02 Feb Personal Development versus Good Enough

I am a Personal Development nerd. I first discovered Self-Help books way back in the early 1990s and have built up quite a collection. This includes getting rid of a load about 15 years ago when I thought I was “fixed” and didn’t need them anymore – I’ve since restocked!

I love reading about all the different ways to improve myself and all the different exercises that I can do to be the best version of myself. Of course, I rarely actually DO the exercise because I often don’t have a pen or I’m reading in the bath or it just isn’t the right time etc etc. So, obviously, things often don’t change because, annoyingly, between reading and change comes ACTION – and I have not done that bit. So, I just buy another book.

I am a huge advocate of Personal Development. I love learning about what makes myself and others tick. I am a great believer in the fact we have choice – we can choose how to think about something and we can choose how to react to situations and we can choose how to be.

I am also a huge believer that we are good enough just the way we are.

Self-acceptance is something I wish more of us had, myself included, and I know so many people struggle with the crucial belief that they are good enough just as they are. They are not broken or lacking or deficient in any way. They do not need to be “more” anything. I wish they could see how awesome they are as they are and to love themselves for just being them.

And yet I am a coach and a Personal Development advocate. How do those things work together?

There is a place within all of us that strives to love ourselves and accept ourselves for who we are.

Some of us are struggle with that so much that we think we will find it through Personal Development. And indeed, it will help to put us on the path towards it, if we do the work and take the action.

There are others of us that start from the premise that we are absolutely OK right now but that we want to be even better, whatever that looks like – more productive, less angry, more confident, more organised, more fulfilled. We don’t NEED it to be “fixed”. We WANT it to live a better life as the very best version of who we already are.

There are also those of us who see no need for Personal Development because we are who we are and that’s that. Those people are not reading this blog!

So, having done some thinking, I have concluded that, whilst self-acceptance and knowing that you are Good Enough are the “Holy Grail” if you like, that is where we all need to be, Personal Development needn’t end when you get there. For me it is not about attaining Perfection and eliminating any bits that are not “Good Enough” it is about fine tuning the already awesome being that you are because you WANT to be better.

Which one are you?

P.S. Happy New Year! I didn’t “do” January this year. I wasn’t feeling it and I know I wasn’t alone. So I’m starting with February instead.