What is self-development?

Trying to improve yourself and your lot in life.

Fulfilling one’s potential.

Examining an aspect of self or the environment and changing your relationship to it.

Excellent. There really isn’t a wrong answer. Your answer does reveal how you relate to the world. There are often subtle differences of emphasis, or the same phrase said can have different meaning for different people even though they said the same thing. I often find after I give a simple answer, I think of something more I could have said after.

So, what in your experiences contributes to self-development?

What doesn’t? Self-defeat, self-sabotage.

I consider the benefit of a spiritual path to be self-development.

Anything from school to what you had for lunch today can give you insight and experience you never had before.

Coming to these classes.

Reflection and action, and those two need to be exercised together.

I find that self-development for me requires discipline. I need to make a plan and stick to it, not always easy.

What is self-discipline? Self-discipline is like self-development. The answer isn’t black and white. In fact, it would differ based on each person’s needs.

Doing what you know you should do instead of what you want to do at the moment. How do we know what we need to do?

I think it’s more doing what would make you feel good instead of the easier thing.

I examine the problems in my life and then come up with solutions.

Sometimes I’ve picked up on what other people might comment about me.

Going to my classes feels good. Sometimes I just want to stay home but I know it will make me feel bad if I stay home and miss my writing class.

I didn’t exercise yesterday, so I know I have to today.

Speaking for myself, I find that rationality doesn’t work for me. Any advice?

What doesn’t work for you? Rational analysis. I can’t make myself behave consistently with logical conviction.

Rational is too much like thinking. Go with what your heart and spirit want. Use inspiration to motivate you. For example, I have a hard time getting off my butt, but when I watch certain sporting events, it makes me want to get into shape.

Rational seems like expectation. You do what you are expected to, not what you feel like doing.

When someone says, “Come on be rational” or be reasonable, it seems like they are controlling me.

Generally, I realize something is odd and I need to pay attention to it, and I just keep thinking about it and out of nowhere, the answer will come. Not always, but if it’s going to come, it just comes.

I try to form good habits, so that I will do things without having to think about them. That’s not a bad effort.

If I can’t get myself to do a task, I tell myself, all I have to do is just do a little reading on it, and then while I’m reading about it, I become interested in it more.

What I find does work is considering how “bad” things happen. In science, they would describe undesired outcomes as environmental pressure.

Use environmental pressure to your advantage. Yes. What makes us come to the conclusion that an outcome was bad?

Our feelings about it?

Physical or emotional pain.

The reactions of others?

Consequences.

All of these are correct, but what do they have in common?

Things you can’t control? From one point of view nothing about yourself is something you can actually control. Some scientists are pointing to the creation of bio-drones as evidence that we don’t really exercise any real form of will. If an implant can be wired into a brain and take over all motor control, then what was control in the first place?

If not will, then what gives us the drive to do stuff? They say biology, hormones and circumstance driven evolution, but we can take this a bit further. For humanity, Darwinian evolution has gone by the wayside, it more or less ended when humanity began to control and reshape its own environment.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~