Mindvalley Review: Is It Worth It?

Is Mindvalley worth your time and money, and who is it for? Let’s find out in this Mindvalley review!

For most people, including me, personal development is tough. This is because it takes months, years, or even decades. Who has the time and patience to stick with something for so long? I know for sure that before watching Mindvalley Quests, I didn’t.

But now I have an easier time building good writing habits. I like Mindvalley because they ensure you stick with habits that’ll lead to personal growth. Building habits is like going to the gym. The first few weeks are painful, but after that, you get used to it, then it becomes easy.

People are five times more likely to complete a course on Mindvalley than any other learning platform.

In this Mindvalley review, I’ll go through what Mindvalley is, who will benefit from it, what skills you can learn, the pros and cons, and if it’s worth it.

What Is Mindvalley And Why Should You Use It?

The Mindvalley Academy is an online learning platform founded by Vishen Lakhiani in 2003. His goal was to get people learning every single day of their lives. This reminds me of one of my favorites quotes:

“Once you stop learning, you start dying.” Albert Einstein

Most people stop learning when they graduate. This leads to a life with no personal development and active learning. So basically the person is already dead. They’re just waiting to be buried. However, Mindvalley makes learning fun again. This way you learn something new every day.

Another problem Mindvalley solves is that they don’t just focus on your career goals like most online learning platforms. 

There’s nothing wrong with seeking a fulfilling career, since it’s one of the most important aspects to a happy life. But we should also focus on other areas of our lives.

When last did you focus on your mental health by meditating or writing in a gratitude journal? Or consciously aim to gain new life experiences like learning a new skill or language? I rarely did these things before watching Mindvalley. 

This variety of topics is what makes Mindvalley different, compared to other online learning platforms like Skillshare or Masterclass. While these platforms mainly focus on improving careers, Mindvalley aims to encourage personal development as a whole.

Mindvalley currently enrolls over 12 million students in 80 countries.

One of the biggest reasons millions of students are attracted to Mindvalley is its high-quality videos. These videos aim to unlock the full potential of your mind, body and spirit so you can find success at work, in relationships and in your individual talents. 

They also have a series called “Little Humans,” developed to help parents raise their children.

CEOs, bestselling authors and famous entrepreneurs teach on these platforms. This ensures you’re in good hands.

Mindvalley offers eight categories to choose from:

1. Mind
2. Body
3. Soul
4. Entrepreneurship
5. Relationships
6. Conscious parenting mastery
7. Work
8. Performance

My favorite category is performance. Here I learned a lot about how to be more productive, structure my day and clear my mind for focus. This is important to me as a freelance writer since research, writing and editing take hours of laser-focused attention.

My favorite courses in the performance category include:

• Superbrain by Jim Kwik
• The Habit of Ferocity by Steven Kotler

Another reason I like Mindvalley is that the courses, also known as quests, are broken into 5-to-20-minute bite-sized chunks. You can watch only one quest per day, split up into 7-to-50 days. This forms habit building and forces you to be extraordinary.

Who Owns Mindvalley?

Vishen Lakhiani, born January 14, 1976, is a Malaysian entrepreneur, bestselling author, speaker and founder of Mindvalley. Some of his bestselling books that you might recognize include:

• The Code of the Extraordinary Mind
• The Buddha and the Badass

Lakhiani was raised in Kuala Lumpur and moved to the United States after graduating from high school. He attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. Then he moved to Silicon Valley.

With his partner Michael Reining, Lakhiani aimed to raise human consciousness by bringing all the world’s top teachers under one virtual roof. This is why in 2003 they founded Mindvalley in New York City. Some famous teachers on Mindvalley include:

• Jose Silva
• Marisa Peer
• Robin Sharma

Lakhiani and Reining achieved their ultimate goal of bringing the world’s best teachers together. These successful people share knowledge they’ve gained over decades. The fun part is, you can absorb this invaluable information by watching a few minutes of Mindvalley every day.

Who Is Mindvalley For?

Mindvalley provides an array of quests that increase productivity, reduce stress, and improve physical fitness. These quests are short and packed full of information, so the lessons are easy to understand. People who’ll benefit from Mindvalley include:

• Freelance writers
• Creative professionals
• Entrepreneurs

Freelance Writers

As a freelance writer, I never thought that Mindvalley would help improve my writing skills. Although the platform doesn’t offer courses teaching how to write better blog posts or websites, the instructors show you how to learn efficiently and become more productive.

My favorite course on learning is Superbrain by Jim Kwik. In this quest, I learned how to remember more information for longer, wake up with more energy and sleep better. This is crucial for a freelance writer.

I especially like the chapter on sleep and stress management. When trying to improve productivity, we rarely look to reduce stress and optimize sleep, but this can do wonders for a freelance writer’s productivity.

In this quest, you’ll learn unique tips and techniques that have helped thousands increase work efficiency. 

Creative Professionals

Whether you’re an artist, photographer or designer, Mindvalley will help you become the best version of yourself. I took several courses that helped bring out my creativity.

As creative individuals, we often struggle with developing new ideas. Whether it’s staring at a blank screen or not knowing what to photograph, we all know the struggle.

It’s stressful and draining.

But by implementing a few of the strategies Mindvalley instructors offer, like meditation and chakra healing, you’ll decrease the amount of time you spend in creative ruts. 

One of my favorite ways to overcome a creative dry spell is to meditate. Meditation is simply sitting in a quiet place for a few minutes and letting your brain take a break. A few helpful Mindvalley courses teach meditation:

• The M Word by Emily Fletcher
• The 6 Phase Meditation by Vishen Lakhiani

As a creative person, the lessons I learned from these classes, like being present and non-judgmental of your work, are particularly helpful when I’m stuck in a creative rut.

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is one of the most complex fields you can venture into. No curriculum supports you, telling you what to do. No boss motivates you to work hard. You need to find a product or service that people love and market it compellingly.

This is why Mindvalley has a category dedicated to entrepreneurship. The internet provides pages of returns about how to start and scale your business, but most of it is regurgitated information with little value to the reader.

With Mindvalley, you learn from industry leaders like:

• Ajit Nawalkha
• Ken Honda
• Eric Edmeades
• Dr. Shefali

So, you know the information will benefit you. These instructors have spent their entire lives figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Some of my favorite courses on entrepreneurship and life include:

• Business Freedom Blueprint by Eric Edmeades
• Lifebook Online by Jon and Missy Butcher

Business Freedom Blueprint is 10 hours long while Lifebook Online is 18 hours long. The lessons are only a few minutes, so you can watch one while taking a break from work or when you have free time.

You can watch only one lesson per day, and the instructor encourages you to implement the advice and tools in your business.

How Does Mindvalley’s Pricing Work?

Mindvalley offers two choices to get access to Mindvalley quests. The best option depends on your needs and preferences.

Lifetime Mindvalley Access

The first way to access courses is to buy lifetime Mindvalley access to a single class. This is more expensive since you’re purchasing only a single quest. Class prices vary and can be expensive. Some are $199, while others are $399.

When you buy a class or quest, you get lifetime access to the entire course on different devices, whether phone, tablet or desktop.

You’ll also get access to exclusive groups and class discussions, also known as tribes. 

This is a good choice if you’re interested in only one quest and want lifetime access to it. If you’re going to watch other video lessons, opt for the Mindvalley Membership, formerly called the All-Access Pass.

Mindvalley All Access Membership

Mindvalley Membership is an annual subscription that allows you unlimited access to all video lessons. You can pay either monthly for the membership, which costs $99 per month, or you can opt for a $499 annual plan. This works out to only $41.60 per month.

Personally, I prefer the Mindvalley Membership over the Lifetime Access. It’s far less expensive and permits access to all the exclusive groups and discussions.

However, it does have its drawbacks. With a membership, you can watch courses on Mindvalley only as long as your subscription lasts. After that, you don’t have access. This is important if you want to go back and reference different classes.

What I don’t like about Mindvalley is that they always put a ridiculously high price above their actual price, for example, $12,364. This is just a marketing strategy since the price was never and will never be this high.

My Top 5 Favorite Mindvalley Courses

It was difficult to pick just five of my favorite Mindvalley programs, since almost every class is out of this world. But if I had to choose five online courses, I’d select:

1. 7 Days to Happiness by Kristina Mand-Lakhiani
2. 5 Days to a Powerful Memory by Jim Kwik
3. Productivity for Working at Home by Jason Campbell
4. Total Transformation Training by Christine Bullock
5. Live By Your Own Rules by Kristina Mand-Lakhiani

7 Days To Happiness

This was the first Mindvalley masterclass I took, and it left a permanent imprint on me. This isn’t like your typical online video on how to be happy. The lessons are life-changing and emotional.

I learned five main lessons:

1. Always be present.
2. Never compare yourself with others.
3. Practice gratitude.
4. Develop close relationships with others.
5. Forgive and forget.

These are crucial for our happiness as humans. Too often, we find ourselves working all the time and focusing on increasing productivity. We rarely sit and appreciate what we have and what we achieved over the past months or years.

5 Days To A Powerful Memory

This Mindvalley masterclass by Jim Kwik is essential for the self-improvement of every freelance writer and entrepreneur. In this course, he shows how to learn faster and remember things longer. 

Kwik compares this to a genie asking what wish you want granted. Most likely, you’ll wish for more wishes. If you could master any skill in the world, what would it be? Writing? Marketing? Martial arts?

Mastering the art of transformative learning is the most critical skill of all. It’s like asking for more wishes, because if you know how to learn, you can master anything.

Productivity For Working From Home 

We all know the pain of working from home. Before the pandemic, I thought working from home would be the best thing ever. I thought I could wake up at any time with no boss looking over my shoulder, and have lunch for as long as I wanted.

But working from home presents a list of new problems. The most familiar is endless distractions. Everything from television, your phone and even family members and roommates can prevent you from getting work done.

But working from home doesn’t have to be a pain. With a few simple techniques, you can work from home with ease.

Jason Campbell recommends optimizing your to do list. You do the most essential work in the morning and less critical work later in the day. Also, if you can delegate work that doesn’t need your attention, then do it.

It saves time and energy.

Last, Campbell speaks about removing your biggest distraction from your workspace. For me, that’s my phone. I can easily clock 8-to-10 hours of phone time any day. That’s insane! The worst part is, I wasn’t aware of it until I started accounting for every minute of my day.

When I removed my phone from my workspace, my productivity improved. But there was a problem. When I completed my work for the day, I sat on my phone for hours at a time.

One day I decided to put my phone in a drawer for a few days and not use it. The first few days were tough, but after about day five, I was more productive than ever. I got more work done, spent more quality time with friends and family and even managed to read two to three books a week.

I also enjoy the little things like going for a walk and talking to people.

If you want to shake things up a bit in your life, I highly recommend going without your phone for a few days. The self-development will inspire you, and it’ll improve all areas of your life.

Total Transformation Training

This course by Christine Bullock focuses on the importance of exercise. 

Busy individuals like freelance writers can feel like they never have time for a workout. But this is untrue.

Even if you’re working 12-to-15 hours a day, you still have time for a workout.

The workouts Bullock recommends take only 10 to 30 minutes and work the muscles weakened by sitting all day. These muscles are:

• The lower back
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Core

The benefits of exercise are covered extensively, and it’s beautiful how a few minutes of squats, push-ups, and pull-ups can boost energy, clarity, and mental focus.

Live By Your Own Rules

This is another course Kristina Mand-Lakhiani teaches. She speaks about consciousness, accepting yourself, and dealing with painful emotions.

One of the main points that resonated with me is consciousness: Consciousness is mindfulness.

Most of the time, we go through life without being present. We wake up, brush our teeth, take a shower and make coffee without any mindfulness. Our brains are so used to our routine that it takes us through the routine without us thinking about every motion.

Instead, in this class, Mand-Lakhiani recommends you do things with purpose. Ask yourself:

• What am I doing right now?
• Why am I doing this?
• How will this affect my life?

Doing this will allow you to act with a purpose, and you’ll be more aware and conscious of the present moment.

Now that we’ve covered my favorite Mindvalley classes, let’s look at the pros and cons.

Mindvalley Vs. Some Alternatives

Alongside Mindvalley, my favorite internet learning platforms include:

• Masterclass
• Skillshare
• CreativeLive

I feel like Mindvalley comfortably beats Skillshare and CreativeLive when it comes to the quality of paid and free courses. The Mindvalley team has an array of CEOs, authors, and motivational speakers teaching on its platform. 

But if I had to choose between Masterclass and Mindvalley, I would pick Masterclass. The instructors perform at a higher level. Masterclass celebrities include:

• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Judy Blume
• Margaret Atwood
• Neil Gaiman
• Malcolm Gladwell

This is a level of expertise that not even the Mindvalley Academy can beat. Also, the cost of an annual pass for Masterclass is only $180. Compare that to Mindvalley’s $499 per year. 

Why You Can Trust Us

I’ve been a customer of Mindvalley for a few months now, and they deliver every single time. I’ve used Mindvalley to reduce stress, increase productivity and live in the moment more often.

The criteria I used to judge the courses include:

1. Does it share a lot of valuable information within a short time?
2. Is the interface easy to use?
3. Will the instructors and students help you if you’re stuck?
4. How well-known are the instructors?

I tested Mindvalley by watching several quests and putting the advice instructors gave into action. 

Mindvalley helped me as a freelancer not only to improve my writing but my overall lifestyle. 

For example, I used to struggle with maintaining a proper sleep schedule. Sometimes I’d stay up until two in the morning. This affected my creativity and writing ability. After taking Dr. Michael Breus’ course on mastery of sleep, however,  I go to bed early and wake up feeling full of energy.

Is Mindvalley Worth It?

Mindvalley presents an alternative method to learning. The topics don’t focus just on becoming a master at your skill or career like other platforms do; they show how to be a well-rounded person.

Courses focus on critical aspects of your life: mind, body, soul, entrepreneurship, relationships, parenting, work and performance, so you know your life will improve as a whole.

Their courses are also easy to digest since each class is only a few minutes long, and students can take only one quest per day. This is the main reason students on Mindvalley are five times more likely to complete a course compared to other online learning platforms.

However, Mindvalley is expensive. It costs $499 per year, which steers some people away from the platform.

Final Word On Mindvalley Review

Mindvalley is up there with Masterclass, Skillshare and CreativeLive since it offers individual lessons that are hard to find anywhere else. Unlike some classes on other learning platforms, you’ll always learn something new from Mindvalley’s quests.

These quests are broken into bite-sized lessons that are easy to follow. What sets Mindvalley apart is that you can watch only one video per day. This trains you to build a habit over time.

Listen to our interview with Vishen Lakhiania