“Don't read too many self-development books because it's a waste of time. Every book is the same!”

“All unsuccessful people write books to sell. Reading a lot is just to make you rich."

“Really successful people don't have time to write books!”

Do these sentences sound familiar to you? If you join Reading groups, you will encounter many comments like this. Although each person's life is their own decision and choice, comments like this will make many people doubt their ability to read personal development books. In this article, I hope to help you clarify this issue.

Should I read more personal development books?
Photo source: Ubrand

” Don't read too many self-development books because it's a waste of time. Every book is the same.”

” Personal development books just need to read a few books. Every book is similar.”

When reading these comments, a question appeared in my mind: If you drive from Hanoi to Saigon, do you just need to start the engine and hold the steering wheel to reach your destination? There's probably no need to drive, because driving is just the same repetitive movements!

Reading personal development books is similar to boiling a kettle of water. If you want the kettle to always boil, you must continuously provide heat to it. Can be made of firewood, straw, gas, or magnetism. When you stop, the temperature of the kettle will gradually cool.

In the past, I also had the illusion that I had read too many self-development books so I didn't need to read anymore. Now I just need to read books that develop my expertise and skills.

And after 1 or 2 years, I look back and see that I lost my motivation, lost my will, lost many of my passionate goals, and even lost my good habits. That's when I deeply understood the image of the "boiling water kettle".

Of course, not all books are good, so you need to know how to choose books to read. However, each different book is a different story of the author. Only when reading can we feel what the author wants to convey

“All unsuccessful people write books to sell to become successful. Reading a lot is just to make you rich."

For ourselves, the lesson we receive is not only from success but also from failures. I even find that the lessons we learn from others' failures are greater than from successes. Because many people like to lie about the successes they achieved, but very few people want to talk about their failures.

The failures that authors have encountered in their lives are actually very beneficial to us. It helps us avoid possible mistakes.

On a flooded road, you will believe a person who has just fallen into a manhole says: "Don't go that direction, there is a manhole!" or a person wearing dry clothes said: "There is no manhole this way!" than.

My answer is to use both of those words to give myself a reasonable direction. At least I can rule out the direction of the person who fell into the manhole first. After that, we will selectively use information from the person who is still wearing dry clothes later.

Each book is a different experience, a different opinion of the author. The lessons we learn from ourselves are also different, so I find it unreasonable to say that self-development books are the same.

For many people, success is not just about money, power or status. These are also the goals of contributing good things to society and the desire to help others. So there are many successful people who want to write books, rewrite their own stories and hope that the stories and things they learn will bring value to others.

Should I read more personal development books?

There are many self-development books that have "saved" me when I thought about negative things and thought about giving up. And the strangest thing is that those books came to me right when I needed these things. Like a destiny or miracle of the universe. I feel very lucky!

I will try to review the good books I have read so that everyone can make the best choice. Hope everyone will try to follow my blog. You can press the bell button to receive notifications when there are new posts!

Read personal development books but don't find them effective?

This is also a question we ask ourselves. Because after reading a self-development book, I was excited but a few days later I forgot everything I learned from the book.

This problem also happened to me. And to explain this, I think we need to pay attention to two issues:

  • The effectiveness of reading personal development books is not easy to measure.

So that you can better understand this, I would like to quote a story that someone shared on a reading group:

The story goes that, at a mountain temple, there was a master who woke up early and sat at the table to read books - even though these books were old. The little monk next to his master saw this and also tried to imitate his master in reading books.
One day he asked his master: "Master, I have tried to read the same books as you but still cannot understand them. There are passages that I understand, but when I close the book I immediately forget them. So what is the benefit of reading books?
The master immediately stood up, took all the coal in the basket, put it in the furnace and said: "Please take this basket of coal out to the river and bring water back for me!".
The little monk did as he was told, but all the water ran out before he returned home. Master immediately laughed and said: "Next time you need to go faster." Then he gave the boy the basket back to go get another basket of water.
This time, the boy ran faster, but the basket was empty when he reached home. Out of breath, he told his master: "We can't store water in this basket," and he planned to go get a bucket to store water.
The master immediately said: “I don't want to store water in a bucket but in that basket. You can do this, because you haven't tried your best yet." The master gave the basket again and told the boy to go out to the river to get water again.
Even though he knew it was impossible, he didn't want to disobey his master. He tried to run as fast as he could, but the water still flowed out of the basket before he got home. Master Tieu said: "Master, look, it's useless!".
“You think it's useless? Look at that basket!”, the master said.
The little master immediately looked at the basket and for the first time he noticed that the basket looked different. Instead of an old and dirty coal basket, it looked clean.
“That's all that happens when you read a book. Maybe you don't understand or remember everything, but when you read, books will change the inside of your soul, like water cleaning that basket of coal."
 
When you read books about thinking about getting rich, the rain that soaks in for a long time will gradually form in you the thinking about getting rich that you have read in the book. In the past, I often read books about financial freedom and getting rich such as: Teach Your Children to Be Rich, Principles of Getting Rich by Napoleon Hill. Gradually, I formed the habit of thinking about financial freedom as written in the book.
And now I'm a homeless young man who started a failed business, now unemployed, blogging and investing in Forex to make a living. haha.
In my head, I always believe that I may fail now but gradually learn and I will succeed with my desires.
Looking back now, compared to the time when I was a new graduate who wanted to be power-hungry, want to be in the government, and have relationships to get promoted, my thinking is completely different.
Try stopping for a few minutes and looking back at your previous self to see what changes have occurred!

  • Maybe you don't know how to read books to increase efficiency.

Part of the reason may also lie here. Therefore, always find ways to improve the effectiveness of reading.

There are many guides to help you read books faster so you can read more. However, in my opinion, you should find ways to improve your reading efficiency and get more quantity.

Many people have shared their experiences and instructions on how to read books effectively. Please choose the instructions that are right for you. Within the content of this article, I cannot share specifics because it is very long.

I also wrote an article sharing experiences on reading books effectively. You can read the full article at: 8 tips to read more and more effectively that you need to know!

Hopefully this article will help you feel less confused when thinking about whether you should read personal development books or not! A quote I really like is: "Reading books may not make you rich. But rich people always read books!”

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