Before I was old enough to really need “help” (in my teens), there was a self-help revolution. I started hearing the term often in the late 80s and early 90s. Of course, at that time I didn’t pay any attention to the movement, or culture. I didn’t need it. I was just fine.

Today, I’m a self-help devotee. I’m easily engaged by Deepak Chopra and The Chopra Center, almost everything that comes out of Hay House, “Eat, Pray, Love” inspired me, and I can go on. I’m often moved by television shows because I see and feel a message in it that I can use. I embraced yoga in 2000, adopted reiki in 2003, dedicated journaling in 1998, and have prayed all my life. My next step toward enlightenment is a 21-Day Meditation Challenge offered by The Chopra Center.

I do these things because…[looking over my shoulder] I’m not perfect and I know it. Please don’t tell anyone.

More importantly, I have adopted self-help opportunities in my life because I don’t want to let the bad and negative stuff I’ve been through in my life take me over. I’m avoiding an invasion of the body snatchers moment for my life.

There is something really funny about the term “self-help” and those that dislike the term or the culture. Ultimately, most of what we do can be defined as “self-help.” Taking a continuing ed class, networking, having drinks with the boss when you don’t want to, taking vitamins or medication, exercising, even watching or reading the news can be considered self-help.

And whatever we can do to help others in the process, so be it. But what truly matters is what we can do for ourselves to make us better.

Maybe you prefer the term “self-improvement.”

No matter how you look at it, doing something to better yourself can ultimately better those around you. Do you really want to be around someone who is negative, mean and mad all the time? That way of life and thinking can rub off on you.

I’m not perfect. But there are folks that believe, through and through, that they are perfect and can’t gain anything from someone else, Those people worry me. They are also the ones that drive me to be a better me, my self-help and self-improvement.