Create of Disintegrate: Where do you stand?
‘Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.’ Those telling words are as applicable today as they were when James Allen wrote them back in 1903.
It is strange fact that many people will invest in virtually anything else other than improving themselves. It’s even more perplexing when you consider that a person is the single common denominator in every result in life. around the world in 80 days free
I’m deeply honoured to be able to work with leaders in business, many of whom have studied MBA’s at business schools, yet very few have ever studied themselves in order to build the necessary personal leadership qualities and emotional intelligence that form core principles of successful leadership.
The fact is many people go through life without ever wanting or feeling the need to improve themselves in terms of personal development. One of the main reasons for this is the power of nurturing and environment on a persons’ thinking and behaviour. Our parents and teachers couldn’t offer us something they’d never been taught, the ‘education’ system, despite all of the wonderful people that work in it, is mainly an exercise in data memorisation rather than essential life skills, and the adult ‘education’ establishments from business schools to the media rarely touch the subject of self-learning.
There are still people in organisations today that believe the sole responsibility for their development is with their employers. Any business of value will, of course, look to develop its’ talent, however, this is no longer the industrial age, the job for life is confined to the museum and accordingly employees must now take responsibility for their own development.
We truly are creatures of habit. It is no exaggeration that many of us live in a prison, one without guards, chains or locks. This ‘prison’ is called ‘the comfort zone’. A person in the comfort zone (and we’ve all been there) resists change and prefers to keep things as they are, unaware of their ignorance to one of the most fundamental and dynamic laws of life – create or disintegrate.
Inertia does not exist in nature, change is constant. Consider plant life, it is either growing or dying, there isn’t a period of stagnation at any point in the lifecycle. The very same principle applies to you. As the great German philosopher Goethe once said: ‘Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction’
In a world of constant change, the speed of which is increasing year and year, any person not moving in one direction is, without exception, going in the opposite direction.
The comfort zone is, in fact, far from comfortable, it just feels like it is. The comfort zone is the prison of habit, an environment of decay. To differing degrees, we are all controlled by a multitude of habits that have formed in our minds from our life experiences, a fact many people are unaware of. This is commonly called conditioning or paradigms.
There is a part of the personality that learns behaviour patterns, reactions to certain circumstances, and then it replicates them to free a person from having to consciously think about everything single thing they do.
This is incredibly useful for everyday essential activity such as getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc., however, as this programming shapes the majority of a persons’ actions and behaviours (over 90% of the average persons’ behaviour is unconscious- i.e. the person is consciously unaware of doing it) the danger is when habitual behaviour is being produced that is no longer helping the individual. Whilst the subconscious is the most powerful part of the personality, it does not have the ability to decipher when any given action it has learnt is appropriate to any given situation.
Where are you on the great divide of create or disintegrate?
Consider the following questions, and answer them honestly:
- In the last year, what have you done that initially made you uncomfortable?
- What are you doing today that you weren’t doing this time last year?
- What are you doing in order to improve your understanding of who you are and what it is that you really want?
- How much of your income do you willingly invest in improving yourself?
Your answers should provide an interesting insight into what is actually controlling your life – you, or the multitude of habits called ‘the comfort zone’. If you’ve established it’s the latter, you’ve already raised your level of awareness, now it should be time for considered action.
As the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao-tzu, taught us in the Tao Te Ching, ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’
November 19th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Leadership Program…
An interesting quote by Ken Balnchard about the \’soft touch\’ of true leadership: The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority….
November 29th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Whatz Expert, I fell blessed that I found your post while searching for all free christian singles site uk. I agree with you on the subject Create of Disintegrate: Where do you stand?. I was just thinking about this matter last Saturday.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
February 14th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Interesting article, adding it to my favourites!