(continued from part 3)

I don’t know what feelings did the last three posts send out, but this one should make you feel good. No, not superficially good, but good because you are invited to innovate a concept that has a worldwide reach; good, because you can change something influential in this world, and change it for the better.

What is it about

Basically, I would appreciate feedback from as many people as possible, regarding the creation of a new standard: self-improvement 2.0 - name could change.

If you’ve read the previous three posts, or if you came in contact with the current self-improvement ideas and analyzed them, then you know they don’t work as advertised and exist mostly for profits.

Self-improvement 2.0 is the idea that came to my mind after realizing that I can’t really change what is wrong with the self-improvement concept; if new, working ideas are to appear, a fresh ground based on truth is required - thus self-improvement 2.0.

There are many sites offering quality information and thoughts that get little if no traction at all, for they don’t fit the popular self-improvement (or self-help) concept. And that is a shame knowing that they can genuinely help people have better lives - not only in the middle-class sense of having more cars, money, friends, etc.

What you have to do

There are three things that you can do:

1. Visit the contact page, fill in the form and send “rules” suggestions for the self-improvement 2.0 standard. For example: if a website is to be considered self-improvement 2.0 compatible, it should be telling people the truth rather than telling them what they want to hear; if a website fails to do that, it’s still running by the old inexistent rules and is not compatible with the new standard. Adding rules should fix many issues, among which the inexistent entry bars, the truthfulness and the usefulness of the presented ideas, the value readers get, et cetera. The only thing to keep in mind while thinking about rules is the core concept of self-improvement 2.0: the truth.
2. Write a short post about self-improvement 2.0 on your blog. If you’re a blogger who’s not afraid of innovative changes, encourage your readers to take part in what I wrote at point #1.
3. If you entertain the idea but don’t feel like engaging in either of the first two points, you can help spread the word by emailing this article to friends or voting for it on social sites.

What will happen

Assuming that self-improvement 2.0 will get traction and will be accepted as a new standard, many of the issues that self-improvement currently faces will vanish. That would translate into many corrected lives around the globe, many improved minds, many people capable of thinking for themselves, and many other benefits.

If it won’t get traction, we will keep sinking in the mud represented by the old ways for a bit longer; until someday the inevitable will happen and the new will replace the old - the difference being that we would have less control over that change.

Some of the essential ideas

I would like self-improvement 2.0 to be based on truth, beauty and kindness; all three at the same time.

Truth, because as Pearl Bailey once said, “you never find yourself until you face the truth.”

Beauty, because among other things, “(beauty) is the promise of happiness,” as Stendhal put it.

And kindness, as “kindness in words creates confidence and kindness in thinking creates profoundness” (Laozi, 6th Century B.C.).

I will be open for suggestions and questions regarding the new standard until the 15th of February, 2008. Everyone’s invited!

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Previous/Next Articles: « Fixing the self-improvement concept (part 3) | The core qualities of personal-development 2.0 »

Posted in Personal Growth