Be careful of the Personal Development Trap

Personal Development is a great area to spend some time on for setting goals and getting clear on what you want. Be careful though of what I call the Personal Development Trap. To me, the Personal Development Trap is when people get too caught up in the area of Personal Development to the point that they take substantial time away from their original goals.

Watching videos, reading articles, and purchasing products related to personal development can make us all feel good and give us the sense that we're doing something good for ourselves. And, in moderation, all of these things are good for us. The problem arises when people become obsessed with personal development and they wind up spending many hours each day listening to audios, watching videos, and reading countless articles on personal development.

Don't lose sight of the fact that personal development should only be used as a vehicle for getting you to accomplish your goals. Personal development resources shouldn't be used just for the sake of pumping yourself up but then not taking any action.

I recommend that anyone who gets involved in personal development puts themselves on what I call a personal development diet. Decide what you think is a reasonable amount of time to spend on personal development each day or each week. After deciding what is a reasonable amount of time to spend on personal development, allocate that set amount of time each day or each week for personal development but don't exceed that amount of time.

For myself, I will never spend more than 30-60 minutes per day watching a video on personal development, reading an article, or listening to an audio. I decided that once I go over that 30-60 minute period of time on personal development each day that I'm taking too much time away from working towards my goals.

Everyone needs to decide what amount of time they want to spend on personal development and what amount of time they want to spend putting those practices into action. If you don't structure your time this way you could wind up spending hours upon hours of time each day getting pumped up by personal development but accomplishing nothing by the time the day is over.

As with all things in life, it's all about balance and too much of anything is not a good thing. Even too much time spent on personal development is a bad thing if it's taking too much time away from other important responsibilities. When you strike a balance between personal development and implementing the concepts you learn from personal development, you'll continue to move forward on reaching your goals while also continuing to receive all of the benefits that personal development provides.