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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

12 Reasons for considering a personal growth program April 18, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Concept of personal growth.
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Personal growth and development is a process that we sporadically engage in intuitively and unconsciously every time we develop a new practical skill (such as learning a second language) or take steps to improve life-intangibles such as helping others or improving a relationship.

However there can come a time in our lives when we may need or want a more systematic approach to improving our overall quality of life.

Here some of the signs, reasons, or circumstances that may prompt people to investigate a more formal approach to enhancing the management of their lives:

(1) Although not clinically depressed, we may feel a general sense of dissatisfaction with the progress we are making in various aspects of our lives
(2) We are aware of our strengths and talents but want to maximize them to their full potential
(3) We know our weaknesses or faults and would like to turn these into positives
(4) We have a general feeling of resignation or negativity and want to bring more happiness and optimism into our lives
(5) We feel “stressed-out” and want to achieve a state of well-being and contentment
(6) We want to bring a greater degree of spirituality into our lives
(7) We want to improve our leadership capabilities
(8) We are having trouble keeping balance in our emotions and want to achieve more equilibrium
(9) We want to achieve more autonomy and independence in our approach to life; we want to better control our destiny
(10) We feel we are drifting somewhat and want to establish a personal sense of purpose in our life
(11) We are searching for “who we are” and “what we really want to do” and want to establish a better sense or concept of self-identity
(12) Although we may consider ourselves to be a “good person” we may feel that we need to establish more consistency or integrity in our actions