How to hone the art of self-improvement according to you:-

There's no doubt about it: self-improvement is large business. Everywhere we look, we seem to see men dressed in suits and fancy hairstyles. Sporting tiny headset microphones, they speak to us as if we're attending the annual general meeting of their multinational self-development business, which I suppose isn't so far from the truth.

He speaks to us in sound bites; Im gunna show you how, just follow my plan: no thoughts necessary; just stick to the plan. Success and victory, they preach to the audience, are a sure thing.

But is self-development a sure thing? If, like me, you believe that self-development is a life journey that is never complete, you know that the only certainty is that the pursuit of self-development is far from certain.

The journey will involve more failures than successes, more losses than gains, and more self-doubt than we think we can handle. The only way to improve is to challenge the habits and assumptions we've picked up.

It takes courage to venture out into the open with no guarantee that we'll find what we want. No success plan would consider such a course of action!

So, if we can't get help from a self-improvement guru, who can we turn to?

I believe the answer is to look to people who have always explored every single aspect of the human condition. They didn't always find the answer, but they all had courage. They are, of course, world-class artists.

You may be wondering how can imagery help us in our goal of self-improvement? Some images help induce calmness and a sense of inner peace; I feel it whenever I look at an Impressionist painting, especially paintings by Berthe Morisot.

She was never recognized as a great artist in her lifetime; she was relegated to the category of "female" artists due to her usual themes of women, children and domestic scenes. Her paintings are intensely intimate. He is an example of someone who never gave up on what he thought was worth despite being largely ignored.

Jackson Pollock evokes different but equally strong feelings. I used to believe that all modern artists throw some paint on a canvas and call it art. My preconceptions were swept away when I was lucky enough to visit an exhibition dedicated to his work.

His paintings were beautiful and challenged my view of painting. Finding your inner self is about challenging your current ideas.

Music is probably the easiest of the arts for us to accept as an aid in our search for self-development. As soon as you think of it, music pushes all the buttons.

My favorite music is anything by Beethoven. His music makes me feel all of the above. He sorts out redemption through his music. In the end, he didn't find it and spent most of his life feeling alone.

Perhaps the greatest inspiration are writers. They have helped me and millions of others find their inner selves. Life would be much poorer without our great writers. I will not name all the writers who have inspired me; there are too many.

But if there's one thing I want to encourage you to do, it's reading. If you're not sure who to read, go to the library and ask! Tell the librarian what you want to experience, feel or learn when you read the book. They will help you; don't let shyness get the better of you.

If you can't get to the library, join a reading club online. One thing I've found is that people who love to read love to help others read books.

So forget about buying those testosterone-fueled success seminars at any price, e-books and DVDs. Go and look at the picture; or lying on the couch listening to music, maybe dancing wildly to it, crying with it, making love with it in time; or curl up and read a book that takes you places you never thought possible.

You may not get where you wanted to go, but Art will be with you every step of the way.