self-help, or help yourself?

yesterday i interviewed a jewelry designer from the west coast... as we discussed the current success of her gorgeous high-end line of gems and jewels, she also explained her spiritual-ish nature to me... she spoke of a feature film titled, the secret... the secret is something that is said to have existed for years over -- it's the key to life applied by great intellects, scholars, leaders, etc... it is about knowing you are in fact successful and can have what you want in life, not simply wanting things without action... in pure coincidence (or so it would seem) oprah's show topic yesterday was on the secret...

basically, the film and all its talk is just another form of self-help... or what i like to call, common sense... i've never picked up a book on "how to be a better person", or "how to make millions", nonetheless one on "the key to life"... although i've had my fair share of the doldrums, listening to the words of those like tony robbins has always been a last resort, if that...

deep down inside all of these books, talks, documentaries, etc. are a lot of useful knowledge, however, i believe that is it in fact knowledge that we already possess... these pundits just take sense, reiterate it in different terms and present it as the new life breakthrough... sure, this method can help those in need... it awakens them to something -- even though they may have been told this something a million times before -- only now it will sink in...

but without getting too deep, i'd like to state that i stand firm on the idea that, to a certain extent, there are no right answers anyway... there are no right ways to complete things in order to part the clouds and reveal the true meaning of life in all its glory... sometimes it all comes down to living and exploring possibilities and making mistakes... the secret is charged with selling the concept of bringing positive thinking to your life -- to me, this goes without saying and thus, when it comes to guides on life, i'm not buying it...