Hi guys this is Ken Yasinski from
Catholic Speaker dot com.  Today let's talk about
the problem with self-help.
If you've ever made a visit over to your local bookstore, there's a section
there that's entitled self-help, self development or personal development.
And all those books there, are basically a how-to book.
They help solve a problem in a person's life,
or they claim to. You know,
How to win friends and influence people.
How to experience the power of positive thinking.
How to have the slight edge.
How to change anything.
How to acquire seven habits of highly effective people.
Basically it's a how-to book.
Do this, to solve this kind of problem.
I've read some of these books
and they've helped me in terms of
goal-setting, growing in natural virtue,
in discipline, and when we're reading 
them, we can get the impression
that these books,
are completely compatible with the Catholic faith.
Are they aren't they
Well, depends on the book.
So I'll speak kind of general to that.
But if you're reading these books as a
substitute for reading Scripture,
the lives for the Saints, the Catechism of
the Catholic Church, or encyclicals
you're going to find yourself with some
big problems.
Problem number one:
You become your own Saviour.
You see, you can't positively think your way out of sin.
That's impossible!
Scripture has revealed that all have sinned,
all have fallen short of the glory of God
no amount of positive thinking
can take us to heaven.
We need God's grace, we need his mercy
and we need a Savior.
If we just think that we can positively think
our way out of all our problems in life
we have no need of God
and then we become our own God,
we become our own Savior.
The biggest problem that we have in life,
is not negative thinking,
it's a sin problem.
Because sin separates us from God,
and the only way to bridge that gap
is to go to Jesus who is our Saviour.
Problem number two:
Life is all about you.
All these books have a general theme of
you do this,
and you get, exactly what you want.
What's the problem with this?
Well, life is not about us. It's about God.
One of the communicators that I love to watch sometimes
is a guy by name Zig Ziglar.
Not for his content, but for his communication style.
But his content all is underlined with this core teaching,
it goes like this:
You can get everything you want in life
if you just help enough other people
get what they want in life.
Now it sounds good right?
But what's the problem?
Well, it's all about you.
It''s all about itself.
Imagine dying
rising to heaven standing before Jesus
at those pearly gates
and Jesus says
"Well, how did it go?"
Oh Jesus, you know, I got everything I wanted in life
by using people.
Every time,
if we take that core teaching to heart,
every time we're doing something
it's so that we gain something from them.
I mean, it's a selfish life.
And that is the general theme
of all the self improvement and development books.
Yes they're gonna say you know serve other people serve the customer,
but why?
The whole reason you serve the customer you serve other people,
is that you gain something.
Completely totally opposite of Jesus
Jesus doesn't did serve other people to
gain anything!
He did it to glorify God.
To be a faithful to the Father's will.
Totally different.
so it looks like, it sounds like a good message,
but the intention is totally different.
You see we have to remember that
life is not about getting everything that we want.
It's about glorifying God.
Which leads us to the third problem,
these books never mention,
or ask the question
"What does God want?"
In fact that is the most important question someone can ask of them self.
What this God want of my life?
Not, what do I want,
but what does God want.
We look our gifts and our talents and we think
how can I glorify God with my life?
And then we seek the Holy Spirit to be led
If we're reading these personal development books with
this theme of life is about, you you're
your own Saviour, go go go and
you can attain that goal that you want,
it just can really start influencing our thinking,
and then our living.
and so we have to be careful that what we're putting into our mind
is rooted in the fullness of truth.
Now I'm not saying that we can't read these books.
What I am saying is that there are no substitute
for the Catechism of the Catholic Church
for Scripture or the lives of the Saints.
and they should not be the majority of what we are reading because
if it's the majority of what we're reading
what gets our attention
eventually gets our heart.
So we have to guard our heart so that's
always been captured by the fullness of
the truth.
My friends thank you for watching.
My name is Ken Yasinski
from Catholic speaker dot com,
have a great day.
