Is there an end to personal development?

[jkmuller]

Over the past few years I have really changed as a person. I've gone from playing games all day, encouraging dysfunctional relationships, and a general physical and mental mess to a lifestyle I'm proud of. This made me think about personal development as a whole, is it an endless process or is it about reaching some goal? It's tempting to say that personal development is endless because we can always improve in some respect, but do you really think this is true?

It's not that I'm claiming that there aren't always areas where one needs work. But, it seems like once you've gotten into healthy and productive habits personal development becomes more about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Is personal development really endless? What do you think?

[Angela]

Kaizen, baby, continual improvement till you die.

[skydust]

hmm, good question. i dont know the answer. i would guess, that there would be an 'end' of some sort when you become one with the source of all that is fully consciously, but not in this lifetime, and perhaps we even continue evolving after we die, by being guides etc. but perhaps the concepts of beginning and end are not applicable to multidimensional being? i will have to ask my guides what they have to say about this one thanks.

[Frans]

Finding your destiny is perhaps not possible in this world, in this life.
However, you can always try to find a "life path" that suits you.
There are no two identical persons in the world, everybody has his own life and needs to find his own path.
If you are serious about PD, you must be prepared to adapt your thoughts until you have found your own path.
This implies that it is perfectly possible that what now seems to be "true" for you, will make you laugh next year.

In any case, an open, flexible mind is required to make any progress in PD.

[tc33]

For me, personal development will end when I think to myself, "Wow, life just can't get any better than it is right now. I have achieved all of my goals and I am exactly the person I want to be."

Then what? I don't know, but I'll report back in when I get to that point

Tom

[Hoamaru]

If you feel you have reached the majority of your goals, why not try to assist others in achieving theirs? Our personal goals may be achieved, but there are many others who still are trying to reach their own hehe.

So if I ever get to the point were I feel everything is going well with my life, then I'll put even more focus to help out others.

[Andrew Brunelle]

There will never be an end until you die, and if you lived forever, there still wouldn't be an end. It's a constant thing. The worst thing you can do is stand still.

[kateryan]

When I feel I have passion for something and I take that learning path I go as far as I can and the intennsity decreases as I master it...the path of learning never ends-only the time to do it ends.
Kate

[Palmari]

I believe there is absolutely no end to personal development because whether you like it or not, you will change as a person either for the good or for the bad, it's up to you which one you choose. As discussed elsewhere on this thread, you may find that the perfect life that has no flawes to speak of and is awesome in every way will lose it's intensity. A friend of mine who runs several companies including a personal development company started doing seminars from a garage with 3 participants and now runs programs throughout the world. He recently told me that the hunger to build this company was enormous but has now lost it's intensity and he has now moved on to several other projects. Although these projects are in related areas he still reached what seemed to be the perfect life and then it slowly became not enough and he had to move on.

The moral of that story is that you will change as a person which means you need to conciously develop that change with personal development whether it's something you read or listen to or your own instinctive development. Growth is the key to ultimate happiness and fulfilment.

I hope this post provides a perspective of interest to readers.

BTW, my name is Chris Lyons, I am 24, a fitness professional, martial artist and up and coming personal development speaker form Sydney Australia. I am currently piloting a seminar and audio program called super human.

[Michael Chui]

I consider the term "god" to represent the end of personal development; what goals you may have at this point likely befuddle the human mind and are inconceivable and probably incomprehensible.

[Yev]

If you have reached a point where you are happy and satisfied to remain where you are, then you are an unusual person. Most people are the way Palmari describes - it is the growth and development phase that makes them happy, and in fact the eventual achievement of the goal can be a bit of an anti-climax.

Scott Young has written very good articles in this regard. It is important to choose the right path to travel, but your progress along that road is more satisfying than actually reaching the end point.

[stephencp]

I suppose that when someone realizes that there is no individual "identity" to develop in the first place and is "enlightened" - that would be the end of personal development.

Stephen
Power-Book Library: Free personal development, success, inspiration and motivational classics
TSTN | The Success Training Network

[Christian223]

For me, PD is getting away from sadness, hate, mediocrity, shame and remaining in FULL happyness, honor, love and respect while living in this world, i have my life after death covered with Jesus

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by stephencp

I suppose that when someone realizes that there is no individual "identity" to develop in the first place and is "enlightened" - that would be the end of personal development.

Once someone realises that there is no "individual identity", wouldn't that mean that they've realised that there's no difference between themselves and everyone else? That in essence, I am the universe?

And if I'm the universe, then there's no need to improve myself as long as the universe is perfect. But if the universe is not perfect, there's still more development to be done.

If everyone realised that, and this caused them to be kind, thoughtful, good, etc. then I suppose that could potentially be an end to personal development. But I'm not holding my breath.

[alexander.kharlamov]

Well, a few schools of thought believe that at a certain point, you reach "Enlightenment" , where you are completely at peace and gain a full understanding of life's mysteries.

But personally, I believe that just means moving onto a different stage of PD, where you have new goals and new mountains to climb, some of those may be something that we (i.e. the un-enlightened people) are not able to comprehend.

I don't think the journey ever stops. With personal development, it's all about the journey and the process of learning. I really do feel the more I learn, the less I actually know.

[Cassie]

I don't believe so. We'll always be growing as individuals. No longer experiencing self-growth might indicate stagnation, which is something to avoid.

[Steve Pavlina]

IMO personal growth doesn't even end with death. You continue on with different lessons.

[stephencp]

"IMO personal growth doesn't even end with death. You continue on with different lessons."

In the Buddhist/reincartion context, you will continue your lesson in the next life/incarnation (and next and next and next....) until you escape the cycle and realize that there is no "you" to continue.

Stephen
Power-Book Library: Free personal development, success, inspiration and motivational classics
TSTN | The Success Training Network

[Michael Chui]

Originally Posted by stephencp

In the Buddhist/reincartion context, you will continue your lesson in the next life/incarnation (and next and next and next....) until you escape the cycle and realize that there is no "you" to continue.

I may have this wrong (not a student of Mormonism), but:

If you're a Mormon, this is simply another world on your journey. To die is to go onto the next world, in which you'll be alive.

[John Hill]

Good question.

No, I don't believe there is an end to personal development. The more we learn the better we become at dealing with situations and the further we progress spiritually the more we realize we are on a never ending journey that will continue in some form or another after we die in this current "life".