This principle is important for anybody who follows the path of life-change, whether through therapy, self-help lit, religion, or otherwise:

Don't abuse words, jargon, or babble to bolster yourself. Most self-help lit, for example, wraps you in complicated jargon. This is a folly even of one the best-selling and most effective self-help books: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This is an actual quote from Steven Covey's book:

In an interdependent situation, every P problem is a PC opportunity--a chance to build the Emotional Bank Accounts that significantly affect interdependent production.

(via Slate's Choose Your Guru feature).

Some gurus are aware of this problem. In another great self-help book, What Color Is Your Parachute?, Nelson Bolles notes that a symptom of when we're lying on our backs like weaklings is when we're falling in love with words. He says that when we find ourselves talking on and on, that's a sure sign that we are seeking confidence in the wrong places.

He then encourages everybody to go out and do stuff! Experiment, challenge your rules, and get out of your comfort zone. He says that he tells people this because it reliably unblocks them.

Do you know someone who spouts mantras? Anybody who keeps saying something to the point that it sounds nonsensical, or like babble, you start to wonder if they're unsure of what they're saying.

It relates to this other principle:

I like reading the subtext of what politicians say. If they keep talking about "honesty, good government, honesty, good government," you have to wonder if they're just trying to re-assure themselves that they are indeed good.

Or take the case of Bill Bennett, who sold millions of books about virtue, including the best-seller The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories. While he goes around the country haranguing the nation to lead better lives, it was later revealed that he was addicted to gambling. To the vocally virtuous, you have to wonder if they're not just trying to wash away their guilt in public.

Most of these inspirational self-help books are written with the same process that I write these posts. When I'm inspired by my epiphanies, writing them out helps me elaborate and codify the thoughts. The process feels great. It's the pleasure of re-enforcement and echo. My inspiration is when an idea goes into a feedback loop through self-expression. That's how zealots form. They get excited, go around repeating their mantras, see other people turned on, which only further encourages their enthusiasm.

While this site and my passion is all about the power of rhetoric, I have to be on guard for its pitfalls.

Further Reading: