Do you treat personal development as a hobby?

Do you buy personal development books? How many have you got? How many times have you read them?
 
I know, sometimes I can be very nosy. But your reading material, and your reading habits are a good indication of where you are on the self development curve.
 
Do you keep these daily musings? Do you re-read any of them? Do you make notes and try the exercises they contain? Or do you read them and say - that doesn't apply to me and move straight on to the next item on the list of things you have to read. FYI - most of the back issues of this e-zine are on the web site if you are interested in re-visiting any.
 
The reason these e-zines come out on an almost daily basis is this - motivation, personal development, self-help or whatever else you want to call it, needs work on a daily basis, otherwise you will falter at the first sign of chocolate cake. One of the things that I have said in the past - which still holds true today - is that you can't just watch the news once a year and then expect to be fully informed of the world's events and goings on. Neither do you shower once a year and hope no-one notices the smell in between.
 
Personal and professional development is a commitment to yourself and where you want to be in your lives. And as we said earlier your reading material and your reading habits are a good indication of how serious a student you are.
 
So what are you reading at the moment? I am reading a book by Maggie Hamilton - What men don't talk about...and once I've read it once I will read it again. My first read of any book is usually a skip read - a quick determination to see what I can get out of it quickly. The second time I read a book of this kind is with a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. What can I take out of this book? What can I use? What is relevant to me and what isn't?
 
You see every time you read something you have a whole new set of experiences and knowledge that you bring to the reading of the book. How many times have you had a "a - ha" moment when you've read something for the second time? I get it now. I understand that better now, oh I see what he was getting at when he said that. Yes that's relevant to me this time around.
 
Most people reading this would have read and/or probably own a copy of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich - how many of you are rich as a result of reading that book? Not many, including me I have to say... why aren't we rich? Why didn't it work for us? Other people have read it and have gotten rich as a result - the difference? They took what they read and they applied it to where they were in their lives at that moment. Sure it may have taken several reads before all the bits fell into place, but they didn't read it once and decide they weren't going to bother reading it again because they knew everything there was to know. They took the suggestions and they saw what worked and what didn't. Then when they read it again, along with whatever else they were reading and applied those disciplines too they moved on, they reached their goals and then they set new ones.
 
If on the other hand you read a book, say that you will apply those things to your life so that you can make a difference to the way your life turns out...but then put it back on the shelf and pick up the next one. How long is it before you forget that you were going to try something different today? The answer - not very long at all.
 
So take a good look at your reading habits and stop treating your personal development as a hobby. In order to break through the procrastination habit you have to act as well as think about acting. MOTIVE + ACTION = MOTIVATION. What are your reasons for wanting something, and what are you going to do today to reach that "something".