How optimism can sometimes hurt your personal growth May 4, 2018
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in personal development ideas.Tags: achieving goals, Hope, inspiration, life, optimism, personal development ideas, personal growth program, philosophy, positive thinking, psychology, self-actualization, writing
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It would be difficult to explore any particular personal growth program or system without encountering a discussion of optimism, a discussion which will usually extol the need for, and benefits of, optimism; but can optimism have a downside?
The word optimism is derived from the Latin, optimus, meaning the best; and in thinking about this topic further, I found a number of definitions of optimism, one of which is:
“The tendency to take the most hopeful view.” *
That seems like a practical and productive attitude.
Another one, which I think requires more of a fatalism-based belief approach, is:
“The opinion or doctrine that everything is for the best.” *
The latter is more of a reach than taking a “hopeful view”
Regardless of which definition we might prefer, they both appear to be present-time or now-focussed. Whatever is happening, we take either a “hopeful view” or tell ourselves “It is for the best.”
But I think in most cases, our optimism is future-focused and that is where we can get into trouble.
“This is bad, but it will get better.”
Maybe it will and maybe it won’t.
If it doesn’t get better, and we bet on faith that it will get better but don’t take action steps to ensure a positive outcome, we are missing an opportunity in the present to improve the situation.
Alternatively, “This is good and it will continue to be good.”
Again, faith without productive actions will likely disappoint.
Optimism can be a rational and a productive attitudinal foundation for our efforts towards self-actualization and personal improvement, but…
…optimism has to be based on a commitment to action, or it will likely fail to result in positive outcomes.
* Both definitions are from Webster’s Scholastic Dictionary, Airmont Publishing Company, Inc., New York
—Dennis Mellersh
Moderation is the key to success in personal improvement May 3, 2018
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in personal development ideas.Tags: Carl Jung, goal setting, inspiration, life, personal development ideas, personal development planning, personal growth, philosophy, self-actualization, self-improvement, writing
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Sometimes over-zealous work on our personal growth programs can lead to an imbalanced life, whereby we spend so much time and effort on a self-improvement program, or a personal goal within the program, that other important aspects of our lives can suffer from lack of attention.
Our personal growth efforts can actually suffer if we spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to ensure positive results.
Running or jogging, for example, has benefits for improving our health, but these benefits are of little use if we skew the rest of our life out of balance by constantly trying to include more and more running.
Or, we can spend so much time researching and studying personal development that we do not spend enough time on those action steps needed to bring our goals to fruition.
Doing community work to excess can interfere with the time we should be spending with our own family.
As psychologist and self-actualization thinker Carl Jung has observed:
“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, or morphine, or idealism.”
—Dennis Mellersh
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