Personal development is as old as Plato and Aristotle. In fact, personal development was considered by many societies as the only true calling. They also believed that the study and application of philosophy was the best method for personal development.
Different cultures and different individuals throughout history have discussed and studied the need for and ways to achieve personal development. Sometimes it becomes virtues or moral character called, and in others it is called ethics called. Christianity is concerned withmoral development of individuals and derives its ‘virtues’ from the Bible. These are: faith, hope and charity or love/agape.
Virtue, as defined by the ancient Greeks, was devotion to “ordinary excellence.”
In most cases it was mainly about ‘personal development’. Each one defined ways and means to achieve this development. Aristotle believed that it was necessary to find the golden mean" between a property and its opposite. Take Aristotle’s example of courage. Courage is the balance between cowardice (lack of courage) and recklessness (excess of courage).Aristotle’s golden ratio would thus be in the middle between these two extremes, but closer to “recklessness than cowardice”; lying down; lying down.
Benjamin Franklin developed a 13-week system in which he focused on one character trait per week. Below are the traits he found most important to work on in order to be successful.
character traits
Self-control: Be firm and disciplined in your efforts.
Silence: Hear better in all discussions.
Order: do not torment-organize.
Promise: Promise that you will do your best for today’s activities.
Savings: See how you spend your money and time.
Productivity: Work hard, work smart, have fun.
Fairness: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Moderation: avoid extremes.
Cleanliness: Maintaining a clean mind, body, and habits.
Break: Take time to slow down and ‘smell the roses’.
Charity: helping others.
Humility: Keep your ego in check.
Honesty: Be honest with yourself and with others.
These are just brief examples from the history of character development or personal development It is beyond the scope of this article to give a history of personal development, but I can give a brief discussion of what personal development means to me.
Stephen Covey, in his books on 7 Habits of Highly Effective People the evolution of personal development In one section, he talks about his personal development research and makes a significant comment. He claims that prior to the 1920s and 1930s, personal development was defined as character development. Ben Franklin’s list of character traits emphasizes the idea that character had to develop.
However, in the 1920s and beyond, he argues that the focus of personal development shifted from character development to personality development.The focus of development shifted from internal development to focusing on a person’s external appearance or personality traits, such as a likeable personality or ;have a positive personality With this as a guideline, it doesn’t matter if we really have a positive personality or if we have a nice personality, the most important thing is to as we have them Mr. Covey claims that this translates into other virtues and traits and what we end up with is all flash and no substance.
Mr. Covey gives several examples of this and used then-President Clinton and other politicians as an example. Instead of ‘being honest’ or being committed to excellence and integrity, they decided that ‘acting honestly’ or acting like a person of integrity is more important because it appeals to the broadest possible voting base.
I underwent treatment for alcoholism in 1977 and again in 1978. In March, I celebrated 30 years of being clean and sober. When I first got sober in 1978, self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous burst onto the American scene.
Since then, we have had numerous groups form after Alcoholics Anonymous that have taken AA’s Twelve Steps and adapted them to their specific problem.
However, at the root of all these forms is the development of ‘personality or character’. Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, says in his book As Bill See’s It The main purpose of AA’s 12 Steps is character development. of or working on his character He also claims that AA is a spiritual kindergarten. Although AA’s primary goal is abstinence from alcohol, Mr. Wilson said that the only way to achieve that goal is to commit ourselves day-to-day to character development.
This also applies to the other self-help programs that Alcoholics Anonymous uses as a foundation.
On a personal level, my son, who is 14 years old, made fun of me a few months ago about the self-help books that I used. that he read I told him to be thankful for that. I continued to read and use those books because if I hadn’t, her life and mine would be completely different, and not in a good way.
Personal improvement, in my experience, covers all areas of our lives. Mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. There’s an old saying in AA that goes, If you’re not moving forward in life, you’re going backwards.This means that there is no status quo. We cannot rest on our laurels or on what we did yesterday. As Ben Franklin demonstrated, self-improvement is a lifelong pursuit and if we don’t actively strive for excellence, we are at the mercy of mediocrity.
As one person commented,;If we’re not pursuing our own goals, we’re working toward someone else’s goals.
Personal development gives meaning to my life for me. It gives me a yardstick to measure my progress in life. What is Personal Development? When I first got sober, I went to a meeting where there were two posters on the wall behind the speakers.
One board listed about 20 different positive character traits such as courage, integrity, patience, gratitude, determination, perseverance, etc. The other board listed their opposites.
At the meeting, at least once a week, my sponsor would lean over and ask me quietly, Which side of the board are you on
A commitment to personal development keeps me on the good side of the board!
