Does Self Help Actually Work?

Yes and No.  It doesn't help by itself.  Some people believe that if self help worked, we wouldn't actually need to buy the book, cd and dvd of it, because we would have worked it out for ourselves.  Also, what works for the author might not work for us.

However, it is possible to be inspired and influenced by the ideas of someone else of course.  For this reason, I believe that with a modicum of self-discipline, one can benefit from some self-help systems.  I agree with Anthony Robbins that will power will break in the end, it just does, it's sad but true unfortunately, so you need to have other reasons for doing something.

Self Help requires you to commit to an idea and to the idea of helping yourself.  The problem lies however in why we have not helped ourselves already if that's all its about.  I think we need guidance, that's the main difference and reading someone else's perspective can change our way of understanding and perceiving ourselves.