When I was 7 years old I received my first hardcover book, Gulliver’s Travels, as a gift. That was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with books. My current collection of books numbers in the hundreds, and by far the bulk of them are self-help books. I have always enjoyed reading ideas that might help me to improve myself or the way that I do things at work and in my personal life.

I had occasion to re-evaluate my addiction to self-help books recently when I heard a speaker on the topic of finding your life purpose. As part of her presentation, she said we are bombarded every day with messages that suggest we are not good enough the way we are. She pointed to the thousands of self-help books available at the bookstore as one example of how the world promotes the idea that we should constantly look at ourselves to see where we can improve. She was clearly not a fan of these books and offered the idea of accepting that we are good enough just the way we are right now.

I was struck for a moment by the thought that everything I write in The Office Professional is designed to help our readers to be more effective on the job and gain greater career satisfaction. I wondered whether I am guilty of perpetuating this concept that we aren’t good enough as we are. I hope not. In listening to this speaker, I was reminded of a popular book (OK, it was a self-help book) published in 1967 titled I’m OK—You’re OK. The premise of the book was that our lives and relationships would be healthier and more satisfying if we would view ourselves (and others) as being OK just the way we (and they) are.

I agree that it is healthy to accept yourself as you are, warts and all. But I also think there is a subtle difference between feeling not good enough and wanting to build on what you have to make things better. The former has to do with self-esteem and the latter with a desire to learn, grow and fulfill our potential.

I love to learn new things and find ways to do things better, and I suspect many people who read this blog or read our newsletter do too. So unless someone can convince me that there’s good reason to stop learning and growing, I’ll continue to add to my book collection and share the best of what I find with you. In the meantime, I’m OK and so are you.

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Tags: learning, potential, self-help books