It’s easy to notice the clear rise of Self Development as a concept spreading throughout society from status updates to news articles. People have invested more in books to improve mental health rather than dieting and physical fitness. “Books related to self-improvement are always in high demand around the new year, but in a recent shift, books focused on mental well-being are far outpacing titles addressing exercise and dieting,” Liz Harwell, Senior Director of merchandising for trade books. It also invaded the Tech industry. Apple identified self-care as the app trend of 2018 with apps like Fabulous, Shine, Calm, 10% happier leading the trend.

Millennials are driving the growth of the self-improvement industry; they spend twice as much as Baby Boomers on self-improvement such as working out, life coaching and well-being apps (source).

People are facing more problems; A loss of direction, fast and unexpected changes in our environments, more and more discomfort zones and so on. Isolated and having less nourishing human connection, we are on the verge of mental illnesses looking to solve our problems by digging in self-development podcasts or books.

The topics discussed are intriguing but it’s crucial not to fall into the trap of passively consuming and forgetting to actively apply the concepts to our lives as intended. Otherwise, the addiction will become just another sick obsession defying the whole purpose of Improvement.