This assignment is intended to push you out of your self-imposed limitations. Do something you would not have normally done (go to a Buddhist meditation, sing karaoke, start a conversation with a stra

What is personal growth?

• Take a moment to ask yourself why you are taking this class (aside from fulfilling degree requirements)

  • What intrigues you about the idea of personal growth?

    • Feeling a need for improvement?

    • Wanting to be your best self?

    • Suggestion of others?

    • Not feeling content with the way you are?

• Human beings are often seeking to improve their current situation (through improvement of self, circumstances, activities, etc.)

Why?

What are we searching for?

• Direction? Happiness? Fulfillment? and?

  • What do these things mean and why are they important?

• Direction

  • Where am I going in life?

    • Why am I on this path?

  • Is your direction purposeful? (chosen by you)

  • Is your direction passive? (a path you have been put on by someone else or by certain circumstances)

• Happiness

  • What does it mean to be happy?

  • How do we achieve happiness?

    • Ask yourself, what makes me genuinely happy?

  • Do you create happiness or does it happen to you?

• Fulfillment

  • What does it take to be fulfilled?

  • How do you know when you’ve achieved it?

    • A feeling

    • A combination of a sense of purpose and resulting happiness

• What else? Why are we here?

What are we searching for?

• Why are people susceptible to cults?

  • Why are we willing to go to such extreme lengths to find what we are looking for?

    • Sweat lodge example from text

      • People will put their own health at risk in order to find purpose and belonging

    • We are hard wired for connection

      • We seek to belong

      • It hurts to be disconnected, to feel alone or left out

      • The pain of disconnection often outweighs perceived risks

    • We seek out things that we think will give us purpose

      • What gives you purpose?

What are we searching for?

• Have you ever read a self-help book?

  • Why?

    • We often think we need to improve ourselves

      • This isn’t always bad, sometimes it helps to try to improve yourself

    • We are comforted by knowing that others have struggled in similar ways

  • Did it help? Why or why not?

    • Research has found that self-help books are often not based in scientific research

    • Self-help books are often vague in their prescription for change

• What are the keys to happiness?

  • Are you happy with your life?

Difference Between Growth and Development???

• Take some time to think about the following:

• What do you think of when you hear these words?

• What is growth?

• What is development?

Are they the same? How do they differ?

Barriers to personal growth

• Now that we have started to define personal growth and what motivates the journey towards it:

• What gets in the way of personal growth?

  • “If the consumption of these literary narcotics (self help books) were even remotely as helpful as their publishers claim, we would be a nation of serene, happy, well-adjusted people. It is clear, however, that serenity is not the dominant national mood.”

    • Anxiety and depression are on the rise – but why?

• What gets in the way of your attempts to change?

Why don’t we change?

• Think: When was the last time you tried to make a change and failed?

• Write: What prevented you from making that change?

• Think: When was the last time you tried to make a change and succeeded?

• Write: What helped you make that change?

How do we change?

• There are three critical components to change

  • Must be ready

    • Is this the right time to make a change?

    • Are you prepared to make a change?

  • Must be willing

    • Do you want to change?

    • Are you being forced into change?

  • Must be able

    • Is this a change you can reasonable expect to be able to make?

    • Are there limitations in your life that prevent you from being able to make this change?

What do you need to grow?

• Clear definition of the problem

• Investigations of attempted solutions

• Definition of concrete change to be achieved

• Formulation and implementation of plan

How do you achieve this?

• Exploration of the disadvantages of status quo

  • Why will keeping things the same not work?

• Exploration of the advantages of status quo

  • What is gained by keeping things the same

• Generating an optimism for change and growth

• Displaying an intention to grow and change