And I just promised myself not to spend too much time on Medium--and here I am reading and responding to a Medium article. I really should be writing my novel.

I too fell into the self-help culture for a couple of years. I attended seminars, read books, and listened to cassettes while driving. But somehow I drifted away from it. Not sure why, but now I can see there is an emptyness in that culture.

Strange, I have not really been successful at much in life. The self-help gurus would point to my drifting away from their religion as the reason. But I see myself as progressively happier and more at peace with the world.

I watched Dr. Phil for about a year in his early days. Yes, there is a lot of Hollywood in his TV practice, but I found his show fascinating. But eventually it got repetitive, and I was not learning much.

One of my most memorable episodes was lady who believed she had what it took to be a famous C&W singer. She was driving her family into bankruptcy, depriving her children of opportunities for their development. After about 10 years of chasing her dream--and only making nightclubs in Nashville, her husband called Dr. Phil for help.

Dr. Phil had her perform. He had a couple of C&W professionals watching. I could see that she just didn't have the edge to really succeed in this occupation. The professionals were polite yet blunt: if she had spent 10 years to be where she is at, she was not ever going to make it big time.

And yet she insisted a break was just around the corner. She needed only to continue to believe in herself.

When does someone cut his or her dream off?

Maybe someone should write a book about that.