Human beings are unique and amazing creatures.

One of the things that makes us so unique and amazing is our ability to seek out and use information in order to improve our circumstances.

We live in a world that is teeming with information and in fact quantum physics teaches that at the most fundamental level of reality, all objects in the universe including human beings have no real substance at all but are merely composed of information.

That is quite a profound concept and yet seems largely irrelevant in our busy lives that for many of us consists mainly of earning a living , looking after our families and all the problems that are associated with those activities.

But even at the day to day, and often mundane level of our existence, information and our ability to gather and use it in a way that will help us to gain mastery over our selves and our environment is something that people do not give a great deal of thought to.

The acquisition of information in a structured way in order to gain some future benefit is what most people refer to as a formal education and is the process that for most people continues from early childhood through to adolescence and for some into adulthood.

For many people their school and college years, the end goal of which is usually to obtain a qualification that will facilitate entry into a job or career marks the end of any serious acquisition or exploration of knowledge.

But people often fail to recognize the enormous power of acquiring and using relevant information in order to manifest change in their lives. In our modern times people seem to be beset with problems and many individuals are desperately unhappy because of the circumstances that they find themselves in.

Frequently people find themselves in unfortunate circumstances not merely due to fate or bad luck but as a direct consequence of:

1. Failing to make a decision at a moment in time when a decision was required.

2. Making a poor decision due to a lack of relevant information.

Given that there is so much high quality information that is freely available in books and via the internet concerning practically every sphere of human interaction, it seems unfortunate that so much of this wisdom remains unexploited.

The media constantly remind us that we are living in an “information age” but, people’s desire to acquire knowledge that will enable them to gain a better understanding of themselves and how they interact with their environment is not at the top of most people’s priorities.

Popular culture tells us that acquiring knowledge is not “cool” and is a past time best reserved for the “nerd” or “geek”. The main stream media showcase and pay deference to people who demonstrate little or no intellectual ability and who’s personal lives are frequently unfulfilled and nihilistic . The extremely wealthy and media icon Victoria Beckham for example once famously admitted to never having read a book!

There has been a big increase in the popularity of self help books in recent times which can be verified by looking at the amount of shelf space occupied by these types of publications in your local bookstore. But self help books are often criticised for two reasons:

1. They are self indulgent.

2. They don’t work.

My reply to the first criticism would be to say that the task of realizing your full potential as a human being is not only one of the most interesting and fulfilling endeavours that anyone can pursue but is also the one that offers the greatest rewards. You owe it not only to your self but to those around you to make of your self the best you can.

To people that say self help information does not work I would say that having purchased many self help books and tapes over the years I can honestly say that I have learned something from everyone of them.

The reading of a single self help book is unlikely to solve all of your problems or change the way in which you deal with life but by absorbing the ideas of the many experts in this field AND putting these ideas into action, truly amazing, life changing results can be achieved.

- Paul Reeve