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Personal growth concept: Making irrevocable decisions October 28, 2017

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth.
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After the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes reached the New World and decided to invade Mexico (Aztec Empire) in the year 1519 it is said that he burned his ships in order to make the decision to invade virtually impossible to change. (1)

The idea of making a decision completely unchangeable, as Cortes did, however, contains the ingredients for two possible likely outcomes:  success or failure. It’s an extreme decision-making approach with virtually no middle ground.

So, maybe not such a a good idea for our self-improvement program.

Making a decision that is totally irrevocable is different from being totally committed to a decision but allowing for the possibility of needing to adapt to changing circumstances.

Tony Robbins suggests that the key to success in making important, and possibly life-altering decisions, is to decide what’s important to you, make that a goal, commit to it, and then take massive action(s) towards making your decision(s) a reality, ideally every day. (2)

Commitment is necessary, but in the majority of cases, doing something radical to make a decision utterly unalterable, could be reckless and result in disaster.

In self-actualization, as in life, moderation and balance, as opposed to extremes, are more likely to result in success.

(1) Actually, he scuttled (sank) them, except for one small ship to be used for communicating with Spain.  Furthermore, Cortes was in reality making a decision which was, less for himself, and more on “behalf” of his 800 soldiers, effectively committing them to his plan of conquest

(2) Tony Robbins in his book Notes From a Friend

—Dennis Mellersh

Personal growth mistake: Wanting the future to repeat the past October 24, 2017

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development.
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It’s natural to want any situational enjoyment with a high positive emotional component to last a long time, ideally forever. As a result, we may develop the habit of projecting our enjoyment of the present moment into anticipated pleasure of the same moment occurring in the future.

This makes full appreciation of the present difficult because our minds are straddling two separate time frames – current real-time reality and imagined future potential.

We can only be in the future mentally, a fact which obviously takes away some of our perception of the present moment.

We are attaching to our future, which can never be more than a thought pattern,  the particular emotions of longing and anticipated nostalgia associated with the moment we are currently enjoying.

Any pleasurable experience in the present moment will be more intense and rewarding if we don’t impose on it the mental condition and constriction of future repeatability.

— Dennis Mellersh