What Are the Pros and Cons of Online Personal Development?

Among the pros of online personal development is that articles, training and other information can be conveniently accessed at any time of the day or night. Included among the cons, however, is that a person may miss out on valuable accountability tools and guidance when information is accessed solely over the Internet. Online personal development classes, seminars and guides can be great resources for individuals with busy schedules or who are home bound, but may also be a drawback for those who are prone to procrastination and have a history of not completing projects.

An individual can access various types of online personal development resources according to his or her specific areas of interest. Such includes self-paced personal development courses, blogs and forums dedicated to self-improvement, articles on a wide variety of self-help topics, as well as personal development books and e-books. In many instances free personal development information is offered via the web or a person may even partake of personal development seminars online for a fee.

While many types of personal development training and resources are available online, engaging in serious training online can be a bit distracting for some people. Primarily, this is due to the plethora of websites offering paid and free personal development help. With so many options to choose from, some people find it difficult to concentrate on just one.

Some also find that accessing resources without having a clear-cut online personal development guide, teacher or course makes it easy to procrastinate on certain activities or to leave work incomplete. Such may be due to the fact that there are often very limited accountability measures in place when tackling personal development projects online. In an attempt to counteract this, some people heavily engage in online personal development forums or partner with another person who is also taking an online personal development course while agreeing to meet offline for encouragement and motivation.

The pros and cons of engaging in online personal development classes and gathering information will vary from person to person. Those who are disciplined enough to participate in online personal development courses from start to completion find that they work well with a busy schedule. Individuals who lack such discipline, or who thrive better in environments where personal sharing and interaction is abundant, find that attending real life personal development courses are more helpful. In many instances, however, people will approach personal development from both angles.