I Read 60+ Self-Help Books And Nothing Changed. Here’s Why

Hey Adventurers!

In this episode of The Adventure Reignition Podcast, we’re diving into one of the biggest traps in personal growth: consuming endless self-improvement content without taking action.

I’ve read over 60 personal development books, listened to countless podcasts, and absorbed tons of motivational content… but for years, nothing actually changed. Why? Because knowing something and living it are two different things.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re growing intellectually but still stuck in the same place, this episode is for you.

Join me as I share:

✅ Why reading personal development books gives you a false sense of progress
✅ How overconsumption of self-improvement content builds ego instead of results
✅ The difference between knowing and embodying personal growth
✅ Why adventure and action are the real keys to transformation
✅ How I broke free from the “learning loop” and started living my growth

This episode is for you if you’re ready to stop just thinking about change and start taking action. Let’s break free from overconsumption and turn knowledge into real transformation!

Episode Breakdown:

[00:01:22] The illusion of growth: Why knowledge alone won’t change your life
 [00:03:10] My personal journey: How I fell into the self-improvement trap
 [00:06:38] The wake-up call: When I realized I wasn’t applying what I learned
 [00:09:01] How adventure helped me step out of overthinking and into action
 [00:13:11] The biggest mistake people make with personal development
 [00:14:32] How to balance introspection with real-world action
 [00:16:00] Why personal development is about doing, not just learning
[00:21:12] The only way to truly grow: Stop reading & start experiencing

Favorite Quote:

"Reading the map doesn’t mean you’ve climbed the mountain. You have to take the journey yourself."

Key Takeaways:

🔹 More knowledge ≠ real transformation. Overconsumption keeps you stuck.
🔹 You don’t need another book—you need to start living the lessons.
🔹 Adventure is the balance of introspection and action. Too much of one without the other leads to frustration.

🚀 Ready to start applying what you know? If you’re tired of just consuming content and want to take action toward an aligned, adventure-filled life, DM me "Action" on Instagram or LinkedIn, and I’ll send you my top strategies for turning knowledge into results.

🎧 Subscribe & Review

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe to The Adventure Reignition Podcast and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps us reach more adventurers like you!

Final Thought:

Most people stay stuck not because they lack knowledge, but because they don’t act on it. Instead of consuming more, let’s start applying what we already know.

Your next adventure starts not in a book, but in your actions.

Let’s go find it! 🚀

Where to find your host online :

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaisedepallens/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaisedepallens/
Website: blaisedepallens.com

Transcript

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And reading. Personal development. Books and content without applying the knowledge and the tools and the exercises is basically like

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reading a map,

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thinking you climb the mountain.

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By just looking at the map and reading the map, it doesn't mean you climb the mountain.

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And that's the same thing I experience with personal development. I would read that book and I would think I know it all, and then it built my ego around that.

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But that's not the case. I learned through experiences. I learned through adventure.

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I learned through challenges. And yes, personal development is personal, and it's about

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introspecting

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and in action.

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Hey, everybody! Welcome to the Adventure Ignition podcast. My name is Daisy Palance. I am the host of the show

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Thanks for listening. I am grateful and honored to have you here on the show with me. Fasten your seat belts and say yes to your life's next adventure.

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Love.

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I've read over 60 personal development books and nothing changed for me. Why? All this knowledge didn't lead me to transformation? That's the topic of today's episode. Welcome back to the Adventure Ignition podcast. I'm really excited to have you here in nature with me today for this episode. With the sun here, nature here, and, very special set up.

00:01:43:08 - 00:02:08:08
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So if you're listening, on the podcast, I'm right now in nature, I woke up a bit earlier to make this episode come true, and, that's something I want to do more shooting in nature, especially podcast episode, because I feel inspired to do this here. But today's topic of this episode is about personal development and reading. Personal development books.

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I already had a lot of, love and hate relationship with personal development over the years, and I want to tell a bit of my journey with it and

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how you can use it in a, smart way to make progress for you in your life. But first, I don't want to spit in the soup. Whether I criticize or not personal developments.

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I want to make you aware that what I do is personal development a lot. My services also include personal development, and I'm also passionate about personal development. I just think sometimes we get it wrong. I definitely did get it wrong in the past. I think personal development in the terms you have personal and that's something I want to showcase today in this episode.

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For me, personal development has never been a thing. The way for me to grow and evolve was through adventure and traveling the world alone for a year in 20 2016 was my way to break this ceiling. The cage I was in to expose myself to new realities, new perspectives, and grow as a person. So when I quit my job in 2015 and ended my studies at the same time, I remember vividly that need to break the cage I was in and for me, adventure and travel

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did that because in my first travel in 2011, when I went to live six months in the US, I really experienced that growth because of the fact that

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I was away from home for so long and I was exposing myself to new people, new realities, new environments, and that's how I like to grow by changing myself. And for me, I never heard about personal development or a personal development industry

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before 2016. I would say. I started to hear it a little bit during my travel

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in 2016, and I started to

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first read books.

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More about.

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Spirituality,

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but not more personally relevant books. I think the first person, the woman book I've read was Tony Robbins around.

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The last quarter of my travel. And that's when I started to be exposed more and more in personal development. I was even looking for, content and podcasts on it when I came back for my travel, because when I came back from my travel,

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I really felt the pull back from my environments society.

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However, however you want to call it

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to,

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as they say, because I heard those phrases told by people around me, it's time to come back to reality. Traveling is not your real life. All those things

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that was forcing me to get back

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into the lane per se.

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And I remember that for me, I really wanted to keep my spirits and mindset of adventure alive.

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So personal development

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was a way for me to keep that mindset alive. So I started a journey of

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podcast consumption,

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YouTube video consumption,

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and a lot of books consumption about the topic.

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At around 2017, when I was 27

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and I really enjoyed them. Honestly, I learned a lot of good things in those books. I was really inspired by them, by some of the topics,

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and from a period between 2017 to 2022, I was really, really strongly into this reading.

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A lot,

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consuming a lot of this content. But I was also traveling at the same time, so I had the balance. But during the pandemic, that's when I really felt something was changing.

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By reading a lot and consuming a lot. It gives you that full, full sense of accomplishments and improvements.

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When you read, personal development books, you feel inspired. You feel like you learn something, but it's only in your head.

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Because I wasn't applying the

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tools, the knowledge and the exercises I was reading in those books or hearing on this podcast in the real life.

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So during the pandemic, where we were stuck inside.

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I consumed even more of those,

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and it led me to that

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information overwhelm, consumption. Overwhelm. Where?

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I felt a bit frustrated

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and.

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I think at the end of 2022, I really took the distance with the whole,

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industry.

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And I even, I think, done a podcast here where I

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talked about it, reflected about it at the time, about what I felt and what I thought about this industry that felt,

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sometimes.

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Not sure is the right word, but sometimes like, a mindset trap.

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And.

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I kind of lost my way consuming all of that content because my way of growth, my way of learning was through adventure, through challenges, through real actions. And I kind of like, let my self be distracted by all those content and consuming it. And because it was giving me that false sense of improvement, I thought that I knew something better.

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And it really builds my ego stronger.

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Than I would admit to, because.

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You think you know, so you talk from the head and then you kind of like, give lessons about the knowledge, you know, but you don't apply them yourself. So for me, it was really, a hard time. So at the end of 2022 and in 2023, I kind of like distance myself from from that, stop reading, stop listening to personal development podcasts and consuming content.

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And I reconnected back with my spirit of adventure. And that's why in 2023, I embarked on the journey to bike back the 26 regions of Switzerland. And that's how I really felt the cold back and the experience once again, to reconnect with my intuition rather than

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the thoughts, influences and content from other people online.

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And I could reconnect to my inner voice, my intuition, and my way of learning things through challenges, through adventure.

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But after some time distancing myself from the whole personal development industry, I realized this. It wasn't the person development industry or the messages that were problem. It was the way I was consuming the content.

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Because instead of reading a book and applying the content, I was going to the next book and to the next book and to the next book, and to the next book,

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without applying the thing.

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And at the end of the day, I realized that basically all those books have similar messages. There's just, like, turn in different perspective of through the eyes of the author, of the content creator or the podcast.

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It's all about. Live with intention. Be your best self.

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Build your dream life. And those are messages I'm personally attracted to do because I've been living this way through adventure for years.

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But that's when I realize, like an adventure is the balance between introspection and action that makes the thing very worth.

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And reading. Personal development. Books and content without applying the knowledge and the tools and the exercises is basically like

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reading a map,

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thinking you climb the mountain.

00:10:47:12 - 00:10:52:10
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By just looking at the map and reading the map, it doesn't mean you climb the mountain.

00:10:52:10 - 00:11:04:08
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And that's the same thing I experience with personal development. I would read that book and I would think I know it all, and then it built my ego around that.

00:11:04:08 - 00:11:09:01
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But that's not the case. I learned through experiences. I learned through adventure.

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I learned through challenges. And yes, personal development is personal, and it's about

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introspecting

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and in action.

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And that's what I've been doing for all my life with adventure. And that's why

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I

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talk about personal development now, because

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I think I integrated that key components of

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adventure balance between adventure action and introspection. And for me, introspection is huge because adventure actually, for me, is the door for introspection.

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And then you introspect. You learn things about yourself, you observe your set, your self, your life, your thoughts, your feelings, and then you play back to your life for the next journey, the next adventure.

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And that's for me, the key thing with personal development here, it's not the industry, the books,

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it's the way you consume it

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and apply the knowledge you get.

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And once I started to apply that new perspective on personal development.

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I started to feel like a beginner again. Like motivation and drive was back again in my life and in what I was sharing as messages, as the content I'm creating. Because I really think it's an important part. But you should act on it. Really. You should change yourself.

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You should change your perspective. You should do the thing. And I see so many people that's

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are reading a ton of books that don't apply them, and then they still feel stuck. And that's why I created

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a coaching program to take out all the fluff

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of personal development, the grinding thing, the productive thing, and to really focus on getting to know yourself and to

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align with your values, your vision, your beliefs, your energy, who you are.

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And I think once you know that, and even if you're not fully clear on that, if you have 1,520% clarity on those on yourself and on your values and your vision, it's time to start moving. And it's only by movement that things changes and the introspection can happen for a time. But if you don't act on it, if you stay stuck in your fears, in your thoughts and your feelings, nothing will ever change.

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And that's the key message here. This is not the industry. The problem. This is us. This is the way we and you and I are applying this thing and consuming the thing. So focus on finding

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like the deep sense of who you are through your values, through your vision, through your passions, through your skills and your purpose. And once you find that it's only a game of action, and that's for me, the only thing that's really matter about personal development, especially when it comes to do something that really excites you, that really makes you feel alive, that's essential.

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and stop over consuming. Just find the right balance for you.

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Act on it.

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Make your dreams and vision come alive.

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And that's the most important thing.

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but I'd love to hear your thoughts about

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your journey with personal development.

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You can contact me on LinkedIn or Instagram. That's the best places to to get in touch with me.

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and this started a conversation. That was it for today is that was my take away on how reading and consuming person developing books and content won't change your life unless you act on it.

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By.

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That's it for today's episode. I really hope you had a great time on the show today. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to the Adventure Ignition Podcast and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify because it helps a lot.

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Get this message of Adventure out. If you have any question, any suggestions, or you just want to contact me, please do it on social media. I blaze the stones over LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. I would be pleased to start a conversation with you and answer your questions before to leave you. I really want to take a moment to acknowledge you for still being here on this episode.

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And thank you so much for your support and being part of my journey on the Adventure Recognition Podcast. And as usual, I'm going to end this episode with a famous quote from Allen Keller that I love so much. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Thank you so much for your support. Don't forget to say yes to adventure, surf the vibe and spread the love.

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Peace out.