The self-help industry is estimated to be worth $13.2 billion in the US by 2022, according to Market Research. Darko Jacimovic, who wrote a blog on this topic, suggesting that there will be 5.6 per cent average yearly gains within this ground-breaking, expanding industry.
The general discourse within the western media and sporting elite is focused on being the best version of yourself, a faster, more intelligent, more determined you.
I remember listening to an interview with the footballer Jesse Lingard about his loss of form and how he found confidence reading the bestselling book by Vex King, Good Vibes, Good Life, about internal healing and self-love. Lingard credits a lot of his success to the "law of positive energy".
I believe this is indicative of the messages of the day.
However, is life really about Good Vibes, Good Life? Jesus says, in Mark 8:34-37: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.
"Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me, and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self.
"What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?”
Jesus changes this concept of self-promotion upside down and challenges us to live a life of self-sacrifice to truly save ourselves to find our true selves in the act of loving other people.
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