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Personal development: Self-directed personal growth December 26, 2017

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.
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Is it possible that in order to think more originally about our own personal development goals and our efforts towards self-actualization, that we should rely less on outside authorities and their recommendations and instead venture out on an individual path of self-discovery?

At one point in his intellectual growth, philosopher and social thinker Eric Hoffer said that he came to the “unpleasant discovery” that he would never be an original thinker, particularly in his writing, as long as he relied too heavily on the pronouncements of others.

“I realized that I would probably avoid hard thinking if I always had someone by my side (1) who knew the answers. I was not, in that case, a natural thinker. It was an unpleasant discovery,” (2)

Hoffer remedied this by using the material written by others more as a source or foundation upon which he would draw, through reflection, his own conclusions, theories, and generalizations.

Perhaps, to realize our potential in our own personal growth efforts, we might try doing the same – continue absorbing what the experts have written, but spend more time reflecting on our own interpretations of the points they make and subsequently making our self-improvement efforts more self-directed.

(1) “…someone by my side…” in this case means the books that Hoffer read throughout his life-long self-education process

(2) From Hoffer’s autobiographical book, Truth Imagined

— Dennis Mellersh

Personal growth 101: The Importance of focusing on action November 14, 2017

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth.
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One of the traps inherent in good personal development programs is that they are interesting media in themselves — they are entertaining — and if we aren’t careful, we can end up doing a lot of “research” on them but not implementing much of what we are learning.

This is especially true when we first start out on our deliberate path to develop our personal potential. But study should be an adjunct to growth, not a replacement for action and implementation.

So we need to make a decision on what program or philosophy we are going to implement.
Perhaps it will be a single system of ideas from one of the many recognized experts in this field.

Or an effective program can be one that we put together and systematize ourselves, choosing the best elements of different expert approaches that we feel will work best for our personalities and circumstances.

Another less programmed approach to implementation is to read, listen to, watch, and ideally make notes on the work of a variety of self-improvement experts, and then draw on this knowledge when situations in your life call for a little extra help beyond your intuitive resources.

There’s no absolutely right way to begin the journey of self-actualization.

The important thing is to be taking some form of action whenever possible and as soon as possible.

— Dennis Mellersh