Personal development for individuals refers to actions or aspirations oriented towards one or more of the following aims:
- improving self-awareness
- improving self-knowledge
- building or renewing identity
- developing strengths or talents
- identifying or improving potential
- building employability or human capital
- enhancing lifestyle or the quality of life
- realizing dreams
- fulfilling aspirations
The concept covers a wider field than self-development or self-help. Personal development also includes developing other people (inter-personal development, compare personnel development) and, by extension, covers:
- personal-development methods
- personal-development programs
- personal-development tools
- personal-development techniques
- personal-development assessment systems
Any sort of Development — whether economic, political, biological, organizational or personal — requires a framework if one wishes to know whether change has actually occurred. For personal development the individual often functions as the primary judge of improvement, but validation of objective improvement requires assessment using standard criteria. Personal development frameworks may include goals or benchmarks that define the end-points, strategies or plans for reaching goals, measurement and assessment of progress, levels or stages that define milestones along the development path, and a feedback-system to provide information on changes.
Scope
Developing oneself, developing others
At the level of self-improvement, personal development includes:
- becoming the person one aspires to
- integrating social identity with self-identification
- increasing awareness or defining of one’s priorities, values, chosen lifestyle or ethics
- strategizing and realizing dreams, aspirations, career and lifestyle priorities
- developing professional potential
- developing talents
- developing individual competencies
- learning on the job
- improving the quality of lifestyle in such areas as health, wealth, culture, family, friends and communities
- learning techniques or methods to expand awareness
- learning techniques or methods to gain control of one's life or to achieve wisdom
The personal development of others may occur as:
- a function within the role of teacher or mentor
- a personal competency (such as a manager's ability to develop the potential of employees)
- a professional service (such as providing training, assessment or coaching)
The "personal development industry" has two distinct markets:
- business-to-individual
- business-to-institution
The business-to-individual market
The business-to-individual market may deal with:
- books
- motivational speaking
- e-Learning programs
- workshops
- individual counseling
- life coaching
Personal development techniques marketed to individuals may stem from modern ideas such as fitness, beauty enhancement or weight loss; or they may involve traditional practices such as yoga, martial arts or meditation.
The business-to-institution market
The business-to-institution personal-development industry includes:
- courses and assessment systems for students in higher education
- management services to employees in organizations through:
- training
- training and development programs
- personal-development tools
- self-assessment
- feedback
- coaching
- mentorship
Some consulting firms specialize in personal development but as of 2009 generalist firms operating in the fields of human resources, recruitment and organizational strategy have entered what they perceive as a growing market, not to mention smaller firms and self-employed professionals who provide consulting, training and coaching.
Origins
Major religions, such as the Abrahamic and Indian religions, as well as New Age philosophies, have used practices such as prayer, music, dance, singing, chanting, poetry, writing, sports and martial arts. Apart from their other functions, each of these practices may form a part of personal development and further the broad goals of personal development: discovering the meaning of life, determining what constitutes a good life and how best to develop oneself.
Michel Foucault describes, in Care of the Self , the techniques of epimelia used in ancient Greece and Rome, which included dieting, exercise, sexual abstinence, contemplation, prayer and confession — some of which also became important practices within different branches of Christianity. In yoga, a discipline originating in India, possibly over 3000 years ago, personal-development techniques include meditation, rhythmic breathing, stretching and postures. Wu Shu and Tai Qi Quan utilise traditional Chinese techniques, including breathing and energy exercises, meditation, martial arts, as well as practices linked to traditional Chinese medicine, such as dieting, massage and acupuncture. In Islam, which arose almost 1500 years ago in the Middle East, personal development techniques include ritual prayer, recitation of the Qur'an, pilgrimage, fasting and tazkiyah (purification of the soul).
Two individual ancient philosophers stand out as major sources of what has become personal development in the 21st century, representing a Western tradition and an Eastern tradition.
Aristotle and the Western tradition
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) strongly influenced theories of personal development in the West. Aristotle defined personal development as a category of phronesis. Aristotle’s concept of "the good life" consisted in developing one’s excellences ( arête ) to reach eudaimonia , commonly translated as "happiness" but more accurately understood as “human flourishing” or “living well". Aristotle continues to influence the Western concept of personal development to this day, particularly in the economics of human development and in positive psychology.
Confucius and the East Asian tradition
In Chinese tradition, Confucius (around 551 BC – 479 BC) founded an unbroken line of philosophy. His ideas continue to influence family values, education and management in China and much of Asia in the 21st century. In his Great Learning Confucius explicitly shows something which some might characterize as personal development as the source of managing the family and the state:
The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
In the late 1990s a lively debate over Asian values seemed to oppose Confucius and Aristotle on questions of family values, maintenance of order and individual freedom. Although the debate turned political and soon died down, cultural differences stemming from the philosophies of Aristotle and Confucius remain. According to leadership author Frank Gallo one cannot impose Western concepts in a Confucian management culture without some modifications:
There are cultural differences between China and the West in the way workers view their leaders, what they expect from their leaders, and what leaders can expect from their workforce. Furthermore, there are very fundamental differences in how life works in China compared to the West. The values that Westerners hold dear are sometimes looked at disdainfully in China.
Contexts
Personal development in psychology
Psychology became linked to personal development, not with Freud (1856-1939) but starting with his dissident disciples Alfred Adler (1870-1937) and Carl Jung (1875-1961).
Adler refused to limit psychology to therapy, making the important point that aspirations look forward and do not limit themselves to unconscious drives or to childhood experiences. He also originated the concepts of lifestyle (1929 —he defined "lifestyle" as an individual's characteristic approach to life, in facing problems) and of self image, a concept that influenced management under the heading of work-life balance .
Carl Jung (1875-1961) made contributions to personal development with his concept of individuation, which he saw as the drive of the individual to achieve the wholeness and balance of the Self.
Daniel Levinson (1920-1994) developed Jung’s early concept of life stages and included a sociological perspective. Levinson propounded that personal development come under the influence — throughout life — of aspirations, which he called "the Dream":
Whatever the nature of his Dream, a young man has the developmental task of giving it greater definition and finding ways to live it out. It makes a great difference in his growth whether his initial
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