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Following an individual path in personal growth June 5, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth.
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In our efforts to choose a program of self-improvement, it can be tempting to follow the most recommended systems, to choose what is popular, to pick what is “trending” right now.

This can be a mistake.

Because what the crowd likes or dislikes will not necessarily be the right choice for you.

If you read and/or participate in self-help forums and discussion groups, for example, you will soon discover that some personal growth systems are liked by many; and conversely other programs are equally disliked or not recommended.

But should you let this influence you?

One of the key points of seriously pursuing personal development is to build our own self-confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness.

To choose the popular and to avoid the unpopular, without analyzing what best suits our own development needs, will not assist our growth. Rather, it puts the choice of the path we will follow into the hands of others.

Moreover, there is often a momentum in popular liking or disliking; a momentum in which serious analysis is missing.

Choosing a program because it is popular or avoiding one that is unpopular without analyzing either of them could be detrimental to your progress.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius had this to say about the extremes of approval and disapproval:

“When everyone hates a person, you should investigate thoroughly. And when everyone loves a person, you should also investigate thoroughly.” (1)

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

Personal growth: A willingness to believe and to learn May 28, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Personal Development Potential.
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Two significant personality characteristics of people engaged in a program of personal development and growth are:

(1) A willingness to believe that change for the better is possible

(2) A willingness to take the action steps (the work) to implement change

These two emotional and intellectual characteristics are also common to individuals throughout history who have struggled in difficult socio-economic environments and produced significant accomplishments to improve society as a whole.

So, as someone seriously exploring the concept of self-improvement, you are among a select group of believers and doers; you already have a strong sense of identity and a strong bias to action.

Essentially, you are an optimist with a mindset favourable to enabling your self-actualization.

Some critics of the personal development movement contend that personal growth practitioners keep buying self-improvement materials year after year, in a never ending process of seeking new information. The argument being; if personal growth concepts actually work, then why do people need to keep obtaining new information about the process?

This criticism fails to recognize the essential truth that self-betterment is a lifelong and life-oriented learning process, not a short-term problem/solution equation.

The real goal in personal growth is the well-being and growth-attitude generated by the continuous improvement process itself.

You are participating in an educational effort that will pay intellectual and emotional dividends both now and perhaps even more so in the future. And you may end up being much better prepared to deal with the future as it unfolds compared to people not engaged in personal growth.

Here is how the philosopher Eric Hoffer looks at the process of education:

“The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned, but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society. Where grandparents, parents, and children are students together…In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” (1)

(1) Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition