10+ Best Articles on Personal Growth
The most useful articles on personal growth from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Personal Growth Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved on personal growth by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Dan Harris: The benefits of not being a jerk to yourself
After more than two decades as an anchor for ABC News, an on-air panic attack sent Dan Harris's life in a new direction: he became a dedicated meditator and, to some, even a guru. But then an…
How to ...?
How to Be Great? Just be Good, Repeatably
A thought piece on what it takes to truly be great and what that even means in the first place.
«makes the rest of us believe that correlation (of those outliers) is causation; in other words, success of those individuals is due to their offbeat ways»
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds on personal growth on Refind.
Embarrassment is an Integral Part of the Growth Process
By Leo Babauta A well-known climbing coach said that the biggest obstacle in the way of people’s growth as climbers is, basically, fear of embarrassment. When people want to get better at climbing,…
What It Takes to Grow: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on the Key to Self-Realization
“Self-knowledge… is not an aim in itself, but a means of liberating the forces of spontaneous growth. In this sense, to work at ourselves becomes not only the prime moral obligation, bu…
«under the forces of convention and compulsion; it requires living amicably with who we have been in order to fully live into who we can be.»
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles on personal growth—all under 10 minutes.
Growth Loops: From linear growth to circular growth
In a circular model of growth, nobody is more advanced than anyone. There is no “up” or “down.” People are at a particular point of their own, unique growth loop. Everyone only competes against one’s…
7 thought experiments that will make you question everything
The best thought experiments challenge our beliefs and offer fresh perspectives on how the world operates.
Expectations and Reality
In 2004 the New York Times interviewed Stephen Hawking, the late scientist whose motor-neuron disease left him paralyzed and unable to talk since age 21. Apparently in a good mood, the Times asked…
«there’s almost a complete ignorance of expectations, especially managing them with as much effort as we put into changing our circumstances.»
A simple trick to uncover personal leverage
Most of the things you do don’t matter. Yup, that tweet you’re reading. No impact. The presentation you just edited. No one’s going to read the slide. And that feature you just shipped. Crickets. As…
«If 80% of your activities are barely making a dent with your happiness, what does that mean? And what about that 20% that makes you light up.»
Harder Than It Looks, Not As Fun as It Seems
There’s a saying – I don’t know whose – that an expert is always from out of town. It’s similar to the Bible quote that no man is a prophet in his own country. That one has deeper meaning, but they…
«“All businesses are loosely functioning disasters” Brent Beshore says. But it’s like an iceberg, only a fraction is visible.»
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles on personal growth.
The essential guide to crafting a successful Growth Loop.
Based on personal experience, I want to share what I have found to be the top requirements for success when creating a growth loop.
Generalise, don't specialise: why focusing too narrowly is bad for us
As children, we were told that practice makes perfect, but sportswriter David Epstein turns on its head the popular idea that specializing early on in one field leads to greater success. Epstein delved into studies on the development of elite professionals, observing that dabbling isn’t the hindrance many believe it to be. In this fascinating article, he outlines a convincing case that – in an increasingly complex and interconnected world – the world needs more “people with range.”
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Personal Growth, including:
Mark Manson
3x #1 NYTimes bestselling author. Best known for F-Bombs and uncomfortable truths. Giving life advice that doesn't suck since 2008.
Leo Babauta
Creator of Zen Habits. Training in uncertainty. Zen student, vegan, dad, husband.
Ness Labs
The learning community for ambitious knowledge workers. Join us to think better, learn faster, and work happier: http://nesslabs.com/membership 🧠✨
Greater Good
Your source for the Science of a Meaningful Life | Based @UCBerkeley | Home of the #happinesspod | Click link for more
Big Think
Learn from the world’s biggest thinkers.
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Which sources does Refind monitor on personal growth?
We monitor hundreds of sources on personal growth, including Mark Manson, Leo Babauta, Ness Labs, Greater Good, Big Think, and many more.
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