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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 development: Deciding on your goals strategy March 22, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization, Leaders in Personal Development.
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In strategizing our personal growth programs, planning and achieving our goals is clearly an important priority.   It’s also a procedure that should be tailored to our individual personality characteristics.

The establishment and execution of our self-improvement goals is not usually a procedure in which one formula or strategy fits all situations, or more importantly, all personalities.

By definition, the concept of personal development is just that – personal; it’s individual. If we fight against the basic nature of our individual ingrained approaches to life, and try to institute an approach or method that is not complimentary, failure in achieving our overall objectives will be a strong possibility.

As Stephen Covey comments in his book First Things First, “Self-awareness prompts us to start where we are – no illusions, no excuses, and helps us to set realistic goals…the ability to set goals that are both realistic and challenging goes a long way to empowering us to create peace and positive growth in our lives.”

If you look at goal planning and execution as a decision process, we are faced with the contradiction between the two maxims:

(1) Look before you leap

(2) He who hesitates is lost

If you are a person who usually carefully plans all of your activities, then (1) would be your inclination.

If you like to do a minimum of planning and “get right into things” then your approach is (2).

The trick is in recognizing those occasions when you may need to adapt your approach and either do more planning, or less planning.

If you base your approach for your goals strategy on someone else’s opinion or personal approach, such as an author writing on “How to achieve Your Goals,” and do not adapt the strategy to your own personality and circumstances, frustration and possible abandonment of your goal(s) could be the result.

Personal time management consultant Alan Lakein recognizes this when discussing how to apply his ideas, such as suggestions on developing a goals strategy, in his book How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life.

In advising readers, he says, “Pick and choose among the ideas. Recognize that different techniques work for different people, and that there are times when good advice for one person is useless for another. Select the ideas that will benefit you the most, and use them to help you lead a more enjoyable and satisfying life.”