Among people, a few are striving for development, all other members of the consumer society are engaged in consumption and entertainment. However, there have always been those who believed that there is some purpose in life, some high meaning and a worthy task, and were ready to develop themselves, turning themselves from an organism into a person. However, it is not enough to direct oneself towards development; it is equally important to decide on its direction.
The path of development is not one, there are many paths of personal growth and development. Where to grow? In what direction should you develop yourself? One of the first choices is the choice between inner harmony and service to something external. A personality built for harmony, both internal and external. — harmoniously developed personality. We can say that here the personality, its harmonious existence is an end in itself and a value in itself. Another option is a person who performs his tasks in front of something Higher for him (family, society, or at least business, in a religiously oriented approach — before God). Here the personality is rather a tool and a means, here the personality is built hierarchically, guided not by a sense of inner harmony, but by the quality of serving an external goal.
This does not at all exclude cases when the path of service for someone is completely internally harmonious. It may be, it may not be, it’s just that in ministry it doesn’t matter. A hierarchically developed personality is built not according to its own convenience, but towards the achievement of a particular goal.
What could be such an external target? For a Christian and a Jew, the goal is to resemble divine purity, the image and likeness of God, and the pinnacle of personal development here is holiness.
In Soviet culture, the comprehensive and harmonious development of the individual was considered a worthy goal. This model meant the development of all the abilities of the individual, the development of the body and spirit, morality and practicality, knowledge and skills, technical and humanitarian thinking, the ability to both physical labor and intellectual search. Harmony meant not a subjective experience of one’s own harmony, and even more so not just a sense of inner well-being, but an objective balance of all developed abilities. By design, it was supposed to be a combination of harmonic and hierarchical structure. The path to this is self-improvement.
The psychological community actively promotes the values of self-actualization, however, the vagueness of the boundaries of this concept and the lack of technologies for moving along this path (it seems that a two-year psychotherapy cannot be recognized as such a technology) hinders the wide spread of this path of personal growth and development. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that often behind the desire for self-actualization and passion for personal growth there is often an elementary disorder of personal life, an inability to adapt to life’s requirements. Many girls are passionate about personal growth training, but after finding love and happily marrying, they begin to get more interested in cooking, rather than training. What for?
Today in Russia, in fact, there is no goal of personal development, supported by the state or a significant part of society. The family does not cope with its educational role, the school has withdrawn itself, and today, in an unexpected way, business has begun to claim the role of a personality educator. Indeed, most of the programs aimed at the growth and development of the individual are set by the requirements of the business. For successful sales and effective negotiations, employees need to develop the ability to accurately feel the state of the interlocutor, understand his motives, take into account his goals and competently negotiate using both logic and emotions. By training leaders and managers, promising young people are taught proactivity, the habit of a positive worldview, an attitude of cooperation and the skill of personal responsibility. These skills are universal, they are in demand not only in business, but are extremely important in the personal life of every person, but business teaches this. because it’s necessary for the job. Employees take advanced training courses, trainings, coaching and other options for educational and educational activities, not because a person needs it for his inner harmony, but because an effective business requires it. Business needs high-quality people — business does not find such people in Russia — business begins to educate high-quality people.
Perhaps it is worth thinking about the question: how far do you need to go along the path of personal self-improvement? People striving for personal harmony solve it more than arbitrarily: someone (more often men) are ready to go to the very heights, others (more often women) are engaged in their harmony insofar as they do not overexert themselves. If a person considers the growth and development of his personality as a way and a means to achieve this or that external goal, then the business approach can provide useful clues here. If you look at the personality as a tool, and not as a value in itself, then achieving the heights of personality development is a controversial task. Knives at the hostess should be sharpened enough, not perfectly. Excessive enthusiasm for the development of one’s personality often makes a person socially less attractive. You have to go to the country, help your parents — and he has another training on self-improvement …
Perhaps the passion for the tasks of personal growth and development sometimes turns out to be just an element of fashion, distracting from more important life needs. It seems disputable to strive completely upward when elementary tasks have not been solved. One who is not completely healthy should not rush to the stadium, and it is not appropriate to set the tasks of enlightenment for someone who needs the help of a psychotherapist. If a person does not have an elementary psychological culture, he needs to engage in educational program, and not high spiritual searches. Probably, the path to great development should begin with simpler tasks. More mundane, and perhaps more worldly understandable tasks of personal growth and development are the path of business success and the path of harmony with loved ones. The path of harmony with loved ones is more of a female value, while business projects and business success, as values, are closer to male gender. It is good and reasonable if a man becomes a strong leader, a loving husband and a caring father, and a woman becomes a joy for her husband and a wise mother for children. Can everyone do it? If not, then this is what you should do.
It is a worthy task to teach yourself the basic psychological skills that give you a ticket to a great and worthy life.
Peaks of development and people of the future
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