Personal Development Library

How to Build Your Personal Development Library
By Tristan Loo

One of the secrets of highly successful people is that many of them digest huge volumes of information in the form of books, audio courses, and videos. Most of these successful people have fairly extensive personal development libraries that they rely upon for guidance and solutions. I suggest that you model this habit and start developing your own personal development library. Brian Tracy says that you should invest approximately 3% of your income into your own personal development and growth. So if your income is around $4,000 a month that means you should spend approximately $150 in personal development products and seminars to promote your own self improvement. Here are some tips to help you build a useful personal development library of your own:

• Binder your information. While books are great resources, I have found that many books contain only a few noteworthy gems of information in them—if even that. I have read many articles, on the other hand, that contain equal amounts of informational gems without all the fluff. These articles are of high value to me and are worth saving for future reference. You should make it a habit to archive these articles for future reference by punching holes in them and placing them in a 3 ring binder. Make sure you clearly label your binders, so that you know what is contained within them. Also, at the front of the binder, you should create a table of contents so that you can find the information more quickly. In this way, you can begin to build your personal development library with information that is of high value to you and get rid of the low-value stuff.

• Purchase bookshelves. One of the first things that you must do when developing your own personal development library is to begin by purchasing bookshelves to hold your collection. Start with one or two bookshelves to begin with and eventually purchase as many bookshelves as you can afford and as your space allows in your home because your subconscious mind will seek ways to fill those bookshelves with books.