourself to your self and improve in some way.

It doesn't work when you aren't able to change what you had your hopes on - or had all your attention tied up in.

And that is the same problem that enlightenment has. What works for one guru doesn't necessarily work for his followers. So many of these guys keep talking and writing and videoing in the hope that something they say will resonate and strike a chord so that reader or listener can then piece together their own path "up the mountain".

The problem, as usual, lies within ourselves, not external to us.

Most of these self-help authors and guru's only fail not in making themselves rich, but in helping you to do so. And that is why they sometimes get the label scammer. Not because what they say doesn't work - it just doesn't work for everyone.

And the people who never figure this out can fill libraries with the books and CD's or DVD's that they buy on a regular basis looking for the "one way" which will set them free.

Unfortunately, that "one way" is already inside them. And it's as individual and specific as every person out there. For if we were all the same, it would be just too easy for any or all of us to get clear on what we really want and need - and manifest or attract these at will.

But it isn't that easy. Because no one is around to tell you exactly what you should be doing next on your own path to enlightenment.

Many find that unless they continue to attend these various seminars, or plug in their audio CD's, or listen regularly to downloaded MP3's, that they will lose what they already gained and "backslide".

Of course, this is just more hogwash, rubbish, junk, you name it.

Look - the gains you've made are yours forever. Whatever you have found already that works for you will continue to work for you from here on out. Nothing can change that effectiveness except you - by changing your own faith in the tools you found.

And faith, as Napoleon Hill covers, is internally created. No one can take your faith away from you - except you.

The bottom line to all self-help and personal improvement material is that you are invited to restore your own personal faith in your self.

Of course, we've all been taught many different ways to not do this - to simply continue in battering our ways through life, despite all obstacles thrown in our way. And we constantly evaluate for others and defend ourselves from potential attacks...

But that whole scenario I just described is a lie. None of that really exists. All that fiction we've swallowed is really designed to limit our own beliefs in ourselves and those around us so that we won't ever trust any truly workable technique that we encounter. Yes, it's all a conspiracy to keep you down. Feel better now?

Of course, I can say this because I've been studying this stuff most of my life. And most intensively over the past decade. Yes, I've collected a small library and published even more of these so others could find them. And I've spent most of that life being "scammed" by various organizations and individuals when I found that their stuff "didn't work."

The breakthrough I had recently - which is what I'm sharing with you today - is that there is just no "one size fits all" self-help system which works for every individual. Again, it's due to us being "individuals".

So I'll tell you that my own way of getting enlightened went through many self help authors, such as Hill above, Wallace Wattles, Thomas Troward, Charles F. Haanel, Dorothea Brande, Earl Nightingale - and many others. And I got a little (or great) something from each of one. And these lead to Lester Levenson and more recently to Marshall Rosenburg.

Somewhere along the line, I got enlightened. And as Alan Watts described, simply went back to what I was doing before. I just stepped back over that thin line and kept writing and blogging and making videos.

But that was my own route, my own path. It was simple once I found it, but what I did isn't the same thing you will have to do for yourself.

The funny part is, you'll find as you look around (carefully and honestly) that there are a great deal more people who have found and stepped over that thin line of enlightenment than you may have ever considered. And they're there - all in plain sight. Just like most of these self-help "secrets".  You only have to consider that you can find them and either start looking or start listening.

It's my humble opinion that you are going to have to tailor your own traveling suit. You are going to have to cobble your own shoes to do that walking. All the materials and tools are sitting there - just waiting for you to do so.

And that is my gift to you. Enjoy your life and start living it for real. Because just as everything you need to improve your own life is sitting out there right in front of you - it is just as true that only you will be able to pick from that smorgasbord of working philosophies and systems to build your own path that you need to walk.

One size doesn't fit all - but when you make your own, it's tailored just for your own success.

Good Hunting!

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Rev. Dr. Robert C. Worstell, M.Msc, MBA, PhD is an independent researcher and the prolific author of several self-help and self-improvement books. Worstell lives on a working farm in rural Missouri and is continually involved in research to improve the quality of life. He has spent over 35 years researching the human condition through personal studies of counseling, education, and self-improvement. In addition to his continuing research and writing, he also does freelance web design for local farmers and rural businesses. A habitual cartoonist and caricaturist, you can find him most weekends at local festivals drawing the likenesses of local characters.

Dr. Worstell is available for lectures, presentation, or interviews. A recent author interview is found as linked. An extensive (but incomplete) collection of his many blogs and online materials can be found at his Google Profile. Contact him via his blogs - or through his publishing company, Midwest Journal Press.

Recent published works:

The Dreamer Dreamed

released 28 Nov 2010

Additional information and excerpt available here.

Does the dreamer dream? Or is the dreamer dreamed? Some hold that life is a dream and you awake to yet another. In this novel, a young man finds people trying to control his dreams - and his life. However, all are subject to the same rules they seek to break...

This story combines elements of runaway sub-tropic adventure with advanced technology, as well as metaphysical super-realities, all rolled into a fast-paced narrative to keep you riveted in fascinated reading.

Robert C. Worstell is more widely known for his many non-fiction books and publications based on his life-long research into self-help. This New Age novel is his latest work and continues explorations into the human condition.

Available in paperback, PDF, and ebook.

Freedom Is - (period.)

released 21 May 2010

Online course available on these pages.

Here's a new idea for you: All the Freedom, Happiness, and Peace you want can already be found within you. The only things keeping these from showing up are the mental habits you have. And it's just too easy to get rid of these. If you don't have all the wealth, abundance, loving relationships, good health, or anything else you want in your life, you don't have to look further than your own thoughts.

But these are easy to solve. You can simply learn to control and quiet your own mind.

Follow these authors: Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles, Charles Haanel, Earl Nightingale, Max Freedom Long, Lester Levenson - as they show you how simple it is to get all these thoughts quieted. And then everything else you could possibly want simply starts showing up in your life!

For the first time, these teachers' secrets have been assembled for your use. Will you take the offered hand?

Available in paperback.

Go Thunk Yourself, Revisited

released 26 March 2010

Through all the books I've studied and lectures listened to - as well as my own research and tests down this line — it has become very clear to me that we each already have all the Freedom, Happiness, and Peace we could ever want. It's just sitting there waiting for us to recognize its presence in our nature. Just waiting for us to let our own light shine.

That's the secret people have been looking for all this time, the one which the self-help guru's will sell you unlimited books, CD's, video's, and personal consultation to help you find. But I think, like Dorothy with her slippers, you eventually find that you've had the solution all along. And also like Dorothy, you have to make the journey before you’ll believe it’s that simple.

The trick is this one, simple datum: The only things holding you back are just those limits you have accepted. This book contains the extremely simple methods to letting your own Freedom, Peace and Happiness shine out to help your dreams become reality.

Available in paperback.

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This article is available for free republication as long as the bio section is left intact. Contact the author for additional articles.