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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 and the attraction of opposites May 27, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization, Solving Problems.
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There can be times in our personal growth and development journey when confusion sets in, when the choice of which path to take becomes difficult.

We hear different and often conflicting pieces of advice, suggestions, or ideas – from others, and from our own internal voice.

This does not mean there is something wrong with the methods we are using, or the overall approach we are taking to our self-improvement efforts.

Feeling this way is normal and is a result of the attraction of perhaps equally attractive alternatives.

Having these “dilemmas” is actually what can make the self-development journey interesting, exciting and rewarding.

Mindless, inflexible adherence to one, and one-only, approach to self-actualization can be limiting, unproductive, and yes, boring.
The philosopher Eric Hoffer makes this comment:

“It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites – opposite bents, tastes, yearnings, loyalties. Where there is no polarity – where energies flow smoothly in one direction, — there will be much doing, but no music.” (1)

(1) Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition