In my personal development journey I have read a lot of self-help books and I've also taken a
few self-help courses. So which approach is better and more effective in helping one grow? books or
courses? before you listen to my answer, type your answer in the comments below. i'm very curious
to know! usually books are more affordable than courses and i often get my books from the library,
which means the investment of money is very small or none. also books i can read at my own
pace and my own schedule so it allows for more flexibility. reading over a hundred books
in the last 10 years has helped me grow and improve a huge amount in the areas of meditation,
self-awareness, forming good habits, relationships, parenting, eating healthy,
spiritual and psychological growth, and so on. i just truly feel that i have become..
i just truly feel that i have become a wiser, happier, more balanced person as a result of
reading all these books. the main reason for that is that i took my time to read them,
as well as apply the teachings from them. after finishing any book, i try to practically apply at
least one thing i learned to my life. if i only read these books for the sake of reading them,
or for the mental satisfaction of adding another book to my "books read" list,
that would actually be a massive waste of my time. i firmly believe that knowledge is not power,
knowledge plus action equals power. so the reason all these self-help books have helped me grow
is my action bias. prioritizing my time to take action and apply the concepts before rushing to
pick up the next book. i like to think of reading books as input and applying the knowledge as
output. so i'm constantly reminding myself to balance input with output. sometimes
when i find myself just taking in input from books, podcasts, videos or courses.
i remind myself that it is time to pause the input and produce some output. now let's talk about
self-help courses. i have taken many free courses online and i have also taken a few paid ones.
for me the greatest impact or change happened with the paid courses. for example in 2019 i bought the
speak it inspire course through mindvalley. that course is the reason why i started my youtube
channel. it gave me the courage, the inspiration and the push i needed to get out of my own way
and get past my fear of putting myself out on a public platform. in 2021 i did the wildfit
program which is a healthy eating program, also through mindvalley. that course changed the way i
eat. i am a much healthier eater now and i have a drastically different relationship with food,
cravings and emotional eating. while books or free courses have definitely caused me to take small
steps in my growth journey over the last 10 years, i find that it is the paid courses that had a much
bigger impact over a small period of time. what's the reason for that? first when you pay money for
something, you are more committed to it. i paid a considerable amount of money for my paid courses
and that motivated me to commit a hundred percent to the program and play full out. not only did i
watch all the videos in the courses, but i also did all the homework, all the exercises. with a
free course or a book, as soon as something feels hard, it is easy to just give up,
put the book away or not finish the course. but the paid course in a way buys your commitment.
another reason is that with the paid courses, i blocked 30 days or 90 days to fully commit
to the course. speak and inspire was a 30-day course. Wildfit was a 90-day course.
i promised myself that for the next 30 days or 90 days, i'm going to prioritize doing this
course. i'm going to block 30 to 60 minutes every day to dedicate to the course, and i will not make
any excuses of not having enough time to do the exercises. these courses because of their duration
were very immersive. i was fully immersed into one area of my growth for 30 consecutive days.
so my conscious and my subconscious mind were deeply marinating in those ideas for 30 days,
and taking action around those ideas. input and output. in my opinion, crash courses don't work as
well because they are not as immersive. a one day or two day crash course is more for edutainment,
which is education plus entertainment, than for providing changes that last. you get
pumped in these courses and you're super motivated for a week or so, and then you're back to square
one. you crash. maybe that's why they're called crash courses. a third reason is that these
mindvalley courses that i took are done with a big group of other people. so you don't feel alone.
you are supported by your tribe members and coaches so whenever you hit a challenge,
you feel connected in knowing that others are also going through the same challenge
and you're encouraged to get back up even if you fall and slip during the
course. with some mindvalley courses though, they do offer a self-paced option as well,
in which you can go through the program on your own at your own pace, if that is what you prefer.
so that is my experience with books and courses. but for you another factor could be whether you
like reading books or not. some people just prefer to learn by watching videos instead of reading
books. so video based courses would be perfect for them. some people prefer to learn in a group
instead of by themselves. so give these factors some consideration when you're deciding which
route is the best for you. maybe you will choose a combination of both books and courses like me.
so far based on the three mindvalley courses that i have done, my third one being the rapid
transformational therapy course with marissa peer, i would highly recommend the platform as i got
solid results, which made it worth the investment for me. you can buy individual courses or you can
purchase the mindvalley membership which i now have as well. it gives you access to all their 40
or so programs under the categories of mind, body, soul, entrepreneurship, career and relationships.
as you may have guessed, buying the membership makes it cheaper than
buying the programs individually. if that sounds like it might be for you, you can purchase their
membership using my affiliate link in the description below. using my link helps in...
using my link helps in supporting me and my channel but you don't have to pay anything extra.
one word of caution: if you buy the membership, do not be tempted to do too many programs at
the same time because you actually want to take the time to pause, reflect and apply the program
to your life. this is the same thing that i keep stressing with self-help books.
i do not want you to become a self-help junkie and just become addicted to books or programs.
i want you to actually implement some changes and improve your lives. remember balance input with
output. balance input with output. only then you will see a positive impact in your life. if you
cannot afford the membership, don't stress. i have shared a lot of good stuff that i learned from
the courses that i took in my videos. for example, the mirror exercise and the visualize your funeral
exercise from the speak and inspire course. and from the wildfit video... from the and from the
wildfit course, i have shared the green smoothie recipe, the six tips to avoid emotional eating
and the four diet changes that gave me amazing results. all these videos are linked in the
description below. if you have any questions comment below. see you soon, keep growing!