The caveat of “personal development” that no one talks about
Dec 12, 2023
There’s no way else to put this but the genre of “self-help” (in recent years) has become cluttered and redundant.
I say this because I am guilty of being a victim of this caveat I want to raise.
How it originated and manifested, I’m not too sure, but there’s this deeply tied association within my psyche between “productivity” and “self-development”.
Of course, the decision to build and invest in one’s self is the best thing one can do for themself.
However, somewhere in the middle, there are two asterixes that needs to be raised.
We need to know when to stop consuming and start creating
The wisdom we observe needs to be done with a grain of salt
Dedicate time to create not just consume
Take me for example. I’m an avid listener of the following podcasts and more:
Modern Wisdom
Naval Ravikant
The FS Project
Diary of a CEO
The Rich Roll Podcast
I find it almost impossible to not listen to an episode of the above while I’m going for a walk or for a long drive. Because if I don’t, I tell myself that I’m not being productive.
Let’s be real, its a good feeling when you have a moment of epiphany or when you learn something new whilst consuming this type of content. How often do we drive in silence or perhaps go for a walk without earphones, do we feel more “productive” than had we been in consumption of content?
Well the pill to be swallowed is that while this feeling is great, we need to know when to transition from consumption to creation. We need to go from gathering knowledge to crystalising it. At the end of the day, it’s only by stacking our own evidence do we understand our own perspectives.
The irony is that sometimes in trying to invest in ourselves and “become 1% better everyday” by engaging in this self-help wave can actually be counter-productive.
“The way to get out of the competition trap is to be authentic, to find the thing you know how to do better than anybody. You know how to do it better because you love it, and no one can compete with you. If you love to do it, be authentic and then figure out how to map that to what society actually wants.”
Be aware of your timeline
The fact of the matter is that while the insights of these role models are nothing short of invaluable, they are to be taken with a grain of salt. Especially, when many of these insights that they are sharing have been acquired and compounded over years of life experience.
To young people, including myself, when we get caught up with our role models, we forget that there’s a huge gap in life experience between us and them. And this gap can only be resolved by living life.
And that’s when unhappiness starts to trickle in our psyche.
As Naval defines unhappiness = where we are minus where we want to be. Happiness on the other hand, is there when you remove the sense of something missing in your life. It’s the state that when nothing is missing. When nothing is missing your mind shuts down and stops running into the past or future to regret something or to plan something.
He also goes to say that our brain not being present keeps us from seeing the beauty in everything and for being grateful for where you are.
“It takes time - even once you have all of these pieces in place, there is an indeterminate amount of time you have to put it in. If you’re counting, you’ll run out of success before success actually arrives”
Closing thoughts
With all that being said, I think its a great time to be consuming personal development content. More creators are pushing the boundaries with their production, particularly Chris Williamson with his RED cinema cameras, making the consumption of this content balanced with entertainment.
We’re also seeing more niche topics coming to light, from finding your creative calling to improving your holistic health. And with the ubiquity and accessibility of these resources, more and more young people are investing into themselves.
It's a great time to be consuming and sharing resources, and there's no reason not be.
