Personal development bad habit: being too hard on yourself November 2, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.Tags: humility, life, personal growth program, philosophy, self-actualization, self-criticism, writing
add a comment
There’s not much use in our diligently following a program of personal growth, if at the same time we are constantly minimizing our accomplishments.
Humility is a desirable personal characteristic to cultivate, but taken too far, unwarranted humility can result in “putting ourselves down”, and subtracting from our self-confidence.
We are all familiar with the egotist, the braggart, the one who’s always right.
These types don’t need a self-actualization program – they are already perfect in every way.
But for the rest of us struggling with reaching our potential with self-improvement in a difficult world, we should not be so critical of ourselves; struggle is part of the human condition.
Nothing new here; just a reminder to show a little kindness.
In this case, to ourselves.
— Dennis Mellersh
Personal growth: Wasting people and wasting words April 4, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Solving Problems.Tags: Confucius, life, lifestyle, personal development, personal growth program, philosophy, self-actualization
add a comment
By Dennis Mellersh
Knowing when we should share advice and when we should withhold it can be an important skill or aptitude to develop in our personal development and self-actualization learning program.
Sometimes we don’t share when our input is needed by someone and other times we share when the recipient is not open to receiving it.
The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius sums up the predicament this way:
“When a person is capable of understanding your words and you refuse to speak, you’re wasting a person. When a person isn’t capable of understanding your words and you speak anyway, you’re wasting words. The wise waste neither words nor people.” (1)
Not always easy however to determine which of the two divergent scenarios we are dealing with.
That’s why it’s a skill; and it takes some time and work to learn.
(1) Quoted in The Analects as translated by David Hinton in his book The Four Chinese Classics
Personal Development Ideas 