Does reading online about personal growth help you grow personally?
Why it probably can't, most of the time 👇
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1) Personal growth needs are highly *personal* 🤸♀️
The reason that there seems to be a lot of contradicting advice out there is that they’re not actually intended for the same person.
Take “listen more” and “speak up”. Yes, it’s possible to work on both simultaneously, but usually we’d imagine the recipient of the first piece of advice to be a very different person from the second.
2) Personalization loses eyeballs 👀
In an age of information-overwhelm and algos deciding what we read, catching as much attention as possible is king. The rich get richer.
In an age of short attention spans though, lengthy content is at a disadvantage because people opt of out reading it.
That means there’s an incentive to provide less person- or situation- specific detail and context. Additionally, being too specific might cause some of your potential audience to self-select out of reading.
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Taken together, it suggests that much of what is easily accessible, may not help anyone on average.
We need to be good at selectively applying what we read. Personal growth isn’t like learning to spell, where there’s (generally) just one right way.
1️⃣ Friends, family, and mentors are one source of personalized advice.
2️⃣ Content geared towards somewhat “captive audiences” is also great — speakers and book authors know they have more time to explore detail and nuances.
3️⃣ Social media platforms can be great as well, as people provide context around their experiences.
I’m curious to know where you’ve gotten advice that actually helpful for YOU?