I love personal development. It changed the whole course of my life. Before I discovered it I was depressed and at times suicidal. These days I’m the happiest person I know. With that being said, as much as I love personal development, there’s also several problems with it.
1. Faking Progress
One of the biggest problems with personal development is it’s easy to delude yourself into thinking you’re improving as a person when you’re not. I see a lot of people thinking they’re going to make progress simply by consuming an endless amount of personal development material. Heck, for a long time I was one of them.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Your life isn’t going to improve unless you proactively take actions in improving it. Your internal and external realities are codependent. If one isn’t improving, it’s very likely you’re deluding yourself and the other one isn’t either.
2. The Search Of The Magical Method
Another common issue with personal development is the endless pursuit of the magical method. The technique that will result in effortless growth and abundance the rest of your life.
I hate to be the one to say it, but the magical method doesn’t exist! Real growth is painful. That’s why most people choose to avoid it. Real growth isn’t about finding some special technique that’s going to change your life. It’s about overcoming your fears and making the commitment to always face the truth no matter how painful it may be.
3. Clueless Teachers
These days anyone can make a blog or publish an ebook. It requires no credentials. This is good because it creates opportunities and allows more ideas to be spread, but there’s several drawbacks to this as well.
You may be able to get advice on any problem one could possibly have, but it’s difficult to determine the validity of that advice. It’s easy to tell if someone’s the real deal if you’ve been reading their blog for years, but if you’re reading a random website or looking through answers people have left on a forum, you have no way to tell if they know what they’re talking about.
4. All Work And No Play
In the personal development community there’s a HUGE emphasis on being productive, and “getting things done.” There’s plenty of great advice for the professional aspect of your life, but a lot of personal development material neglects, or skips over your personal life entirely.
Being productive is great, but it’s also important to realize that more hours isn’t necessarily better. If you refuse to socialize or take time off on occasion you won’t be getting optimal results. Besides missing out on some of the best experiences life has to offer your work life’s going to suffer as well.
You’re going to constantly find yourself procrastinating and your stress levels are going to go through the roof. We all have different workloads we’re capable of managing, but it’s important to realize nobody’s able to give everything they’ve got 100% of the time.
5. Insecurity
Another problem with personal development is that there’s always something else to fix. People get caught up in having to fix “x” and “y” and then by the time they do there’s something else that needs improvement.
This isn’t so much a problem with the industry as much as it is the people interested in personal development, however, it’s a huge reason why many people who became interested in personal development due to low self-esteem are never able to shake their feelings of inadequacy.
There needs to be more of an emphasis on self-acceptance. It’s natural to seek improvement, but as long as you’re making forward progress towards your goals there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to love yourself for who you are today.
6. Thinking You’re Smarter Than Everyone Else
This is a huge problem I just began addressing in my own life a couple months ago. I thought I didn’t a need sickening work ethic to be successful just because I had consumed a MASSIVE amount of personal development information. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s believed that at some point.
The only problem is intelligence without action means nothing. I still think I’m super intelligent, but I’ve also come to realize something. People don’t care how smart you are. All they care about is that you can provide them value and improve their lives.
7. Nitpicking
The little brother of faking progress is nitpicking. Overanalyzing little things to your own detriment. At one point in my life I became such a nitpicker that I spent more energy researching natural toothpastes and deodorants than my exercise routine.
Yeah I know, pathetic. A bit on the extreme side as well, but I’m sure others have fallen into the same trap as well. It’s a lot easier to take action on a “10 body care products you need to stop using,” article than generating the courage to tackle a big life issue you’ve been neglecting.
8. Growth Isn’t Linear
One of the biggest misconceptions in the field of personal development is that growth is linear. I’m here to tell you it’s not. You don’t make progress on your goals and become a better person every single day. It’s not like the video games.
There’s going to be weeks where you’re on a roll, and you’re making massive progress on your goals. Then out of nowhere, you’re going to lose all your momentum and you’re going to question whether your goals are even worth pursuing.
The important thing is to realize that motivation comes and goes. No matter how good or bad you feel it’s going to pass. True growth requires learning how to maximize the good times and minimize the bad as well as understanding how to manage yourself in both.
9. Personal Development Isn’t Easy
Once again, I don’t like being the pessimistic jerk, but I hate that most personal development gurus insist on making everything sound easy. Look, if you’re going to embark on the journey towards living your dreams you deserve the truth.
It’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. You’re going to fall down and you’re probably going to get kicked too. I don’t mean to discourage you, but it’s important to understand it’s not going to be a smooth ride.
With that being said, having the courage to pursue personal growth is the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do. It’s also the most difficult thing you’ll ever do, but if you’re 100% committed and willing to do whatever it takes to grow, you’ll succeed.
10. Reader’s Contribution
I’d love to hear from you about what I’ve missed. What’s the biggest problem you’ve seen with personal development? Leave a comment below and share this article if you enjoyed it. Let’s get a discussion going and see what we can do to address some of these problems. 🙂
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