Personal development is an ongoing process. A lifestyle, a set of routines, habits. And after the initial mixture of motivation and desire to do something has subsided, following through is what counts the most.
And while there are countless of tactics with the help of which you can leverage your motivation and build momentum, there is one seemingly naïve approach which is guaranteed to make a huge shift in perception.
Our actions are almost entirely dictated by the state in which we are in. And while functioning in peak state is appealing in itself, often times, regardless of the level of know-how, or determination, or being motivated, such state can subside and be replaced by feeling low. The reasons, multitude of them, can vary from the most mundane to some which carry circumstances hard to overcome.
If an alien tries to scrutinize the whole of personal development, he will guess, and not be very far off, that it is a self-centered act. Personal development, at least at its early stages, is almost entirely ego based. Later on, when things progress into giving back and contributing, it slightly changes form, but on the surface it is nothing more than a personal endeavor.
The very efficiency that personal development rests upon is, in a way, thanks to the notion above. It seems that in a situation where we are the only variable, things get quite easier to manipulate. The problem however is that we are social creatures. And this spoils the calculus.
We all strive towards perfection in anything that we can think of. For some of us it’s the way things are; the way we view the world and understand life in general; the only way we know of.
For others though, it’s a constant struggle between being better by the day, and trying too hard to make that difference.
In personal development there is one particular interesting concept to explore and if you focus more on the essence of it there is a lot to be learned. It is really nothing new in terms of what we already know so far about improvement, but even the tiniest of implication can bring massive results. And very tangible ones, that is.