A client recently sent me this photo which started me thinking …
I have a love affair with books.
Three bookcases line the walls of my office, our family room has been turned into a library and even the spare room has a floor to ceiling bookcase. I regard books as companions and profoundly respect authors who have devoted their time and energy to expressing their vision.
Can you see the array of health books – dieting, de-stressing, de-cluttering and more? Interesting and useful, they represent just a tiny fraction of what’s available.
Google lists 312 million entries for dieting, 6.6 million for clutter control and 245 million entries for stress.
Yet there is a disconnect …
With easy access to this mind-boggling array of facts, figures, advice, tips and programs:
• No one should have a weight problem
• No one should have a messy home or workspace
• No one should be stressed
Information, whether retreads or ground breaking, is not enough to guarantee that we will eat better, have a tidy home or live with less stress.
So information alone is not the answer.
All too often books claim to have THE ANSWER to weight, clutter and stress and provide simplistic solutions that:
• Disregard your whole person – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual
• Ignore your goals, desires and life story
• Only work in the short-term
• Discourage your own creative problem-solving
Perhaps the pivotal question is this: How many books on your bookshelf are prescriptive, telling you what to do, compared to the number that inspire you to trust yourself, access your inner creative genius and make connections that lead to the outcomes you seek.
In any case, whether they are prescriptive or inspiring, the books on your shelf demonstrate your willingness to ask for help, to seek more information and to acknowledge that changing old habits can be a challenge. Congratulations!
Like you, I can learn from the books I’ve acquired, use what seems appropriate and finally, evaluate the results without feeling guilty!
My bookshelf, lead the way!