I define mental hoarding as having and continuing to amass vast amounts of information, usually on the same topic (self-help, in my case), and being unable to put it into practice, due to an overload of contradictory data or seeking more information before thinking a choice of action can be made.
I feel I have suffered from this type mental hoarding. I’ve told myself for years that I had a love of self-help information – books, TV shows, audio tapes, and podcasts, to name a few. My need to consume information would wax and wane as events in my life passed, but if a good source crossed my path, I would snatch it up immediately. I wouldn’t always consume it, but I knew I could at anytime that it was needed. However, the only times I tried to use empowering self-help information were when things were not going the way I wanted them to. For over 20 years, I consumed knowledge. But with all the information, nothing seemed to stick. I always sought out more information, more knowledge, more something that I thought would be the key to actually accomplishing something.