I think we can safely say we’ve all had them, a Bridget Jones moment that is!
Looking back over my teenage years I lived with a mum who believed in self- improvement in a big way, she read the books, she did the courses, she read more books and was determined to find a better way of doing things for both herself and for others. This also meant that our house had a huge number of self-help books within it, many of which are very well known and are still very relevant.
Not all of them were the types of self-help book that screamed self-help- ‘The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” quite literally changed my life and my perspective on many things, it certainly wasn’t deemed as a self-help book and is recognised as enlightening and inspirational and I can confirm it certainly is!
Self development is still important.
I learned so much from my mum and her passion for self- development and self- improvement was something that was with me from my teens and I too became very interested in all written material that could assist or teach me to do things differently.
The Bridget Jones moment.
That Bridget Jones moment I’m talking about, happened to me when I was looking at my bookshelves and realised that there were certainly several shelves made up with various self-help books many of which were completely irrelevant, especially now but you just never know do you, there might be a little gem in there that could help you change something?
I think one of the most liberating moments for me was deciding to get rid of them all, not the books that inspired me but the more commercial books. I boxed the books up and took them to my local charity shop where I hoped somebody else would get to benefit from them.
Making mindful choices.
I still am very attracted to all sorts of books that explore the psyche that come out every year. If I wasn’t incredibly careful it would be easy for me to buy them purely on a curiosity basis but then there is every chance I would be bankrupt with excessively full bookshelves. I still find myself reading through the new book lists, finding yet another book or teach me something and I still sometimes find myself making a note to purchase it or put it on my birthday or Christmas wish list.
Is this relevant to me now?
Walking away from those things that we don’t actually need or recognise don’t serve purpose in our lives right now can feel both liberating and empowering. When we find ourselves in positions where we have historically bought on impulse, perhaps we need to ask ourselves the following?
“Is this relevant for me now? Was this more relevant to the person I was before and I’m just buying this because it’s habit?”
