Introduction: ‘Self-Help’ or ‘Self-Improvement’ suggests the supremacy of moral and spiritual strength. It generates self-confidence which leads us to the way of success. It is a self-guided improvement economically, intellectually, or emotionally often with a substantial psychological basis. Many different self-help group programs exist, each with its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders. God helps those who help themselves. The best kind of help comes from within the individual.
Concepts and terms originating in self-help culture and Twelve-Step cultures, such as recovery, dysfunctional families, and codependency have become firmly integrated into mainstream language.
The Virtue of Self-Help: Self-help has virtues. It is the surest way of success. Sell helps leads a man to work for himself without depending on others. It is also self-service. It makes a man active and prompt. A self-help nation can develop in the future. As we are social beings, we have to depend somewhat on others. But we should not always idle away our time awaiting help from others.
We should remember that when we depend on others, we take the risk, because they may stop helping us at any time with or without any warning. Moreover, others can help us once or twice or thrice. We cannot expect help whenever we are in need of it all through our lives.
Self-help often utilizes publicly available information or support groups, on the Internet as well as in person, where people in similar situations join together. From early examples in self-driven legal practice and home-spun advice, the connotations of the word have spread and often apply particularly to education, business, psychology, and psychotherapy, commonly distributed through the popular genre of self-help books. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, the potential benefits of self-help groups that professionals may not be able to provide include friendship, emotional support, experiential knowledge, identity, meaningful roles, and a sense of belonging.
Importance of Self-Help: Self-help is the best help. If we glance at the developed nations, they have already presented the best or most ideal examples of self-help. Depending on the mercy and kindness of others drag a man to beg. Self-help rescues him from beggary. An undeveloped nation can be developed by virtue of self-help. It can bring about a change in the fate of a nation. Self-help always teaches a man to stand upon his own foot on earth. Hence this habit should be formed in childhood. Its importance in individuals and national life cannot be ignored.
Examples of Self-Help: There are examples of self-made men and countries before us. Most great men were self-made men who stood against their poverty and all sorts of obstacles that appeared in the course of their life, Japan is the best example of self-help. It has become a world power even after the massacre of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Self-help played a vital role in this. It is said in Greek mythology that Hercules, the god of strength does not help a person who sits idly and only pray. Once a carter fell in danger when the wheels of his cart got stuck in the mud. He sat on his knees and prayed to Hercules for help.
But Hercules did not help him directly. He advised him to put his shoulders to the wheel and pull them. The carter did so and the cart got free. Likewise, a beggar who lives on the charity of others and does not try to help himself remains a beggar throughout his life.
Proper Utilization of Self-Help: Not only in individual work, but we should also share our responsibility in their work too. Any team-work may fail if we do not perform our own shares perfectly. However, we should remember that God has given us a head, heart, and hands. We should fully utilize these gifts to enrich our lives.
Self-help writers have been described as working “in the area of the ideological, the imagined, the narrativized…. although a veneer of scientism permeates their work, there is also an underlying armature of moralizing.”
Conclusion: Self-Help is a noble virtue. It is the root of being independent and self-reliant. Self-help is not a divine gift; it can be formed and attained by making frantic efforts and perseverance.
