Stand Firm – Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze

Stoicism has become quite popular recently, and in this book Danish philosopher and psychologist uses this background to take aim at the self-help industry as an antidote to the accelerating pressures of modern life, and the concomitant urge to become happier and more productive. The downside of this fast pace is record levels of stress and mental health challenges. To this end, the author encourages us to be rooted and stand firm rather than be in a state of perpetual motion. He recommends in a series of chapters that we cut out inner navel-gazing, focus on the negative, say no more often, suppress our feelings, sack your coach, read a novel rather than a self-help book and dwell on the past. I think there is probably an Aristotelian mean here where one can take on board the useful insights from both angles. It is arguable that some solutions to our challenges can indeed come from the past, and I appreciated the reminder to read novels as well as philosophical contemplation of death in relation to the value of life. Ironically, this view is also a form of inner-directedness, as well as a refreshing corrective.