Personal growth: The persistence of intolerance April 5, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth.Tags: intolerance, life, Michel de Montaigne, personal development, philosophy, self-actualization, writing
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By Dennis Mellersh
Our tendency towards resistance, intolerance, and non-acceptance of what is new and complex is an ageless phenomenon.
And so, the need for self-examination and making efforts to cultivate an open mind – key principles of our self-actualization programs.
Writing in 1580 in his first book of essays, Michel de Montaigne noted, “…it is a stupid presumption to go about despising and condemning as false, anything that seems to us improbable; this is a common fault in those who think they have more intelligence than the crowd…it is a dangerous and serious presumption…to condemn what we do not understand.”
Montaigne was witnessing firsthand an era of rapid explosion of knowledge and opinion through book publishing, in turn due to advances in printing technology that were making information widely available in books printed in national languages.
Montaigne called these languages the “vulgar tongue.” Books previously were available primarily in the classical, ancient languages of Latin and Greek.
As if in anticipation of the intolerance and resistance expressed through the modern practice of “commenting” in the age of the Internet, Montaigne wrote about “the rashness of those hasty critics who pounce on writings of every sort, especially on new books…written in the vulgar tongue – a practice which allows the whole world to comment, and seemingly to prove that their conception and design are vulgar also.”
He included himself in this criticism, noting, “Pride and curiosity are the two scourges of our souls. The latter prompts us to poke our noses into everything, and the former forbids us to leave anything unresolved and undecided.” (1)
(1) Montaigne quotations from Montaigne Essays, translated by J.M. Cohen, Penguin Classics, Penguin Books Ltd., 1971
Personal Growth: How often do we practise what we learn? April 3, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth.Tags: achieving goals, life, lifestyle, personal development, personal improvement, philosophy, self-improvement
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By Dennis Mellersh
If we aren’t vigilant we can spend a lot of time being perpetual students of personal development media as opposed to actually putting concepts and principles into practice.
This can happen all too easily in those aspects of self-improvement involving our human nature and emotional instincts.
It’s generally easier to implement personal improvement programs involving a practical skill set such as learning a new language, taking a course in creative writing, or a night school class in oil painting.
It’s hard to imagine a young artist taking courses in how to improve his painting skills, and then not putting the skills learned into practice in the next painting he undertakes.
Yet the same artist studying self-improvement could find it difficult not to envy and resent the success of a fellow artist who has been working at her craft for much less time than he has.
Intellectually, for example. we realize the need for developing patience.
We’ve read the books, such as Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.
But, we might still be fidgeting and internally complaining when a slow line at a retail store moves even slower as an elderly lady carefully counts out most of the change in her purse to pay for her purchase.
We’re learning about developing patience, but some of us still have more internal work to do in putting the concept into practice.
And, if we don’t put in the effort and spend time investigating how to implement the more difficult emotion-focused personal growth concepts we study, our “learning” will be rather empty.
Personal Development Ideas 