If you’ve read a few of my posts, it should be quite obvious that I’m not the normal type of “personal development guru”. Even in a few years I won’t be. I don’t think motivational speaking or personal development seminars are anything where I want to go in the near future. I’m not planning to do any coaching and I certainly don’t claim to have any relevant background to “explain” why I am writing about personal development topics. No psychology degree, no “life-long spiritual interest” or whatever else people think might give them justification for writing about these topics. I don’t claim to have found the Holy Grail! Why not?
Well, first of all, there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there that try to make a living from telling people how they should be living their life. Most of them are probably not even sure themselves what they want in their life and personal development just happens to be a well-paid field if you happen to become famous enough, so why not give it a try? I think some of those self-proclaimed personal development gurus would be better off selling organic cheese – or socially aware life-insurances.
Of course there are still people out there who I admire for what they’re achieving, in personal growth and in helping others, but you will rarely find any links to their articles here, mainly because I want to produce original content (and even if it is only my viewpoint on a topic that other people already wrote about). I want to do this, because I think that I can contribute something to the world around me and the internet is a brilliant means of making “the world around me” much bigger than it would be if I would just help the old lady down the street. I believe that if everyone would even only look out for the people that immediately surround them – I’m talking about family and friends, co-workers or the lady with her shopping bags on the bus right next to you -, if we would just make the effort to say good morning and thank you to the lady selling us our newspaper every morning or if we would take the effort to just give a builder who has a hard day ahead of him a smile, then the world would be a little better for every one of us.
I believe that if I can make only one of you a little bit happier, just by telling you how I managed to be a little bit happier myself, all this effort will be well worth it! Even when I was only 14 I knew that helping people was always a good thing. Back then I was quite proud that there were times when I even helped people who I absolutely disliked, nowaways I’m more realistic: I know that I don’t do this out of altruism – the truly altruistic act is impossible if you believe the French philosopher Derrida (and I happen to agree with him). I myself in fact know that helping others will make me happier myself and I allow myself this kind of egoism without feeling bad for it. Think about it: If so innocent egoism helps the greater good, why should it be bad?
You might have noticed that I surely monetize this blog – well, it’s quite hard to miss unless you have an adblocker installed – and of course I have reasons for that as well: first of all I have hosting costs, which want to be covered. Additionally I kind of have a habit of getting a bit of pay out of things that I would do anyway. A few years ago I happened to code websites for friends and the only thing I would want in return was maybe a warm meal. I liked to write websites, so why not do it for a meal or for a bottle of wine, if I would have fun doing it anyway? Things that are fun don’t really have to be paid even if other people would make a lot of money out of those things. Only a year later I found myself in a part-time web designer position being actually paid for doing something I would do anyway! Another example of the same thing would be that in the last year, while I was one of the top students in my year as a first year Computing student, people would ask me study related questions in the lab. They would run into programming issues or they would happen to find the teaching methods of our lecturers unhelpful and then they would end up asking me, while I was sitting in the Computer lab trying to do my own work. I always helped (of course always carefully within our regulations regarding plagiarism). From October I will be Peer Assisted Learning Leader for first year students, which is a paid position doing what I would do anyway: help other students in the lab!
Considering that I can only afford to study, because my parents happen to be so kind to pay my fees and living costs, for which I’m grateful, I don’t want to ask too much off them. The money my parents give me only just about covers my living expenses, because I didn’t want them to give me more. In fact I am planning to pay them at least the money for tuition fees back as soon as I have an income that is more than just covering my expenses. If it is possible to make this happen sooner through putting ads on a blog that I would write anyway, why not? And then there is a dream I have of spending at least half a year in Argentina to dance tango and learn Spanish. Maybe it’s more of a plan than a dream, because this is actually scheduled to happen in almost exactly 2 years! Even if this blog would only contribute a few euros towards this plan, it would help fulfil one of my goals in life!
This blog remains a contribution to the world out there and everyone, who happens to find my articles interesting, and even those who deeply disagree with my views are welcome to read all my articles for free! You are welcome even if you don’t donate or if you have an adblocker installed 
!
What will your contribution to our world be?
