Personal development is as old as Plato and Aristotle. In fact, many societies considered personal development as the only true calling. They also believed that the study and application of philosophy was the best method to achieve personal development.
Various cultures and diverse people throughout history have discussed and studied the need for and ways to achieve personal development. Sometimes it has been called “virtues” or “moral character”, and at other times it has been called “ethics.” Christianity has been concerned with the “moral development” of individuals and took its “virtues” from the Bible. These are: Faith, Hope and charity or love / agape.
The virtue defined by the ancient Greeks was: Commitment to “habitual excellence.”
In most cases, the main concern was “personal development.” Each one defined ways and means to achieve this development. Aristotle believed that it was necessary to achieve the “golden mean” between one trait and its opposite. Take Aristotle’s example of bravery. “Courage is the balance between cowardice (deficit of courage) and recklessness (excess of courage).” So Aristotle’s golden mean would be in the middle between these two extremes, but closer to “recklessness than cowardice.”
Benjamin Franklin developed a 13-week system in which he focused on one character trait per week. Listed below are the traits you considered most important to work on to be successful.
Character traits
Self-control: Be determined and disciplined in your efforts.
Silence: listen better in all discussions.
Order: do not agonize-organize.
Commitment: pledge to put your best effort into today’s activities.
Savings – Watch how you spend your money and time.
Productivity: work hard, work smart, have fun.
Fairness: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Moderation: avoid extremes.
Cleanliness: having a clean mind, body and habits.
Peace of Mind – Take some time to relax and “smell the roses.”
Charity: helping others.
Humility: keep your ego in check.
Sincerity – Be honest with yourself and with others.
These are just brief examples from the history of “character development” or “personal development.” It is beyond this article to provide 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 “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, discusses the evolution of “personal development.” In one section he talks about his study of personal development and makes a significant observation. He argues that prior to the 1920s and 1930s, personal development was defined as “Character Development.” Ben Franklin’s list of character traits highlights the idea that a person needed to develop their “character.”
However, in the 1920s and after, he claims 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 traits or personality traits, such as a “nice personality” or “having a positive personality.” With this as a guide, it is not important if we really have a positive personality or if we have a pleasant personality, it is more important to “act” as if we do. Mr. Covey maintains that this translates into other virtues and traits and what we end up with is all sparkle and no substance.
Mr. Covey provides several examples of this and used then-President Clinton and other politicians as examples. Rather than “being” honest or committed to excellence and integrity, they decided that “acting” honestly or acting like a person with integrity is more important because then they appeal to the widest possible voter base.
I went through alcohol treatment in 1977 and again in 1978. This March, I celebrated 30 years of being clean and sober. When I first sobered up in 1978, self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous exploded on the American scene.
Since then, we have had numerous groups that were inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous and adopted and changed the Twelve Steps of AA to suit their particular problem.
However, at the base of all of them is “personal or character” development. Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, says in his book, “As Bill See’s It,” “the primary purpose of the 12 Steps of AA is” character development. “He goes on to say,” but who wants to talk about or work on? his character”? He also maintains that AA is a spiritual kindergarten. While the primary purpose of AA is abstinence from alcohol, Mr. Wilson argues that the only way to achieve that goal is by committing ourselves, one day at a time, to developing our character.
This is true for the other self-help programs that use Alcoholics Anonymous as a foundation.
On a personal level, a couple of months ago, my 14-year-old son made fun of me for the “self-help” books I read. I told him that he should be grateful that I had continued to read and use those books, because if I hadn’t, his life and mine would be completely different, and not in a good way.
Personal Improvement, in my experience, encompasses all areas of our lives. Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. There is an old saying in AA that says, “If you don’t move forward in your life, you are going backward.” 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 do not actively pursue excellence, we are at the mercy of mediocrity.
As one person pointed out, “if we don’t pursue our own goals, we are working toward someone else’s goals.”
Personal development, for me, gives meaning to my life. It gives me a yardstick to measure my progress in life. What is personal development? When I first sobered up, I went to a meeting where on the wall behind the speakers were two boards.
About 20 different positive character traits were listed on a blackboard, such as courage, integrity, patience, gratitude, determination, perseverance, etc. Their opposites were listed on the other board.
During the meeting, at least once a week, my sponsor would lean in and quietly ask me “which side of the board are you on?”
A commitment to personal development ensures that I stay on the right side of the board!
