Internet is a nice source of information. There are free advices to find in nearly any area of expertise. Advices and information you can learn from. There is nothing wrong with reading it. Although.

Reading books and articles is a healthy habit for more than one reason. It opens the mind, it's giving you new ideas, it might set you to action. Yet reading and studying also presents a problem. Not at the age when you should study, but rather later when it's time to act with all the knowledge you have gathered in the previous years.

Reading is a harmless activity. You go over the pages and you process the words according to an algorithm you have built up. You absorb what is in line with your values. You will reject what doesn't seem to fit with your background. And in those grey areas in between it might get you to doubt. You will wonder why doesn't this fit with who you are or if you should change and what?

Books on self-improvement are also harmless. You could read them and use whatever suits you. Yet those books have a sort of Trojan horse hidden in them. When you read the book you open yourself for all kinds of impressions. Kind and possible evil ones. You let strangers in your home where you should ask yourself, "What is wrong with what I already know?"

Do you rather believe others than you trust yourself? Reading and learning is still a healthy activity. Healthier, in the area of self-improvement - would it be to trust on what you already know. Listen to your own internal voice. And remember all the lessons that have past your life so far. Stop reading those books and get back to where the action is!

2005 Hans Bool / Astor White