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You may be feel satisfied in your job, but feel like you want a little more. Well moving jobs may not be the answer, learning something new is.

You are never too old to learn something new and it needn’t be studying for a degree in molecular physics, but something much more pleasurable. There are lots of short adult learning courses available at local colleges and they range from brushing up on your language skills, dress-making, art and cookery. Or why not be a little adventurous and try a new sport or hobbie; think of something you wanted to do when you were a child and just do it! I did and now I own a horse and compete in local show-jumping competitions!

Finally for today, a quick anecdote that highlights poor thinking about future careers. This happened when I was at college, when I was about 18.

A tutor was asking students what their aims were for their future working lives. One girl, who was very academic had very strong feelings. “I want to be either a lawyer or a doctor,” she said.

This is moronic. Those jobs are totally unrelated and the only things they really have in common is that they’re well-paid and highly respected. That’s all well and good, but you have to consider the work that you’ll be spending many thousands of hours carrying out. What is the nitty gritty?

That girl was just reacting to other people’s thinking. She hadn’t considered the matter at all herself.

This follows on from this morning’s post about whether you’re aiming to do the right thing. When you’re fresh out of college or university, it’s easy to leap into the first ‘good’ job that comes your way. A lot of people do this without for one minute considering that they might end up working in this industry for the next 40 years.

With so much at stake, surely it’s best to spend some time thinking about whether this is the right move for you. Chances are the right industry for you won’t be the first one you come across. More likely it’ll occur to you what you want to do after giving it a good amount of thought.

That thinking time might run into years.

Quite often people get so wrapped up with self improvement, they never actually ask themselves what they’re hoping to achieve.

People will go on courses and mumble on about ‘transferable skills’ without giving much thought to whether those skills will transfer to something they actually want to do. These people will often talk about ‘skillsets’ as well, which is always annoying.

The point is that personal development isn’t a thing in its own right. It’s a means to an end. People will often acquire a whole range of skills and knowledge before finding that it’s only applicable to something they don’t even want to do and without enthusiasm, you’re nowhere.

OK, I don’t know how this one passed me by but a report produced by Canadian researchers in July this year (I know, I know) showed that self help can’t always help.

In essence, the study revolved around a getting people with low and high esteem to repeat positive phrases such as “I am a lovable person” and “I accept myself completely” – common tricks used by people hawking tapes, DVDs and books which rarely contain any concrete information.

What they discovered, though, is that people with low self esteem (i.e. those who would be using this kind of ‘help’) actually felt worse after repeating these mantras. If they were ‘allowed’ to think negative thoughts, quite often their mood improved.

What about those with high self esteem though? Well, they did get some improvement from positive phrases, but not as great as was expected.

What the researchers did point out though was that as a part of a broader therapy programme, such mantras could help. So, all is not lost, but surely this must put a dent in the old snake oil market? Right?

Life coaching. The very phrase makes my skin crawl. Some person telling you how successful they are and how you can be like them, pumped up with some ridiculous jargon to make it sound like they actually know something.

OK, maybe you can tell I don’t approve of it much. The reasons behind this are simple – they’re just there to take your money. That is what makes them successful. They’re one step away from ambulance chasers in my book.

I believe that in order to really pump yourself up and increase your self esteem (which is what these people are trying to do most of the time) you actually have to realise that you are in complete control of it. Some guy standing there telling you how you either suck or rule at whatever is useless. As I’ve mentioned countless times, improvement is a result of your time and effort. Simply offloading this onto someone else who you pay money to is cheating, plain and simple!

Some life coaches like to think of themselves as ‘life planners’. They acknowledge (mostly) that they know nothing about psychology, so simply try to organise someone else’s life in return for money. All well and good, but what are you paying for? Something you are too lazy to do yourself? Isn’t the whole point of self improvement to actually improve yourself, and not just do what someone else tells you to do?

Give me your thoughts.

I thought I’d throw a question out there to the readers of this blog – how do you look for self help and self improvement information?

It is a bit of an open ended question really. After all, there are plenty of sources to choose from. Books are the age-old source many people have experience with – I think most people have encountered a For Dummies book at least once for example! However, they aren’t the only solution.

Audio tapes used to be popular but seem to be diminishing with the advent of the internet and the wealth of free information available. Self-help DVDs range from fitness and exercise to motivational and self esteem guidance, but I must admit I don’t really know anyone who has tried anything beyond an exercise video.

Finally, the internet has an almost limitless source of information for those thirsty for improvement. So – where do you look? What sites do you go to? Which ones are the best? Answers in a self-addressed envelope, please!

One area of self improvement which is not discussed overly much on this blog is fitness and health. Seeing as most people who are trying to improve their lives are trying to lose weight or generally get fitter, I thought I’d redress the balance!

There are plenty of applications around to help you stick to your plans and get fit. The iTunes App Store is home to an every increasing number, along with a variety designed for your home PC or laptop. One of them is the WeightDate Weight Tracker, which takes in a bunch of information about your body and routine. Keep it up to date with your weight each morning and hey presto – you have graphs and charts to show your progress towards your goals.

There are many more apps out there for you to play with, so I suggest you look around. Even if it is just keeping track of your progress, this can often help keep your motivation up. However, go overboard and you could well find yourself obsessed with stats and figures which don’t always have a bearing on reality!

The UK government is trialling giving career advice and guidance to children as young as 7 years old in an effort to help those from underprivileged backgrounds get a clearer idea of how to achieve their goals.

The scheme, being trialled in nearly 40 primary schools across the country, intends to inform children about what they can do when they grow up and how they can go about getting there. This is in response to a notable drop-off in students in high schools using careers advise services, with the numbers of students doing this dropping by half since 1997.

While this is certainly an admirable scheme to get those from poorer backgrounds to realise that they can do anything they want to, it does highlight a worrying trend to make children mature faster and faster. I know when I was 7 years old, I didn’t really want to be anything other than an astronaut or fighter jet pilot!

I do hope this scheme makes a few children think a bit more positively about their future, but I think they are addressing the problem at the wrong age. I would imagine helping with careers guidance at the beginning of high school, rather than half-way through, may well motivate more students to aim higher and get the qualifications and knowledge to get into their chosen field of interest.

Still, good to see the government doing something…

Chances are that if you’re reading this then you have some experience with self-help books. You know the kind – usually a title like “Make Yourself Into God in 10 Easy Steps” and some guy who has made a ‘success’ of his life from adverse origins. Never mind that usually the way they became successful was to start writing self help books full of meaningless fluff. So why are they all scams?

Well, in essence, they are preaching to those who think they need help and will listen to anyone who labels themselves as ‘successful’. You will probably look at this blog and think this is exactly the same, but there is a crucial difference – this information is free. You can take it or leave it. No-one is asking for a fee upfront, or for your to spend hundreds of dollars to attend a conference telling you how amazing you are.

You can see this for yourself by reading any book you see on the subject. They’re trying to appeal to you for long enough to hand over your cash, and beyond that they offer very little. Instead of telling someone how to look at their own life for something to improve in, or for a social cause to involve themselves in, they focus on the very selfish aim of earning more money. This isn’t improving anything beyond the numbers on your bank statement each month.

It has been said that the only way to get rich from a self help book is to write one yourself, and this much is true. If you really want to improve your life, it comes from within yourself. Look for something you can do, want to do or should do. Look for causes beyond your own desires and needs. Look everywhere – this is the whole point of this blog.