Personal Development... Negative?

When I think of the term “Personal Development” I think of positive change. Typically, I would assume people would relate that term with improvements in life. The definition of development is: “the act or process of developing; growth; progress.” These words to me sound very positive and so my perception of personal development being a positive aspect in your life seems to be appropriate.

While this is true, a lot of times I feel like when people are in need they turn to professional books in hopes of finding the answer. It is so much easier trying to search for an answer in a book rather than coming up with your own answer.

With that in mind, The Positivity Blog makes an interesting point in saying that personal development information could turn into a number of problems for someone. The author points out five ways that it can be a negative thing to rely on.  

Firstly, the author writes it can overcomplicate stuff. He writes how given a problem a person will read through books and try to solve it only creating the problem into something much more complicated than it has to be. I can completely relate to this idea. There have been many incidents when I feel a sense of low self-esteem/confidence and look to either help books or articles online. At times I took the information and created situation that was far greater than my original problem.

His second point is that it can get you emotionally hooked on reading more. He says instead of doing something you will continue to read more and more and perhaps feel satisfaction by simply just reading how to improve your life. This makes perfect sense since it is so much easier to read information than to put it into action. Just like the saying “it’s easier said than done.” Reading the information is one thing but actually using that within your life can be somewhat of a struggle.

After that he writes that the information can leave you confused. The author makes an excellent point in saying that especially in today’s society we have so much information to choose from and with so much information come so many perspectives. If I am looking for an answer or source of help, I could relate to reading a bunch of different articles with different perspectives and becoming even more frustrated with my problem than I was at the beginning. It’s always good to have various perspectives, but it is hard to make a concrete decision when you don’t know which one you should choose.

Fourthly he mentions the information could make you feel like you aren’t ready or not good enough. The author says how after reading all the information you may decide that you aren’t good enough and that nothing is worth putting the action to it. I feel like this is one of the most dangerous problems. In a way, it coins in with the author’s first point in that you overcomplicate things. By giving yourself a mindset like this you could hold yourself back from doing anything or some may even do something stupid, something that could hold regret.

Lastly, the author makes a great point in saying it makes you thing everything including yourself will end up perfect. He writes how people forget it’s about self-improvement: something gradual and instead try to make a quick simple solution. I am guilty of this very thing. I want to read a book or an article when I have a problem and immediately see the results and never have to worry again. That isn’t possible since we are experiencing life everyday and seeing new changes and learning new things.

So in the end while personal development is a positive thing that all people seek in life, you need to be careful if you ever come across a book or article and make sure you understand that there is no simple quick fix to life and that while you should be critical, you shouldn’t expand that criticism into something complicated.