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Personal growth: The power of the unsaid and the non-verbal April 6, 2017

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth.
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By Dennis Mellersh

What is not said can have great power.

Similarly, a communicative force exists in the world of the inanimate and non-verbal.

Both circumstances can help smooth the path to self-actualization.

Eastern spiritual philosophies focused on self-improvement and personal enlightenment often emphasize the rewards of both personal silence and of observing that which is silent.

Consider this brief Confucius anecdote:

The Master said, “I’d love to just say nothing.”

“But if you say nothing,” said Adept Kung, how would we disciples hand down your teachings?”

“What has Heaven* ever said?” replied the Master. “The four seasons keep turning and the hundred things keep emerging – but what has Heaven ever said?” (1)

* The term Heaven in the writings of Confucius, as explained by David Hinton, refers to “Natural process. Or, more descriptively, the inevitable unfolding of things in the cosmological process.”

(1) Confucius, The Analects, in The Four Chinese Classics, translated, and with commentary by David Hinton, Counterpoint, Berkeley, California, 2013. http://www.counterpointpress.com

Fallacies in the concept of “doing work that matters” August 15, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Concept of personal growth.
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If you absorb enough contemporary writing or video/audio on the concept of personal growth and development, you will come across the concept of the need to do “work that matters.”

Or stated another way, doing work that is meaningful
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The implication, or perhaps the inference some people make with this, is that the work they are engaged in may not be work that matters or is meaningful, and they should find ways to do work that is.

This can be an emotional and intellectual trap.

If we are not careful, in this approach to self-actualization, we can create an internal environment of self-disparagement when we take an overly simplistic approach to the concept of doing meaningful work.

The problem stems from our having a one dimensional view, or definition, of the idea of “work that matters.”

If we assume, as many do, that it is work that changes the world, then the vast majority of us are not likely to create or find or create such work. And to have universe-changing work as an end-goal will likely lead to discouragement and self-defined “failure.”

However, your work does not have to light the world on fire with lightning bolts for it “to matter.”

Doing any work that supports your family and increases self-sufficiency is work that matters.

Doing work that helps others in any way in their lives matters.

Doing your work at 100% to the best of your intellectual and creative ability matters.

Take-away: If your work matters to you, it matters – period