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Why does personal growth advice often sound the same March 10, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development.
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In our search for ways to realize our personal development potential, we may find, after reading a lot of books, articles, blogs, and specialty websites, that the basic principles or fundamentals seem to be similar from source to source.

There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is that the basic or primary principles of personal growth are, in fact, well established and recognized.

From religious texts thousands of years old to the new materials of today, the fundamentals of ideal human behaviour have not changed significantly.

And, if we are honest with ourselves, we often already know (even intuitively) what the main foundation blocks are for reaching our personal growth potential.

So, knowledge of the basics is the easy part.

The tough work is the implementation.

We know what we should be doing (the basics), but we have trouble figuring out how to do it.

We know our personal-change challenges – what we are looking for is solutions or ways to succeed with meeting our challenges.

That’s why there can be real value in reading a varity of writers on personal development.

When we continue reading information from a variety of experts we can find  new ideas, tips, plans, or templates for implementing the basic principles.

For example, even though I already know I need to change some of my attitudes (such as not being judgemental) it’s important for me to find some practical suggestions and advice as to how to accomplish my goal.

And I may need to read a lot of material from different experts to be successful.

 

Personal growth and the creative process March 9, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in The Creative Process.
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Some of us may have decided to include some sort of creative activity, such as writing or painting/drawing, to our program and concept of realizing our personal development potential.

If so, it is important to recognize a key principle of any creative activity if we are to avoid frustration, and then possibly giving up the idea because of a lack of progress.

We need to remind ourselves that the gateway  to enjoying any creative or artistic activity is to learn the basics first, the foundational elements.

Ian Roberts, in his book Creative Authenticity, emphasises the need for doing the groundwork in creative activities before we can expect to be truly creative in any discipline:

“I know art teachers that just want students to express themselves as if the talent and ability is inborn and if the students just gets out of the way, it will magically roll out onto the paper. But imagine having that attitude to a music lesson. If on your first class your violin teacher said, ‘now just express yourself’, you would think he or she was crazy.”

As Roberts stresses, “…if you want to express yourself, learning your craft is a good start.”