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Personality Development
Personal development is very essential to each and everyone. The personal development helps the people to be a successful person.
Related Article:
What Is Personal Development
By Ray Blacketer
Personal development is as old as Plato and Aristotle. In fact, personal development was considered by many societies as the only true vocation. They also believed that the study and application of philosophy was the best method to achieve personal development.
Various cultures and various individuals throughout history have discussed and studied the need and ways to achieve personal development. At times it has been called "virtues", or "moral character", and in others it is referred to as "ethics". Christianity has been concerned with the "moral development" of individuals and took their "virtues" from the Bible. These are: Faith, Hope, and charity or love/agape.
Virtue as defined by ancient Greeks was: The commitment to "habitual excellence".
In most cases the major concern was, "personal development". Each defined ways and means of achieving this development. Aristotle believed that it was necessary to achieve the "golden mean" between a trait and it's opposite. Take Aristotle's example of courage. "Courage is the balance between cowardice (deficit of courage) and foolhardiness (excess of courage)". So Aristotle's Golden Mean would lie in the middle between these two extremes but lying closer to "foolhardiness than cowardice".
Benjamin Franklin developed a 13 week system in which he concentrated on one character trait per week. Listed below are traits he considered most important for him to work towards to be successful.
Character Traits
Self-control: be determined and disciplined in your efforts.
Silence: listen better in all discussions.
Order: don't agonize-organize.
Pledge: promise to put your best effort into today's activities.
Thrift: watch how you spend your money and your time.
Productivity: work hard-work smart-have fun.
Fairness: treat others the way you want to be treated.
Moderation: avoid extremes.
Cleanliness: have a clean mind, body and habits.
Tranquility: take time to slow down and "smell the roses."
Charity: help others.
Humility: keep your ego in check.
Sincerity: be honest with yourself and others.
These are just brief examples of 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.
A commitment to personal development insures I stay on the right side of the board!
http://rblacketer.ipower.com
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