Here’s a topic that I actually address in my own self-help book “Half a Glass: The Realist’s Guide”  (not my choice, the publisher categorized it as self-help, I always thought and still do, that it’s a great management book!) as well as my “Getting a Grip on Negativity” keynote. I strongly believe this and I find many people tend to agree:

Most self-help books are crap!

They only distract from and delay growth.

Do they all suck? Of course not but the most popular ones are the quick-fix oriented ones, like “The Secret”. Want the real secret?? The secret is to write a vague book with no accountability, no real action plan other than wishing and rake in dough. The “4 Hour Work Week”? The book took me 5 hours to read! And then it pretty much lays out a plan of outsourcing your life at a considerable cost. So yeah, if you make $500,000 a year, you can work 4 hours a week by delegating and outsourcing. “Who moved my Cheese?” I did. What are you going to do about it? The book claims most people, absent their vital cheese, would whine and die of starvation, but I know in Texas we’d find the person, shoot them, drag them back onto our property and take our cheese back. Or go look for other cheese.  That would work too.

As this article from the Daily Mail points out:

In his book Sham: How The Self-Help  Movement Made America Helpless, author Steve Salerno argues that there are huge costs associated with the public acceptance of the self-help movement.

Buying into the overblown claims such books make, he argues, can lead to you blaming yourself for failure when you don’t achieve the  outcome you hoped for — and avoiding treatments that actually work. I tend to agree.

Furthermore, very little of the advice offered in self-help books has been tested scientifically, despite the fact that there are ways to do so. Indeed, there have been many good scientific studies on how to become happier

There are plenty of great books out there. But not one has an all-in-one easy fix. And certainly there are more books out there that are more about making you feel like you can do something than give the tools to help you actually do something.

If it sounds to good (or easy) to be true…guess what? Yeah, it is. Self-improvement takes work, a real thought out plan of attack. I think the “Motivation” poster from Despair Inc. sums it up nicely:

If a pretty poster (or book) and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

What say you? What books do you think hurt, help or stand out in some way?

Last night, Jon Stewart’s guest Juan Williams brought up a point that I whole heartedly agree with: You can’t bring up opposing viewpoints without being marginalized or dismissed by the opposition.

I see this with people’s perspective towards negative thinking. If you bring up an objection, identify a flaw or see an issue that might cause a problem, you are instantly labeled “Negative” and “Un-helpful”. No one wants to think their idea may have unseen issues. They want compliance and they want totally loyalty to their proposed idea.

A good manager, CEO or leader in general is open to hearing new ideas and honest constructive cristicsim. When ego gets in the way, your company may move forward, but you will have a hard time keeping the superstars from going somewhere else where they are heard.

Alan “Nordling” Cerny from Ain’t it Cool News returns to preview the upcoming summer movies with Craig. They talk Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Captain America and superhero movies, their mutual love of Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom, Cowboys and Aliens’ promise of a revitalized Harrison Ford as wells Rise of the Planet of the Apes and others.

As always, follow Alan on twitter @NordlingAICN

Alan Cerny, otherwise known as “Nordling”, one of the great movie reviewers of Ain’t It Cool News joins Craig to talk about their favorite subject: Movies! They discuss the letter Steven Spielberg sent Alan after a touching review of E.T., Craig’s dislike of Cher, visiting Skywalker Ranch and dealing with talkback Trolls. A great interviewer in his own right, Alan had his hands full steering Craig to remain on subject. Yet somehow a fun and engaging interview is the end result!

You can follow Alan on twitter @NordlingAICN

Kelly Kimberly with Kimberly Public Affairs talks with Craig about how to handle the media when things go sour. They discuss Rep. Anthony Weiner, Toyota, Donald Trump as well as wide variety of “normal” things that Public Relations can do to help smaller businesses, not just immature, out of control celebrities and public figures!

Learn more about Kelly and her agency at http://www.kimberlypublicaffairs.com/

I got a follower notification from twitter the other day that kind of bothered me. Not that it should, but hey, I’m a human being, so it irked me a bit. I got a notification that this new person is also following 101,000 people. They, in turn, are being followed by 101,000+ folks as well. I had two immediate and irrational thoughts. How do I get 101,000 thousand followers and “Don’t I feel special. I’m now lumped in with so many people; she might as well just follow the phone book”.

(For those younger readers, a phone book was an ancient relic that posted everyone’s phone number in this giant publication that were use to show how strong someone was by ripping them apart. )

Something I learned from Gina Schreck while talking to her on my podcast “Reality Check” was it’s not how many followers you have or how many you follow. It’s not even mandatory you follow people who follow you! It’s quality over quantity.  

Are you just looking at it as a numbers game? A validation that people in the world find you interesting? Interesting enough to click a mouse without any thought or future thoughts about who are what you are about? Or are you looking to connect with like-minded people who share similar interests? Or new people who have skills and information you wish to obtain?

So don’t worry about your followers number. Or how many more someone else may have. Make sure you’re following the people you find interesting, insightful, useful or even just plain funny. In this case, size doesn’t matter. Unlike Charlie Sheen and “the goddesses” at Sober Valley Ranch, it’s who’s involved, not how many.

Am I making sense? Are you following me?

Let me know.

As if  watching the Pro Bowl isn’t painful enough, apparently CNN is trying to ruin the Super Bowl. In this scary titled article “Super Bowl may trigger heart attacks” the media tries to connect death with something that gets ratings.

This Sunday’s Super Bowl could prove to be a real heartbreaker for some fans of the losing team.A new study suggests that the emotional stress fans feel after a loss may trigger fatal heart attacks, especially in people who already have heart disease. Stress generates the so-called fight-or-flight response, which causes sharp upticks in heart rate and blood pressure that can strain the heart.

For people with heart disease — or for those who are at risk due to factors such as obesity, smoking, and diabetes — such strain can prove harmful, if not fatal.

Being a diehard football fan, I’ve felt this very emotion in the 2007 Super Bowl when Dave Tyree of the Giants used his overly adhesive melon to catch a miracle pass to set up a last-minute game winning touchdown.  Could it be a cause, maybe. Could it be the fact that the average football fan, not unlike most Americans, are overweight, rarely exercise and have anger management issues? Just as plausible. My favorite sentence of the article:

The apparent link between the Super Bowl loss and heart-related deaths is plausible but largely speculative.

They just admitted they made it up!!!  Followed by this lovely closer:

“Address what needs to be changed so that you can make it to the end of the game.”

Who cares what happens after that. No message of living better for the sake of a better life, just make sure you make it through the half-naked girls in the GoDaddy commercial.

If you’ve read my blog for the past few years you know I have two major worries:  The Media being too stupid to do their jobs and monkeys overthrowing us a la Planet of the Apes.

Thanks to the Today Show, the two have converged thanks to President Obama’s visit to India.

You know they only filmed this segment for the punchline.

Well the first book signing has come and gone. It was quite a learning experience. Here’s a quick rundown.

When I first arrived, I was met by Claire the event coordinator. What a sweet, sweet lady! She was all about making the author (in this case, me!) as comfortable as possible. After showing me my area (front and center, right next to Justin Beiber!) she headed toward the Starbucks and bought me a hot chocolate. You need something to take the edge off and it was in the low 40s!

I handed her a stack of my bookmarks that my lovely wife designed for free takeaways and headed to my table.

She had 20 books displayed nicely. I asked her how many of a typical unknown author’s first book would sell. She said 1 to 4. I looked at the books and thought of all the friends and family I had coming and said flatly “Oh… we’ll be through these easily!’ She smiled (in that polite “sure you will” kind of way) and said “That would be great!”

Now I hate selling. Especially in a carnival barker, “come over here and look at this product” kind of way. But yet here I was, between Jon Stewart’s EARTH and Justin Beiber’s life story (How many pages could that be? He’s 16!”). My technique to getting “permission to sell” was to greet people as nicely as possible (for a negative person, I can be quite charming!) and ask them “Hello, are you browsing today or looking for something in particular?” If they said browsing, I’d just point to the book and say, “You can start here with my new book!” Cheezy, yes. Effective, somewhat!

I was surprised at how readily some of these browsers were. I had several strangers pick up the book and a few of them even bought copies. Friends and family I hadn’t seen in 20 years came! It was very heartwarming and humbling as I often forget how supportive and awesome my family and friend are.  

By the end of the 2 hours, my prediction came to pass. I sold every copy!

I really enjoyed my time at Barnes and Noble. Their staff was super friendly to me and very supportive! If I hadn’t have sold one book it would have been worth it just for the experience. Thankfully, I did sell some and when I got home I saw this review from one of the nice browsers who I met that day:

“A delightfully humorous journey that began with the dedication!! Craig has a gifted way of lightening up the path of life together on this planet in such a humorous way while equally expressing valid points about perception. I would say, it could (not should) help people find their way back to the center and truly realize ‘we might not have it all together, but together we have it all’. A must for anyone battling with the ego and it’s ideas!!! (lol) If this writing portrays the type of personality he has and logic he uses, he’s the type of person I would be delighted to know and absolutely want to chum around with. I’m going to go back and purchase several copies to give away and I haven’t even finished the book. This review is coming from a ‘new ager’ who witnessed balanced view points and encouraged me to not only laugh with the book but at myself as well. Way to go Craig. Alex from Manchester, NH”

Since yesterday was a holiday, I missed out on a media monday post. Thankfully, the Daily Show more than makes up for it. Jon Stewart rightfully questions CNN’s inability to ask the probing questions and wonders why a 24-hour news channel never seems to have enough time.