Personal development potential: Tikkun middot March 15, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.Tags: achieving goals, life, personal growth, philosophy, self-actualization, self-improvement, thoughts, tikkun middot
add a comment
By Dennis Mellersh
Although following a personal growth program can be complex, it need not be a major challenge to assess our progress, at least at a fundamental level.
Sometimes a simple self-given test can be a helpful guideline as to whether we are on the right track with our personal development program(s).
This can be particularly applicable with self-improvement regimens emphasizing internal work.
Edgar M. Bronfman, for example, in writing about the Jewish practice of tikkun middot, which Bronfman likens to repair of our inner world, comments that he uses the “mirror test” to gauge his own progress in internal self-improvement:
“At least once a week I gaze at my reflection and decide whether or not I’m happy with the man looking back. If not, why not? Have I hurt someone or made a mistake? Where have I failed myself or others? What positive attributes do I need to strengthen? What negative traits do I need to address? Where am I out of balance?” *
Bronfman notes that he is not trying to oversimplify the process of internal improvement and cautions that “…real change requires more than looking in a mirror and asking oneself questions. But this kind of self-examination is a start.”
* Edgar M. Bronfman, Why Be Jewish, published by Signal, an imprint of McClelland & Stewart, 2016
A single day of realizing personal development potential March 8, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.Tags: achieving goals, Hope, Insipiration, life, personal development, personal growth, personal improvement, philosophy, self-improvement
add a comment
By Dennis Mellersh
An ambitious program of personal development can sometimes seem overwhelming if we focus only on its totality. It just seems too challenging.
Yet, in trying to reach our full potential in personal growth and self-improvement, we can achieve significant long-term objectives by doing something limited, yet achievable, each day.
It’s what personal growth expert Seth Godin calls the drip-drip-drip approach to goal realization.
Virtually any long-term personal improvement objective can be broken down into small repeatable or small unique one-off steps.
It’s the way, for, example, that many successful writers approach their work.
By writing 200 words every day for a year, we would have 73,000 words at the end of the year – an intermediate length novel.
Or write 100 words a day and you have a novella of 36,500 words.
We get more done by actually doing something small every day instead of day-dreaming about something big.
Personal Development Ideas 