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Personal growth: Too much theory; not enough action March 22, 2017

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

One of the defining characteristics of many personal development programs is that they instill a feeling of a future-focused optimism in us in which we embrace the concept that there will always be ample time to accomplish what we want in reaching our self-improvement goals and potential.

But unless we manage our personal growth priorities efficiently, there actually will not be enough time.

Much time can evaporate without significant personal improvement actually happening.

This happens when too much of our available discretionary time is sucked into the theory-bubble of how to improve ourselves.

We overspend our available time reading, watching, and listening to various media about personal development.

It gives us a feeling of well-being, and that’s important.

But we can fall into a trap of having too much passive learning/study input compared with a small amount of output in our goal-directed actions.

We can reverse this tendency by taking action each day on the principles we have already learned in our self-growth programs before we spend time learning new principles and approaches.

Action first, theory later.

Personal growth: Can we avoid wandering in the wilderness? March 21, 2017

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.
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By Dennis Mellersh

There will not be much use in our pursuing programs of personal development and self-improvement unless it is actually possible to change our deeply ingrained attitudes and beliefs, and our behaviours stemming from those attitudes and beliefs.

The way we perceive ourselves clearly has a profound influence on how we deal with challenges and potential opportunities.

For example, are we generally looking forward with confidence and optimism, or are we fearful and full of doubt that the future will be positive?

A philosopher I read some time ago suggested that the real reason the Israelites and Moses had to wander in the desert for 40 years before entering the Promised Land is that there had to be a waiting period for the slave generation to die off.

The slave generation, in this view, was supposedly so ingrained to taking orders and doing the bidding of others that its members would be incapable of having the initiative to take charge of their own destiny and to develop and flourish in the Promised Land.

If that view of human nature is only even partially correct, and if we look at our own self-actualization programs and goals as a “promised land”, then most of us have considerable internal work to do to overcome the potential inertia of the limiting basic beliefs we have about ourselves.