Self-development is a concept that can be encountered quite often when it comes to a person's need for improvement in various areas. Most often, self-development is spoken of in the context of spiritual, mental or professional development. Some also seek personal development in the sense of developing advanced interpersonal skills.
Is it better to work on our weaknesses or, conversely, invest in something that comes easily to us? What kind of attitude will make our life easier and will give us a better chance of achieving professional and personal success? How do you reorient yourself and out of contemplative failure to master your strengths?
In order for a person's self-development to occur, a sufficiently strong personality motivation is required. This, in turn, has the conditions for development, provided that other, more basic life needs are met in advance.
For each person, the concept of self-development can mean something different, although in each case it will be associated with a change for the better in a certain dimension to which the person is striving. Some will understand this concept as the so-called spiritual development. For others, self-development will be broadly understood as psychological development, while others will identify it with personal progress, or rather the improvement of their own interpersonal competencies. Despite the different directions, certain circumstances must exist to satisfy the need for personal development.
In order for a person to focus on self-development, several factors must be taken into account in advance. First, a person must have minimum conditions for this. The so-called pyramid of needs can be a good indicator of meeting these requirements.
At the top of the pyramid, or hierarchy of needs, is the so-called need for self-realization, i.e. striving to gain new knowledge, experiences, aesthetic impressions. However, in order for the conditions for progress in areas of this type to exist, first of all, other needs must be satisfied, at least as basic as the physiological ones associated with human existence (the need for sleep, food, rest). It is difficult to expect that a person will engage in self-development if his mind is occupied with such things as obtaining the resources necessary to satisfy hunger or seeking refuge.
The basic condition for self-development is also the definition of the state to which the individual seeks, that is, the goal that he wants to achieve in his development. Also important is the issue of motivation, without which self-development, no matter how it is defined, seems impossible. We can say that motivation and personal development are closely related, because self-development does not exist if a person does not have a desire to develop.
Self-development and spiritual development
Many people equate the concept of self-development with the so-called spiritual development. At the same time, spiritual development itself for different people can mean something completely different. Some, for example, for the sake of high spiritual development, will perceive life in accordance with the principles of a certain faith, religion. Others, on the contrary, may consider the state in which they are independent of the principles determined by this doctrine, and are guided, for example, by a system of values created for their own needs, as the highest level of spiritual development.
Thus, the concept of spiritual development depends on a specific person, and self-development in the context of spiritual development should be understood as a set of actions, aspirations aimed at bringing you closer to an individually defined state, the goal that you want to achieve.
Human mental development
It actually begins at the moment when a person comes into the world, and in practice should last a lifetime, although it can be inhibited by specific physiological processes, for example, associated with the aging of the human body. The need for self-realization, which can manifest itself in the desire to acquire new knowledge, to learn institutionally or individually, can have a great impact on mental development. We can say that mental progress requires constant stimulation and acquisition of new knowledge, as well as strengthening intellectual skills.
Quite often, self-development is equated with the development of interpersonal skills. This approach is finding very fertile ground as more and more different types of courses and trainings appear on the market to strengthen these types of skills. This is, for example, training in interpersonal communication, self-confidence. In response to these specific self-development needs, an entire business has grown, offering a wide range of training and based mainly on creating motivation for personal development, which often seems to be an effective marketing procedure.
1496.287 SRY