Published by Good Book Company on December 1, 2024
Genres: Non-Fiction, Christian Life
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How God’s grace provides what we need to learn, grow, and live life well.
How can you live your best life, be your best self, achieve your personal goals, and make a lasting difference? There’s lots of advice out there, but does any of it work?
In her thirties, Tieler Giles moved to New York to build the life she dreamed of and become the person she wanted to be: one self-help strategy at a time. Several years later, exhausted, she discovered the gospel of grace in a powerful, new way.
In this book, she examines some of the ways in which our culture tells us to pursue happiness, power, identity, and love, and shows us how only God’s grace provides what we truly need to learn, grow, and live life well.
Whether you’re a Christian or exploring spirituality, get ready to discover how God has the power to renew our minds, heal our hearts and restore our souls.
For many years, Tieler Giles believed that she was one step away from unlocking the life hack or principle that will change everything. She was willing to try any strategy that she thought would bring happiness and fulfillment, but nothing was ever enough. In this book, she shares her journey of leaving behind her obsession with self-help to dig into her relationship with God, where she found the grace and purpose that she always needed.
She encourages Christians and seekers alike to consider the wisdom that the Bible offers for life, in contrast to self-help principles that lack the same understanding of human nature, and which cannot offer true grace, salvation, or Spirit-empowered paths towards life change. Giles explains a Christian view of the world, shares personal anecdotes, and compares and contrasts typical self-help principles with teachings from the Bible. She also concludes each chapter with some paradigm shifts or action steps, along with a memory verse that people may find helpful for reinforcing these ideas.
Although I enjoyed this book, I found it disappointing that Giles did not provide guidance for how people can still read self-help books while being discerning. I understand why she left the self-help world behind after her unhealthy immersion in it, but for many Christians, secular self-help books can be a useful source of information about psychology, life management skills, and emotional healing. I think that this book would be even more helpful if Giles had laid out advice and ideas for how people can faithfully engage with some self-help resources while still being faithful to Scripture and weighing the truth of what they hear.
How to Ditch the How-To: Embracing Grace in Place of Self-Improvement is a great book for Christians and spiritual seekers who are interested in exploring grace-filled, realistic alternatives to self-help ideas. This author’s perspective will resonate with other people who have pursued self-help principles and worn themselves out on endless striving, and I would especially recommend this to single, professional women, who will relate to Giles’s life stage and many of her experiences.