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Personal growth: Our past does not equal our future May 20, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth, Living in the Now.
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One of the impediments to effectively implementing our personal growth and development programs can be the way we look at our past, and the attributes we apply to our past behaviour.

The past can be a barrier to forward progress in self-improvement if we look at it through a pessimistic and fatalistic perspective.

We might view the past and its problems as a negative indicator of how things will be in the future.

We might look at our past and fill our minds with regret of what we did or didn’t do.

We might negatively assess our entire personality based on our past.

One conclusion is inescapable; our past behaviour does affect our present and future circumstances.

However, can can’t un-do the past. We can only work in the present to build a positive outcome for the future.

In his book, Notes From a Friend, Tony Robbins makes a significant and carefully worded statement about the past and the future:
“Remember that what you did in the past does not determine what you’ll do in the future.”

In other words, we may not be able to change what we did in the past or its influence on our lives today, but we can change how we will act, what we will do, in the future.

In his comment Robbins is emphasising that behavioural change is possible, that our actions now can positively affect our future; that our past behaviour pattern does not have to be our future behaviour pattern.

We can’t un-ring a bell, but we can ring a new bell.

Positive thinking versus negative thinking.

The entrepreneurial mindset and personal growth success May 15, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Productivity.
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Success with your personal growth and development program is much more likely if you approach your self-improvement efforts as you would manage having your own business:

  • Purpose
  • Study
  • Acquire the knowledge
  • Objectives/goals
  • A plan
  • A timetable
  • Deadlines
  • Continual evaluation
  • Progress reports

By making our personal development efforts our “work”, we treat it with the seriousness that is required for making progress in this life-change discipline.

It’s a tough job permanently altering our attitudinal, emotional, and behavioural approaches to our life situation; so it needs more attention than “doing it when I have the time or feel the inclination.”

A painter, a writer, a musician will not achieve a professional level of competence without putting in the work, and that requires discipline and dedication.

It’s the same with self-development.

Studying, absorbing, committing, doing – the only path to genuine self-actualization