Concept of personal development: Compassion April 11, 2014
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development.Tags: compassion, negative thinking, personal development, personal growth, philosophy, prejudice, Samuel Johnson, self-improvement
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Personal growth experts often suggest that in order to acquire a virtue or positive behavioural attribute we need to perform positive actions within the definition of the attribute.
So, if we want to develop the personal quality of compassion we should perform acts of compassion. The more compassionate acts we perform, the more compassionate will likely become.
However, an additional approach to becoming more compassionate is to use logic to:
(a) Understand our lack of compassion (and the presence of resentment and prejudice [prejudging]);
(b) Become more compassionate; and
(c) Substantially reduce, and ideally, eliminate our prejudices.
If we understand the reasons for our lack of compassion and the reasons for the presence of our prejudice against certain situations or groups of people, then we will be more successful in correcting our overall attitude and behaviour.
One example of a lack of compassion, and the presence of prejudice might be in the often prevailing attitude that any kind of financial assistance to poor people should be used by them only to buy the “necessities of life” and not for any “frivolous” purposes.
The influential 18th essayist, moralist, and literary critic Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), commented however that there is a logical reason why people in constant financial stress might want some luxuries. He did not see their desire for enjoyment as a deficiency of character. His comment also reveals some of the meanness that can be present in our minds – meanness caused by a lack of understanding.
“Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to show even visible displeasure if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths.” (*)
Perhaps we can also apply logic to achieve better understanding of our other prejudices, and thereby increase the probability of our becoming more compassionate.
(*) Samuel Johnson: A Biography, John Wain, The Viking Press, New York, 1975, 388 pages
Further reading
A Wikipedia article on Samuel Johnson can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson
“Today is a better day”: A goal for personal growth April 9, 2014
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Goal Setting and Realization.Tags: achieving goals, Edward de Bono, life, personal development, personal development potential, personal growth, philosophy, self-improvement
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In his book, Handbook for the Positive Revolution, Edward de Bono sets a goal for people working on a program for implementing their particular concept of personal development.
In discussing self-improvement as part of his “positive revolution”, de Bono suggests that we each have a new greeting when we meet people.
Instead of the usual “How are you?” he suggests we say instead, “Today is a better day.”
De Bono’s reasoning is that “…whoever you are talking to is one day older than yesterday and as we should all be improving with each day we live, then today that person is better than he or she was yesterday.”
He adds that self-improvement is a day-by-day, slow process and needs to be there all the time.
De Bono says that self-improvement can take place in any of four directions:
(1) Developing positive attitudes, habits and skills.
(2) Reducing the domination of bad habits and attitudes
(3) Getting better at whatever it is (work, job, task) that you are doing
(4) Acquiring specific new skills
An interesting idea and worth considering as part of realizing our personal development potential.
Further reading:
Edward de Bono, Handbook for the Positive Revolution, Viking Penguin, New York, 1992, 176 pages
Personal Development Ideas 