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Self-awareness has limited value without actual change May 14, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth, Goal Setting and Realization.
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In the work we do on our personal growth and development, there are two basic principles that need to be at work:

(1) Identifying the areas within our personal emotions, attitudes, and knowledge-base that require improvement

(2) Taking action in the identified areas to make actual changes for the betterment of our lives

Sometimes however we can become preoccupied with simply identifying what needs improvement, but we take insufficient action or no action.

We do further and further research about increasing self-knowledge; and we identify techniques for creating change, but we fail to take the important step of acting and creating actual change within ourselves.

It’s an easy pattern to fall into. And it’s one of the anomalies of the concept of personal growth.

We want to make sure in our self-improvement efforts that we “do it  right”, and so we continue reading more and more, but procrastinate about taking the action steps to take us forward with goals we would like to achieve.

And truthfully, a personal growth program without action steps is really not a program at all. It is simply enhanced self-awareness without self-actualization.

Confucius alluded to this more than 2,000 years ago:

The Master said:

“Worthy admonitions cannot fail to inspire us, but what matters is changing ourselves. Reverent advice cannot fail to encourage us, but what matters is acting on it – Encouraged without acting, inspired without changing.” (1)

(1) Confucius, The Analects, as translated by David Hinton in his book, The Four Chinese Classics

Personal growth: A process, not an instant solution April 27, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Personal Development Potential.
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As we work on our personal development and growth programs, we may reach a stage at which we feel we are not moving along fast enough with the changes we would like to make in our lives.

At such a time, we need to remember that the concept of personal development is an ongoing process. It is not meant to be a discipline whereby we read something inspirational and at that point we are immediately transformed.

Part of the process involves studying a lot of printed and online material on the topic of self-improvement and choosing from these materials those ideas and examples which will be the most helpful in each of our individual circumstances, and thereby gradually reaching our potential.

A complex time-intensive process

Critics of the self-actualization movement sometimes say, “If personal development works so well, then why is there always so much new material available and why do people keep reading such information year after year?”

The answer is because the quest of bettering ourselves is complex, and does not lend itself to formulaic packaged, “one-size-fits-all“ solutions. It takes time and a lot of effort to achieve the improved results we want to bring into our lives.

The Chinese sage Confucius reminds of this in the following:

“A boy from Ch’ueh Village had been hired as the Master’s messenger. Asking about him, someone said: ’Is he making progress?’
‘I’ve seen him sit and walk among his elders,’ replied the Master, ‘as if he were already their equal. He has no interest in making progress. He wants it all right now.” (1)
(1) Confucius, The Analects, as translated by David Hinton is his book, The Four Chinese Classics