I'm convinced that there is nothing new under the sun, like the saying goes. (nihil novi sub sole –in Latin). Everything that is said and done has a precedent one way or another. For that matter, I'm never quite surprised at certain events since it’s nothing new. In fact, what I am saying right now has been said before.A couple years back a female friend of mine offered me a gift in the form of a book. She knew I enjoyed reading, thus it made perfect sense to buy me a book. Aside from knowing how much I enjoyed reading, she gave me this particular book with the pretext that she was helping me become a better person. I have a terrible memory but I do remember that around the same time she gave me this book, I wasn’t a good person per se. NO I wasn’t doing drugs, I wasn’t rebelling, I wasn’t doing any of that absurd stuff. I suppose I took many things for granted and mistreated those around me. This book was her way of telling me “MBUYI you need to change, I care about you”, or something along those lines.
The title of the book was “Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day” by Joel Osteen. At first glance, I recognized the face on the cover; I had seen him before on BET, during later hours programming. Although I was sceptical, I decided to read the preface at least. (My female friend praised Joel Osteen and gave the book great reviews – her friend had read it too). By the second paragraph, I was discouraged; it was a bunch of repetitive I was well too familiar with. But most of all, I was annoyed because she had fallen victim to another moral preacher (he’s a pastor – check his earnings, I can’t knock his hustle though) who writes self-help books with the facade of helping vulnerable souls. I am very stubborn by nature (ask my parents), so there was no way I was going to even consider Joel Osteen’s “help”.
This is the book description from Publishers Weekly:
“Mega church pastor and bestselling author Osteen follows up Your Best Life Now with this disappointingly unoriginal Christian self-help book. The seven sub titular steps to improvement include instructions to develop good habits, better relationships and an inner life. Osteen balances mind-over-matter pep talks with claims that God wants to bless faithful people with successes. The future is always promising, because God never performs His greatest feats in your yesterdays. At the same time, in order to receive God's blessing, one must back up prayers with action, obey, maintain a positive attitude toward life and do the right thing with the right motives. Some of Osteen's advice is sound; for example, he suggests that if you are forgiving and kind to colleagues and friends, they'll cut you slack when you have crabby days. Other suggestions—like writing down a big goal and posting it on your mirror or desk—are unremarkable. Laced throughout are anodyne first-person vignettes; Osteen struggled with frustration when his favourite restaurant announced a 45-minute wait. The hurried Osteen went to a nearby burger joint, only to have a brief encounter that changed another customer's life. Voilà—God turned Osteen's disappointment into blessing! Though this book is destined for strong sales, it offers nothing innovative.” The writing in bold (I purposely did this) is self-explanatory.
The book can be shortened in 7 key steps, as the title put forward. The 7 steps are as follow:
- Keep pressing forward
- Be positive toward yourself
- Develop better relationships
- Form better habits
- Embrace the place where you are
- Develop your inner life
- Stay passionate about life
If you had loving parents, friends, even neighbors growing up, I bet my fortune (I’m really an African Prince by the way) that you’ve heard those words of “wisdom” before. If you didn’t have loving parents or unfortunately no parents at all, I am sorry. The difference is, it was genuine, free of charge, and quite frankly you didn’t have to read (who likes to read nowadays) a book. I AM NOT MAD at Joel Osteen and the likes of (Eckhart Tolle, Neale David Walsh etc…) at all. There are people who genuinely need help, guidance, and need to be shown the way especially during difficult moments. I also know that there are other ways to cope with whatever you’re going through than to enrich the likes of Pastor Osteen. The way things are going, I plan to write a self-help book in the near future targeting vulnerable individuals to enrich myself. (I hope you’ll buy it and support me by the way). I admire his hustle, but not so much people who continue to enrich him.
Everything has a precedent, a past; there is nothing new under the sun. Self-help books don’t necessarily help people. Their primary goal is to maximize profits for the author; secondly they hopefully make some people feel good about themselves. To this day, I still don’t know what happened to my copy of “Become a Better You” (it got me thinking what I did with it) When it comes to self-help books for the “helpless”, I beg to differ.
