Papa Joe Coslett’s The Art of Being Human offers self-help ideas drawn from his own life.

Coslett cautions that “This book was not written to tell you how to change your life. It is more about making little tweaks in your life, giving you some ah-ha moments and bring [sic] better clarify to your life.”

Through 40 chapters Coslett offers his advice for such “tweaks” in mindset. Most revolve around standard self-help ideas involving such topics as comfort zones, focus, forgiveness, and personal responsibility.

As such, they are largely derivative. For example, the chapter on focus draws heavily on the Law of Attraction, popularized in the bestselling book The Secret. “The universe is impersonal; it does not care if you chose [sic] to think positive or negative,” writes Coslett. “… It will attract to you what you focus your thoughts on and add emotional energy to.” The author credits the chapter titled “Creature of Elimination,” about controlling “what information you chose [sic] to process,” to Tony Robbins. Much of the information offered has been visited by countless other authors.

While those who don’t normally read self-help books might find new ideas here, Coslett’s presentation is also lacking. His writing often meanders and is redundant. He also makes bold assertions without citing the source, writing, for example: “Know that if you want to become skillful at any task, physical or mental, it takes about two thousand [sic] conscious deliberate repetitions to develop muscle memory.” No studies are noted to support this.

The text is further marred by poor copy editing. “Chose” is often used instead of “choose,” sentences are needlessly wordy, typos abound (“Like anything else, we do we need to develop…”)

Self-help books are a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, The Art of Being Human offers little that’s original, with writing that lacks finesse. Those interested in these topics would do best to look elsewhere.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.