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Personal growth: Would you like to be a perfect person? May 27, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development.
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There is an old maxim that we might want to apply to our personal growth and development efforts.

Namely, “Be careful of what you wish for.”

Theoretically, the concept of personal growth or self-improvement implies that we are working towards a goal of ultimately achieving a perfect ideal human conduct for ourselves.

But what would becoming a perfect human being involve?

Would we really want our self-actualization work to result in perfection?

Or, in becoming perfect, would we lose something precious in the process?

Eric Hoffer has some interesting observations on this question:

“Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished…It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator…The incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.”

“There is something unhuman about perfection…It is a paradox that, although the striving to mastery a skill is supremely human, the total mastery of a skill approaches the nonhuman. They who would make man perfect end up by dehumanizing him.” (1)

(1) Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition

Personal growth: the “hard work = talent” paradigm May 27, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Self-Discipline.
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Planning, goal-setting, establishing deadlines, and ultimately executing the components of our personal growth programs requires ingenuity, work, and yes, talent.

* Talent to recognize the areas of our lives requiring improvement
* Talent to research the ocean of information available on personal growth and choose the best options to pursue
* Talent to focus on executing first things first
* Talent to “keep going” through difficulties
* Talent to bounce back from setbacks
* Talent to “do the work”

Eric Hoffer talks about this:

“They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration, or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience, something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.” (1)

To be disappointed because our particular concept of personal development is not working fast enough (for us) doesn’t mean we don’t have the talent to make it happen.

Rather, it probably means we are not putting enough work into it.

(1) Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition