Self development is not about what you can achieve. It is about what you can become. If you are considering a development framework or system, you should keep this in front of you. By applying any of the methods presented there, you will undergo some changes. You yourself will be transformed. You will become a different person. And that will give you further perspectives.
Mixing up achievement orientation with self transforming desires is quite common. Just look around on/in your self help bookshelf/folder. Most of them are about getting rich and getting healthy. The roughly generalized formula says that by acting like this and that, you will achieve this and that. These formulas are working, or most of them are. That’s not my point. My point is, how these achievements affect you? Not your life, but you.
What you’ve become after an intense effort of self transformation? Did you become a better person? Are your horizons wider now? Do you feel like you’ve understood something more?
Transforming ourselves is not as easy as it seems. Although you can often see the ‘Easy like 1, 2, 3!’ formula, actually it is not. It is easier to change your life than to change yourself. Achieving the goals of your desires is different from changing yourself. Changing yourself, transforming yourself has nothing to do with your achievements.
1. You can strive for achievements in your life.
This one is about being productive in the world. It is also about fulfilling desires. Learning effective ways to make your way in life is of great importance. This requires development of abilities, skills, talents that will be with you whenever you need them, in whatever situation.
2. You can transform yourself.
Transforming yourself is about who you become. This is about being aware of yourself. Realizing how you’ve changed is confirmation of the framework’s value you’ve been into. Self transformation is a process that doesn’t happen according to how you are accustomed to the cause and effect way of thinking. It doesn’t happen according to a formula. It is dependent of your consciousness.
Next time, before you start following any self help recipe, remember to make a clear distinction from the start. Are you after an achievement or you wish to transform yourself?
Because of this, what I was trying to say might not be clear enough.
My point is that self development should have other values as points of reference than money or social success. Why not have even moral values among those?
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