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The positive bias to action within personal growth April 10, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Goal Setting and Realization.
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One of the criticisms sometimes made against the personal growth and development movement is that its practitioners are idle dreamers who “think” more than they “do.”

From what I have seen, however, believers in the enabling potential of personal development realize this and proactively put this concept into practice on a daily basis in a number of ways:

  • Believers are introspective and actively think about their behaviours and attitudes and look for ways to improve their lives and the lives of those around them
  • Those using disciplines such as The Law of Attraction and the Power of Intentions usually recognize that action steps are also required for success
  • They set goals and keep track of their progress
  • They often make comprehensive plans for their programs and map out plans for achieving success
  • As part of their overall efforts they recognize that “Knowing where to get knowledge and how to make the best use of knowledge is part of the self-help skill.”

In his book Handbook for the Positive Revolution, Edward de Bono makes the following point:

“Instead of just hoping that tomorrow will be better than today, we can do something today that will make us a little better when we wake up tomorrow than we were yesterday.” *

Believers in self help do are “doers”; instead of just “hoping” that tomorrow will be better, believers  take steps to try to make something positive happen.

Further Reading *

Edward de Bono, Handbook for the Positive Revolution, Viking Penguin, New York, 1992, 176 pages

 

Are you avoiding action in your personal growth program? February 24, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Goal Setting and Realization.
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One of the technical dangers in pursuing a program of personal growth or development is that of missing our potential for growth through action by having a bias or imbalance towards studying improvement techniques rather than implementing them.

Personal growth and development materials are one of the genres of self-help or self-education that seem overly conducive to this pattern, compared with other self-instruction areas such as learning how to develop a particular skill, such as playing the guitar.

If we are reading about learning how to develop a practical skill, for example, it will not be long before we are trying to perform that skill. In fact we will likely become so impatient to practice the skill we are studying that we might take action prematurely.

In the case of personal growth self-help materials, however, the opposite can be true.   Personal growth and personal development literature, articles, podcasts, videos, blogs and websites can turn into “comfort food” for our minds and emotions. They can become escape-content rather than a springboard to the actions we need to take – the actions essential to our growth programs.

We may read endlessly about how to break our bad habits, or how to stop procrastinating, or how to set lifetime goals, rather than taking action to start implementing the ideas we are studying.

The reading and the studying should be the preparation for the work of personal growth; they should not be the end in itself.   The renowned historian Arnold Toynbee, in his book, Experiences, gave this advice: “Act promptly as soon as you feel that your mind is ripe for taking action. To wait too long may be even more untoward in its effects than to plunge in too precipitously.”

Toynbee related how he did not accomplish what he wanted to in his historical writing until he changed his habit of reading and studying as a student or examinee, and began a habit of taking notes while reading, as a writer, with a view to recording materials that he believed would be useful  for his history writing.