The Ultimate Self-Help Course

Imagine you could design the complete self-help program for yourself. What would it contain? Here are my thoughts. Excuse me if this sounds like rambling. If you have your own ideas, I welcome you to add them in the comments at the end of the page.

Financial Freedom

You need to be free from debt, and have money put away for retirement, and for your kids education and all those other things you would like. Basically you would have no money worries ever again. A lot of people spend too much time chasing money, only to lose it all to credit card debt and other avoidable financial traps. The ultimate self-help course would set you on the right track.

Health and Fitness

You need to be healthy to enjoy your new found wealth. It is no good accumulating it all to pass on to others in your estate when you die of a heart attack. So you need to be healthy. I would want to see emphasis on healthy lifestyle, such as exercise and nutrition, and a good mental health. A big issue these days is stress, so you would learn how to relax and how to handle stress. I believe stress is a natural part of life. You can't always avoid it, so you need to know how to deal with it.

Spiritual

How about something on connecting with a higher power? I think you need to be able to have a framework to make sense of it all. To many people that could be organized religion, although that is not working for too many people these days. There is a difference between spiritual and religious. Too many people have lost touch with that which is divine, and that troubles me. I would definately include a spiritual component into the ultimate self-help course.

Relationships

We are not on this planet alone. We need to interact with others to exist. Social skills are not something you are born with, we need to learn them. There is a lot to learn, from business relationships, to friendships and romantic relationships and more. I have took several courses in this area, and always come across something new I can apply in my life.

I would imagine the ultimate self-help course would cover lots here. Because it is such a vast topic, I am sure the course would not be a brief one.

Communication

This could be a subset of relationships. We need to learn to communicate effectively with others, and in different situations. For example, learning to deal with difficult people, or preparing and presenting speeches to groups. An important communication is providing feedback to people in a way that preserves their self-esteem.

Diversity

The ultimate self-help course would recognize the great diversity of mankind, and would help us expand our understanding and appreciation of other cultures and beliefs. From my own experience, the more I learn of the cultures and languages of other people the more I marvel at the wonder of the world. We truly are amazing. If you get a chance, try and live in a another country for at least a year, so that you can take in all it has to offer. As you learn other languages and reach out to others from different backgrounds, you will see so much that you would have missed.

Ongoing

The ultimate self-help course would have to be life-long, since you never stop learning, and you can never know it all. There should be some foundation courses, and then there would be a program of courses tailored to each student. Some of the material would be studied in groups, and some would be individual study.

Coaching

There would be individual and group coaching included in the program. Some of this could be with your peers, or with specialized coaches who would be experts in their specific areas. Based on assessments you would be matched up with those people who could help you the most at the time you need them.

Media

The course would take full advantage of audio and video learning, books classroom and online instruction. There would be more than one choice of media in most cases, so that you can match the media to the best learning style of the students.

Cost

What would you pay for this? I think the main cost would be to contribute to the learning of others. We would help each other around the world in our global learning project. Some people would be full-time educators and would earn a living, while others would be part time. Some parts you pay for and others will be free. Often the cost is participation.