My Self-Help Book Dream

The self-help book market is huge. I would love to get in on that gravy-train. No one seems to have any qualifications. If they do it seems to be secondary to a story of personal failure that has been over come through the use of a personal philosophy.

I have had to over come adversity; in the form of going through a very difficult divorce, among other things. So being a failed wife is my ticket to self-help street cred. And I have a personal philosophy. Which did indeed help me through my long dark tea-time of the soul.

My personal philosophy however does not make a good book jacket. It is not hearts and flowers. It is not uplifting. My personal philosophy is "Fuck It!" It is somewhat similar to Nike and just do it. But is the hard arsed big brother of that thought.

I have above my desk a little sign I wrote for days when I feel self-doubt. "Just write a shitty first draft" it reads. This is my kind of inspiration. It is based on a realistic understanding who I am as a person and what I can actually achieve on any given day.

My personal philosophy does not hold that anything will ever be wonderful. Simply that showing up and having a go will produce some result. And lets face it no one like people who are perfect. "Fuck It" is at its core a statement that attempting something is better than not attempting it.

This does not leave room for self doubt. It does not give you time to procrastinate or over think things. You want to write a book? Off you and write that shitty first draft. You want to run a marathon? What is wrong with you? Don't you know your insurance will go up? But you can just go do that if you want to.

Preparation is doing things now when you don't know if they will be what you need in the future. But a lot of skills are transferable. So make the next move, you will have an opportunity to make another move real soon.

The other problem, aside from having profanity on a book jacket, is that this philosophy does not really need a 200 page explanation. I could fill a book with quirky anecdotes of the people I've helped and how "Fuck It" has changed their life. There would be Bill; the accounting exec who always dreamed of being a clown in the circus so took juggling lessons and now travels the world as a performance artist and tax guru. Cathy; the stay at home mum who dreamed her cookies would make the world a better place and has now funded a Ugandan diabetes hospital from the proceeds of her cottage industry bake sales. And of course my own story of struggle as I left my husband to take on my dream of being a world class dominatrix.

Actually, Fuck It. I'm going to write that shitty first draft.