Self-Help or Self-Growth?
Understanding Personal Development Terminology

To better illustrate such defined structure think of it this way: Personal development considers your goals from a comprehensive perspective; meaning that you will develop yourself into the person you want to become by learning either through self-help methodologies or as a part of a group with the intention to self-improve yourself.

Another definition could be: Personal development can be done with or without assistance and it is geared towards achieving self-improvement and overall self-growth.

Some areas of the self can be improved upon with self-help programs; however, some other areas may require the guidance of others, external to the self; i.e. teachers, coaches and mentors which can provide interactions that may be needed and/or important to achieve a more comprehensive self-growth experience. Of course, this depends on the area in which the person is seeking self-improvement and on the person himself/herself.




In general terms, self-help and self-improvement are essentially driven by the self, either going it alone or being guided/assisted by books, online courses and trainings, etc.

On the other hand, personal development tends to consider both, the experiences initiated by the self and the experiences gained from the interactions with others, resulting in a more comprehensive experience for self-growth.

A word of caution: Since empowering oneself relies mainly on a set of norms and principles where one is found to be biased with, some people will find the self-help experience incomplete. Thus, in seeking a more comprehensive self-growth, one must eventually expand the realm of personal development to include learning from and contributing to a community or society.

In other words, the power of the information learned in self-help books will only be valuable to the extent in which the knowledge acquired is shared with others and contributed to society. This is the essence of a well-rounded life.

Here is a real-life example of these terms combined:

Let’s say you want to learn public speaking. You attend an online class or read a book on how to do just that. This step was initiated by your desire to improve upon something, from the self.

This is the self-help aspect of your self-growth. As a result, you give better speeches to your audience. This is the self-improvement area that is noticed by others.

In doing so, you will have enhanced your personal development and as such, you will have added to your self-growth, and to the self-growth of those to whom you have delivered your speech to.