Have you ever spent time trying to develop the power of positive thinking, a positive mental attitude, only to wind up  eating more chocolate bars, ice cream, and pizza?  Do you set your VCR to catch the re-runs of Dr. Phil on Oprah or Suze Orman on PBS and spend most of your time cataloguing a bookshelf of video tapes that you never get around to watching?

Do you find that, in spite of your most diligent efforts, you still feel somewhat powerless about your ability to influence the direction of your life?  Or that, no matter how hard you try to "get it together," your guidebooks on "organizing from the inside out" and "using Feng Sui to clear your clutter" still lie buried under a pile of magazines and old mail?

If any of these situations sound familiar, you can be sure that you are not alone. A quick glance through any book store or psychology catalogue will remind you of the American preoccupation (near obsession) with reading about self improvement and personal growth. And, a few minutes of watching the late-night infomercials will leave you wondering how you could have missed the routes to success that nearly everyone else seems to have discovered. After spending enough time absorbing all of this "wisdom," you might even find yourself questioning whether you have ever accomplished anything that you believe was worth doing.

With all of this attention to other people’s unending achievements and personal enrichment, who can blame you for continually beating yourself up about not having come farther with your life?   And, who could not justify charging up that credit card to make sure that you are not left completely behind?

Welcome to the heart of American culture - the Altar of Artificial Experience. 

A place where "Keeping up with the Jones’s" consistently trumps people’s motivation to follow their natural curiosity and develop their in-born gifts.  Where watching the Olympics easily takes the place of an actual trip to the gym. Where the closest most people will get to being an actual apprentice is tuning into a top-rated reality show.

For the Self-Help Junkie, the quest for personal growth often evolves into a similar pattern. After reading enough books and articles or watching enough videotapes, the Junkie can convince himself that he has actually make some progress. By attending enough workshops and seminars, she can easily justify the investment of so much of her hard-earned income in pursuing her life-long goals. But, in many cases, the Self-Help Junkie simply winds up with an empty bank account and nothing tangible to show after investing all of this energy.

Of course, learning self-improvement techniques lacks the debilitating, physically habit-forming characteristics of a true substance addiction. And, filling your bookshelves with the newest and the greatest success resources will hardly damage your physical body in the ways that long-term cocaine or alcohol use certainly would. 

Yet, you should never allow yourself to overlook the corrosive effects these habits can have on your level of self-esteem. Or ignore the dishonestly behind convincing yourself that these habits are actually moving you toward anything meaningful. The fact is, if you stop at simply gathering information and making plans or reading and listening to audiotapes, you can unwittingly seduce yourself into believing that you are actually making progress. You can convince yourself that imagining your ideal job or life is the same as taking concrete steps toward your goal.

You might find yourself constantly tempted to re-work the exercises in What Color Is Your Parachute?, hoping that you will eventually uncover your life purpose. Or, you might schedule an endless number of information interviews with people who work in your areas of interest, spending hours and hours compiling and categorizing your results. Or, you might log onto monster.com several times a day, constantly tweaking your resume and spending countless hours searching for job openings. If you are not careful, however, you can become completely preoccupied with these processes in themselves. More importantly, if you give in to their seduction, your overwhelming fascination might eventually lead you to become stuck on an emotional treadmill. Like a hamster running on an exercise wheel, you might gradually convince yourself that you are actually getting somewhere.

Just a few more rotations of the wheel and you will reach your goal.

What an incredible sham . . . and waste of your precious gifts. As the months and years continue drifting by, you might remain nestled in your cocoon, peering out only to watch others life and achieve success, safe from the fear and shame of failure and content with your delusional belief system.

Fortunately, once you have recognized this pattern, you can immediately begin taking steps to change it. Being a Self-Help Junkie is only a temporary condition.  And, unlike what happens with substance addictions, you are not likely to suffer dramatically from feelings of withdrawal. In fact, once you have tasted the thrill of actually doing something you enjoy for its own sake, you will gladly reduce your willingness to spend so much time in these time-wasting pursuits and overcome your tendency to settle for anything less than the real thing.

If you want something badly enough, you cannot afford to wait until you feel ready to go after it. In fact, you might want to adopt the Alcoholics Anonymous slogan that seems to say it best: "Fake it ‘til you make it." For example, if you want to swim in pool or Lake Michigan when the water is still cold, you will never get in the water if you wait until you feel ready. And, you might miss your chance to swim. Obviously, you cannot adjust to the water gradually. No, you simply have to plunge in. Then, you will have time to recover from the shock.

This truth also applies In pursuing your goals: you also must act first. Then, your feelings will begin to change. Author Barbara Sher says: "Good luck happens when you’re in action." That is, you will learn much more - and have much more fun! - with taking action than you ever will from reading or watching a recorded program. More important, you will acquire hands-on experience that you can take with you to draw from in the future.