Personal growth potential: The importance of timing October 9, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization.Tags: David Hinton, life, personal development planning, personal development potential, personal growth, philosophy, psychology, self-actualization, writing
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In our efforts to achieve our self-actualization goals, success in some instances might owe as much to external factors, for example, timing, as to the internal work we do, such as our acquisition of knowledge and technique.
Consider the following from the works of the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius (371-289 BCE) in which he cites a saying of the Ch’i people:
Though you may have deep wisdom
seizing an opportunity works better.
Though you may have a fine hoe,
awaiting the season works better. (1)
Four brief lines of personal development wisdom that could not be improved upon with explanatory words.
(1) Translated by David Hinton and quoted in his book The Four Chinese Classics. This passage is from Hinton’s translation of the works of Mencius
—Dennis Mellersh
Personal growth: Jumping off the cliff of self-actualization October 5, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Overcoming Fear.Tags: achieving goals, creativity, goal setting, inspiration, life, personal development, phiosophy, psychology, self-actualization
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In discussing the many challenges in creative writing, Ray Bradbury gave some excellent advice which applies to the large-scale project of living life itself creatively and the more focussed innovative efforts we try to make in our self-development work.
Namely, that in all matters requiring creativity, we need to put aside our fears, jump off the cliff, and then build our wings on the way down.
We can gradually master the skills required in whatever project we are working on and can be assured of varying levels of success in learning those skills.
But in making the big leap into an entire philosophy of self-improvement, while realizing that it might not work takes a lot of courage.
And if we think about it too much, we will probably not be willing to gamble on making the required investment in time, commitment and effort.
But, for sure, if we don’t jump, we won’t be making our wings, or soaring creatively.
— Dennis Mellersh
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