Self-help can be a mixed bag.
Too often, self-help courses are expensive scams. They wind up inspiring people to make changes for a short time, only to abandon them quickly. Plus, the self-help industry profits off people’s insecurities and sells them quick-fix solutions to problems that either require acceptance or therapy or therapy.
Still, sometimes you need a little help to kick your life into shape, and there’s a perpetual allure to the idea that the answers to all your problems are hiding behind one little paywall. If you’re looking for a self-help course that might inspire you to build better habits, here’s a place to start.
1. Try a Udemy Class—Like This One From Thich Nhat Hahn
The Internet offers a truly incredible number of classes, but why not pick one that helps you transform your life? Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn will teach you how to work meditation into your life, how to breathe and how to transform your life through compassion and mindfulness.
2. Break Bad Habits and Establish Good Ones With MadeFor
MadeFor sends you a kit full of habit-breaking, mind-rewiring activities each month for 10 months. Each kit comes with a 21-day challenge accompanied by a physical tool designed to help you revamp your daily routine so you can make space for a new, better you.
MadeFor’s months follow 10 important themes: gratitude, nature, connection, breath, hydration, rest, fuel, clarity, vision, and movement. Even better, each monthly kit is backed up by scientific research that highlights the science behind your newfound habit. In addition, your membership allows you to join a supportive self-help community and allows you to adjust your mindset so that you can create better habits that will last a lifetime.
3. Reinvigorate Your Creative Spirit With “The Artist’s Way”
The Artist’s Way is a famous book by Julia Cameron, but to call it a self-help book feels insufficient. It’s more of a spiritual health book. Dedicated to helping users revive and reinvigorate their lost creativity, it’s a step-by-step instruction manual for remembering your love of art and for re-prioritizing yourself. Its twelve chapters make it a perfect twelve-week program, and its two habits—morning pages (three pages of longhand writing) and weekly artist dates (weekly two-hour periods where you spend time with your inner artist) are proven ways to inspire even the most deadened once-creative heart.
4. Rewire Your Habits With This 21-Day Challenge App
While the idea that it takes exactly 21 days to install a new habit into your life may be somewhat baseless, three weeks still a good amount of time to aim for if you’re trying to build a habit into your life. That’s the prevailing wisdom behind The 21 Days Challenge, an app that allows you to pick—you guessed it—habits that you perform daily for 21 days. Challenges include daily gratitude practices, finding moments of calm, and the like.
5. Try This 50-Day Confidence Challenge
Does “confidence” feel like something you prioritized in middle school but then forgot about? It’s never too late to revert to old times and start building up your self-esteem and trying to convince yourself that you can control the world by controlling your self-perception. Mel Robbins’ 50-day Confidence Challenge comes as a free e-book that offers simple, easy, daily steps you can take to de-clutter your life and defog your distorted self-perception.
Challenges like “get rid of three things you never use,” “take a walk in nature,” and “call one of your relatives” are simple enough that they won’t feel overwhelming, but all together the challenge is a treasure trove of tiny changes that could add up to a big shift.
