Get Incensed

“Actually, Matt .. I kinda wanna be a writer ….”

I have a secret addiction.

Like a lot of people with this same problem, I’ve battled it off and on since college. It got worse after I was out of school and had more disposable income to spend on my habit.

But I’ve made up my mind. This is the year I get the monkey off my back.

Okay. So, here goes ….

My name is Mark Jabo and I’m addicted to self-help material.

You name it — books, CDs, DVDs, seminars — I’ve tried them all.

Heck, I’ve even got a bunch of those posters with the inspirational photos and the pithy sayings at the bottom.

Like a lot of kids, I started out by experimenting with Dale Carnegie in my freshman year in college. I wanted to “win friends and influence people” and “stop worrying and start living.”

Even though I’d refer to the books constantly (and sometimes go through as many as five yellow highlighters a month), I convinced myself I didn’t really have a problem.

Sure, I tried Carnegie … but I didn’t assimilate.

I started hanging around with the other “Type As” as we were known back then. All the other party students thought we were “weird.” We felt like no one understood us. Just because we cared about things like jobs, money and interview skills — people looked at us like we were freaks or something.

We used Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill to help us mellow out and to cope with being “different”

Pretty soon, though, I was looking for a stronger source of inspiration.

I know it sounds crazy, but self-improvement stuff was easy to get in those days, there wasn’t the same stigma attached to it as there is now.

Back then, we thought nothing of popping a tape in the dashboard stereo, jumping in a seven-year-old Subaru and just driving around absolutely motivated out of our freakin’ minds.

Times have changed. Nowadays, you can get your license suspended just for having an open Les Brown CD in your car.

Despite all the mental performance-enhancing stuff I used in college, I still managed to graduate in four years with less than a 3.50 GPA.

Even after I got my first job, I kept using.

If you were young and successful in New York City in the 90’s, it’s just what you did. I could have retired by now if I hadn’t spent so much on Tony Robbins tickets.

See, that’s the thing. They call it self-help. But, man .. you always make the check out to somebody else.

Like I said, though, this year it’s going to be different. I’ve learned a few things and I think I’m really ready to quit.

This year, I’m not going to fail to plan by planning to fail. I’m going to do what I should have been doing all along: doing less reading about how to succeed and doing more working at writing.

Because I’ve learned that the best way to reach my objective is, like they say at Nike, to “Just Do It.”

And if you can’t just do it, then sub-contract it out to a bunch of kids in Malaysia.

So, my goal for the coming year is to kick my addiction to self-help books and write and write … and write some more.

And, maybe find a 10-year-old kid in Kuala Lumpur with good English skills and a sense of humor.

They say most people miss success because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work. If that’s the case, I think I saw success in Home Depot last week.

No matter what disguise success is wearing, I know I can achieve my goals to write more and not buy any books by professional speakers, management consultants or football coaches in 2008.

I’m positive I can do it because this guy on the street tested my energy levels and gave me this great new book by L. Ron Hubbard ….

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Hey, kids … this post is part of Project Blog.

Project Blog is an on-going competition at Reality on Bravo where top-notch bloggers from around the world are competing to be named the ultimate “top blogger”. We’ve got some great prizes lined up, and there’s good news - you can win too! Every Monday, I’ll announce the weekly sponsor and the prize. Make sure that you play every week - you can win some amazing things, thanks to our awesome sponsors!

Week Four’s Sponsor: Astrology Explored (www.astrologyexplored.com)
Week One’s Prize: A free reading from 451’s resident astrologer, Beth

If you’re a dedicated Real Housewives of Orange County fan, you should remember last season when Vicki hired an astrology to do full readings for all of the ladies. It was an epiphany for her - she realized that she wasn’t insane; it was written in the stars for her to have a certain personality.

Whether you’re a believer or not, astrology can be really, really interesting. Here at 451 Press, we have a whole blog dedicated to that art. Beth, from Astrology Watch, is one of the best bloggers we have, and although time restraints have kept her from participating in Project Blog, she has graciously donated a prize for you guys to win - a free mini-reading.

I’m pretty excited about this prize, because it is a bit different from what we have been doing. Instead of winning an item, you’re winning a deeper look at yourself.

Want a chance to win this week’s prize? OF COURSE YOU DO. You can enter up to THREEtimes this week.

• For one chance, leave a comment on this post on Reality on Bravo with one thing that you’ve learned from Beth’s site.
• For a second chance, blog about this contest on your own site and email the link to me at allison.boyer-at-yahoo-dot-com.
• Want a third chance? Vote for your favorite in our Project Blog competition, and leave a comment showing support! The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries. You can vote once per day for your favorite (and please do), and you can comment once on this post link will go live on Thursday).

Please note that comments on other post on my site are not considered as entries.

The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries, so get your comments and posts in today! (Deadline for commenting and posting is Monday, December 17 at noon EST)

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