Who here is in to personal development?

[Steveramil]

I was just curious how many of you are actually serious about your personal development? If you are, what are some of the latest books you've read or audio listned to?

[akula]

I dunno....maybe like others I'm completely over this stuff. I pretty much get ingidestion when I hear "personal development"....I don't respond anymore to this western approach of a) telling your self your life is shit and then b) reading all this stuff about how to supposedly make your life better, for some obscure, meanigless purpose

is this no normal?

[Steveramil]

To each their own. I use it as a way to learn more than to "try" and make my life better. It helps with all aspects of business in my mind.

[steven.ruddell]

I love reading books. I started off with the Rich Dad Series by Robert Kiyosaki and then moved on to other books. A good book for success principles is the Magic of Thinking Big. It goes over success principle that just about every successful person uses on a day to day basis. I would definitely recommend.

Another good book is How to Win Friends and Influence People. I know the title sounds corny but it has a lot of great ways to be a better friends and make better relation ships. If you want, I can PM you when I read a book and tell you what I think of it.

[Steveramil]

Sure, that would be good! I've read those books as well. I also am a fan of the How to Win Friends and Influence People

[radreality]

my favorite book of all time is "Increasing Your Personal Capacity". I've read pretty much all the others that have been mentioned above, they are good books, but compared to this one they are just ok.

I would recommend it for everyone, no matter where you are in your life.

[sicnarftea]

I think I am past personal development now, in the sense that I am over dosed with self confidence. However, I do believe in self improvement, by learning new skill sets and experiencing more in life.

[akula]

I think I am past personal development now, in the sense that I am over dosed with self confidence. However, I do believe in self improvement, by learning new skill sets and experiencing more in life.

yeah man...I'm like that too

I'm comfortable about who I am, what I do, what I'm gonna do, where I am placed in society and how I feel about others

I mean sure, when I was a kid with self esteem, self determination, self awareness and other problems I may have responded well to the books (because I needed them), but for me, the books have achieved all they're supposed to achieve and now I need resources other than written text

At this stage, I'm all about being inspired by others, finding great leaders and mentors....and it really doesn't matter how much money they make as long as they are happy

happy people are hard to find....those interested in happiness read books, turn unhappy and then spend their life chasing a mirage

this idea of always chasing something is so tiring...it's exhausting

I like people who are stationary, people who practice happiness rather than trying to find it somewhere

it's hard to be friends with someone who is always trying to be somebody else...like their role model or something

[ideas2earn]

All the successful people I know read self improvement books and/or biographical books about their heroes. Go figure.

Self improvement does not have to mean "motivational", it could be books on marketing, finance, legal matters etc. whatever will take you towards your goals, no education, no improvement. Period.

[steven.ruddell]

If you want a site to discuss personal development the check out Tech Speck Forum. This site is great for discussing personal development and will help you. The owner is trying to buid his communittee so i figure I would advertise for him

[nordicnomad]

I agree, personal development is not "self help". I consider books I read about business or real estate investing personal development. Just like I consider learning martial arts, going to the gym, and watching the discovery channel personal development.

Expanding both my context and content as Robert K. would say...

Things I've read recently include the "Power of Now" which talks about the power of getting started on the things you want in the future thorugh little steps today, "Conceptual Blockbusting" which talks about the mental processes of creativity and problem solving a really fabulous book, and something on memory that I've kind of skimmed through...

The only thing I really took away from it or didn't know already was that memory can be improved best by assotiation to things you already know, I kind of knew this since the short term memory only last a few seconds and has to filter all kinds of junk before letting things into long term memory. What helps it filter effectively are attention and interest, and both of these processes in a mental and neurological sense are connected to memory structures and informations along a similar topic already in long term memory.

Think of it like when you buy a new car and suddenly you start noticing that same car all over the place. You notice it because you have all these memories already in the banks about what your car looks like, the process of buying it, why you bought it, what it feels like to drive it, etc. The same goes with anything, if you like math you'll remember math and see evidence of mathmatical concepts all over the place.

What the book recommemded for improving memory was using your home as a mental image and placing things you wanted to remember around your home. Since the layout and contents of your home are already in long term memory, this association puts things you want to remember in there as well. Just the other day I remembered a license plate I passed in the parking lot into work by mentaly carving the plate number onto the garage door of my mental house.

It also gave a mental exercise of remembering a list of nonsensical words by placing the objects in the appropriate room or place. Try it

mushroom
sausage
t-shirt
crocodile
eagle
rose
camera
paperclip
towel
mayor

These are the actual words used in the exercise from a book I read 3 weeks ago, by the way. I was still able to find them in the places I put them. Try it!

[Steveramil]

All the successful people I know read self improvement books and/or biographical books about their heroes. Go figure.

Self improvement does not have to mean "motivational", it could be books on marketing, finance, legal matters etc. whatever will take you towards your goals, no education, no improvement. Period.

Ding Ding Ding! That is EXACTLY it! I personally do not know any real successful people that do not do self improvement/personal development in one form or another.

[Steveramil]

All the successful people I know read self improvement books and/or biographical books about their heroes. Go figure.

Self improvement does not have to mean "motivational", it could be books on marketing, finance, legal matters etc. whatever will take you towards your goals, no education, no improvement. Period.

Ding Ding Ding! That is EXACTLY it! I personally do not know any real successful people that do not do self improvement/personal development in one form or another.

[bucnutz19]

The website I run in my sig is based on personal development. So far I get a pretty steady stream of traffic and the site isn't even 6 months old yet. I haven't been able to update it much for a couple months simply because I have been so busy but I will start back up here soon.

[chanson]

hmm sounds like poor akula had a bad experience witha book lol.

persoal development isnt necesarially reading self help books as a matter of fact that is barely any of it. I am always undergoing personal development ever second i am awake.

by reading this forum, reading the news and financial news, playing the stock market and forex, meting with different clients and dealing with different situations. Thats all personal development.

I also do things like go to the gym daily, learn other languages which by the way did you know the international business language is no longer neglish it is now i believe mandarin or some variation of chinese. I wish i could remember where i read that.

The fact of the mattr is if you are doing self help thats not for personal development thats because you feel you need personal improvement. Personal development is something everyone is doing all the time, if you say otherwise your either not taking the time to digest what your saying or you fall more into the personal improvement and self help category but you have issues and are to ignorant to just come to terms with it.

thatsmy 2 cents.