Self Development

Human beings are social animals. You’ll never feel complete without social interactions. That’s why isolated self development is very likely to fail.

Ask people about their ultimate goal and most of them reply happiness or something that’s closely related to it. And you know, it’s very hard to reach complete happiness by isolating yourself.

Of course, there’s always a certain risk if you integrate other people in your plans, as they are .. not you and so their plans might differ from yours. But it’s better to take calculated risks than to lead a boring life! At least, that’s how I think about it. Plus, you can minimize those risks by doing some thinking about yourself. Notice, that I wrote “some thinking”, don’t spend all of your time alone. Thinking can create a nice basis for your self development, but once you got your basis, further progress becomes way easier if you use other methods as well. And you won’t really know yourself unless you studied yourself in social interactions.

If you dislike all kinds of social situations, this does not mean that you should avoid them. On the contrary, you should rather get used to them. Feeling uncomfortable during most social interactions is a clear sign that you focus on yourself too much. Go out and learn to have fun! You’re not the only interesting person out there.

Self development is like riding a bicycle: Little hills are easy to cross if you got some momentum. If you loose too much momentum however, you need to shift down or you may even need to get off your bike and push it to the top of the hill. At the cost of some valuable time.

No matter it can be physically demanding to always keep your momentum but you reach your goals much faster if you do. Plus, it’s somewhat more pleasant to feel the fresh air pressing against you.

Unfortunately, there are neither mental pedals nor mental feet you could pedal with. So building mental momentum differs a little from building speed on a bike. But just a little.

Let’s see how building mental momentum actually works:
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Oversleeping and wasting time drowsing are common problems most of us face regularly. Well, you can get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings. Every single day. It doesn’t even have to be very hard to do so. All you need is the will to do it and some self-discipline.

Why People Oversleep

There are some different reasons for oversleeping and staying in bed for too long:

• Not hearing the alarm ring: What can I say about this one? Actually, the solution is kinda easy in this case: Get a louder alarm clock! If you regularly miss your alarm you should change something about it.
• Drugs: I don’t want to talk a lot about this point as it’s pretty obvious. If you’re too drunk to stand up, how do you think you could get out of bed on time? Same applies to some other drugs. Just don’t do drugs if you want to wake up at a precise time the following day. (Drinking a lot of coffee can have negative effects on your sleep as well.)
• Tricking yourself to stay in bed: This is where it starts to get interesting. And basically, that’s the point this article really is about. The problem with it is: This sort of tricking yourself has become a habit for most of us. Especially on weekends. You’re giving away valuable time this way. Solving this problem takes some time as you will have to replace the habit of tricking yourself to stay in bed by the habit of getting out of bed as soon as your alarm rings.

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Role modeling is a very effective method for self improvement. If – and only if – it is done the right way.

I know, some people won’t acknowledge that. Maybe you’re one of those people. Maybe you think of role modeling as childish or you think it’s a method only weak people use. In fact, it’s none of the kind.

What not to do

It’s probably true that a lot of weak people got some kind of role models. And they might aim at becoming like their superstars, but trying to become like your role models is not what you should do. Here’s why:
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Most people rush into self development without thinking and then they wonder why they end up worse off. They followed every piece of advice they could get. But still they completely failed. How can that be?

Is it because people are different? Does self development only work for a special kind of people? I don’t think so. But there’s one essential part that is rarely mentioned:

Successful self development needs a solid basis. It has to come from within.

Sadly, a lot of people seem to ignore that fact completely. They try to rush into self development, using any promising sounding scheme that they found anywhere on the internet. But do they ever ask themselves whether they are ready to use the scheme? Probably not. Unfortunately, even the most sophisticated scheme only works if you comply with its requirements.
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“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” (Zig Ziglar)

Why is it that some people seem to be successful in every way while others fail doing the most basic things? What separates successful people from the unsuccessful?

Of course, there are some different factors, but I truly believe that a positive attitude works wonders with regard to your overall success. And I got some good reasons to believe that:
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“Bless the present.” is one of the basic precepts of Huna, an ancient Hawaiian philosophy. I’m not saying that I agree about everything with this philosophy but this very precept is really powerful. It can certainly add quality to your life. So I’ll tell you my own way of enjoying and intensifying the present moment, my own way of blessing the present.

Future and Present

It’s important to direct your future in some way. You can make tomorrow’s present moments much more pleasurable if you set the right goals and go after them with some self-discipline. But after all, the present moment is the only thing you got. Now is the only time you’re experiencing.
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