Most self help advice doesn’t work because most people are different, and will only work for a fraction of the population. The only pattern that I have found to work consistently in my journey is this:
Do the opposite.
Do the opposite of what you’ve always being doing. If a guru says, “work smarter, not harder,” and you’ve spent months or years looking for methods to work smarter, do the opposite. Try working harder.
If you’ve been told to follow your passions or do what makes you happy, and you’ve spent years trying to understand what that even is, try doing something that doesn’t make you happy, and bring your passion to that (thanks Mike Rowe!)
You can go down the list of self help platitudes, and think about which ones have consistently not worked, then try the opposite. If you’re a talker, try to shut up. If you’re a morning person, try to sleep in. If you’re type A, introduce a little randomness into your life. If you’re smart, do something dumb for a change. Even if the opposite isn’t right, it’ll add depth and perspective that you would never otherwise have.
Also published on Medium.