photo credit: fotosiamo
Personal Growth And Development
If you scan audiences for most live personal growth and development events as well as see who is buying the bulk of the books in this area at the bookstores, you will probably see that the vast majority of the demographic are in their 30s, 40s and older age groups. These are people who have been working for at least several years into their careers.
I was having a discussion with a friend recently about college students and whether they are ready for personal growth and development topics. We both agreed that students can most definitely benefit from exposure to such material since it can help with their studies, campus life as well as prepare them for their future careers.
College Students May Not Be Ready To Appreciate Personal Development
However, I think one of the reasons why we don’t see much of this younger demographic gobbling up personal development content and personal growth books is that perhaps they are not ready yet. I even asked some of my recent college student audiences whether they are into personal development and not one hand went up.
I think what is happening with students is that they are so caught up in studying for their courses, exams and involved in other more activities directly related to campus life, that they are just not thinking about personal development or personal growth. They just want to successfully get through their courses with decent grades.
This is understandable of course. This is why pure motivational speakers do not seem to be a big draw on college campuses. The students just are not identifying with issues related to personal growth just yet.
Need Real Life Experience First
An organizer of college and university campus activities conferences once told me that he thinks the students need more real life experience first before being able to appreciate anything in the personal development world. I tend to agree with this. The students need a few years of working at a real career, paying rent and utilities as well as managing other real world, day to day life responsibilities.
Maybe only after this real life experience, can college graduates start to appreciate the importance of learning more about personal growth and development. This would certainly explain why the current demographics of the personal development and self help market is what they are — older working adults.
What do you think? Do you think that college students are in the right mode for personal growth and development material yet? It would be very interesting to hear from both current college students and those who have graduated many years ago.
