Personal Development the Easy Way
Recently I heard about a man who, when he reached ninety, put on a bet that he would reach a hundred. He put on £100, and received a cheque for £25,000 along with his letter from the Queen on his hundredth birthday. When he was asked what he reckoned had kept him alive for so long he said there were some rules, which were
I read a lot about personal development that makes it seem like a huge effort, a mountain to climb. Many personal development books mention diet, exercise, meditation, and I write about those things myself. Recently I have had a little break from writing and considering my own development, with the result that I feel refreshed and ready to enjoy even more the process of writing, setting goals and generally making my life work. I have to report that taking a break from these things and putting on a few pounds has not caused me to worry, and I have kept breathing throughout. I am now writing again, and moving forward in my life and for the most part it’s enjoyable and doesn’t have the negative associations of ‘hard work.’ I feel good about myself and I haven’t been beating myself up because I have been taking a break and doing things in a less structured way. I’m going on holiday for a few days to Barcelona.
If that feels attractive to you, then you might think about how it relates to the whole area of personal development. Personal development is a process, and sometimes the process stalls, sometimes it moves forward at great pace. Whatever is happening in your life, it does no good to beat yourself up about it. If you are consistent in your aims not achieving something immediately or a delay in actioning your decisions is not the end of the world. You can come back to whatever you need to in your own time. This is not an excuse for doing nothing, rather a recognition that there are some times when taking action and putting effort into a project is not appropriate. Illness or circumstance can intervene. In addition, if you are not enjoying what you are doing over a long period of time you need to ask if you should be doing whatever it is anyway.
Here are some questions you might ask yourself in relation to your own personal development practice:
Mainly the idea is to create an environment where what you are doing gets the results you want and holds your interest, in other words you enjoy it and in that sense you ‘do as little work as possible.’ If you are struggling away and nothing seems to be happening for you then it might be time to take a break, and review the position or come back to it later. ‘Take as many holidays as possible,’ Whatever else you do, don’t beat yourself up for taking a break, ‘Don’t worry,’ In addition, if you ‘eat a good breakfast,’ and ‘keep breathing,’ you might have a chance of living to a hundred and enjoying most of those years as well.
I’m not saying that you don’t need commitment and consistent effort to achieve your goals, just that those writers who suggest that you should put being driven before enjoying a good life are looking at the world through a distorted lens, and missing much of what is important in life.
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