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A better me
The field of personal development is a very popular one and includes many theories, perspectives and experts. Since I want to keep the guidance on this website clear and concise, I am very selective in the topics I present to the reader. In a way, I want to provide as little guidance as possible since I am of the opinion that personal development should be based on following your inner voice and fine-tuning your goals and competencies along the way, through trial and error. For example, I don’t want to rely too much on tests that tell you who you are, or use categorizations that put your personality ‘in a box’, based on your historic behavior.
Understanding self image
According to my point of view, the aim of personal development is (1) to become aware of your current self-image, (2) assess that self-image, and (3) working on improving it. All this should be based on following your inner voice and not several blueprints ‘gently’ forced upon you by books, family and friends. This is why I picked the theory of psycho-cybernetics as an almost all-encompassing guide for bettering yourself. The theory, developed by Dr. Maxwell Maltz in the ’60s, has stood the test of time and its ideas are often repeated in some form in modern self-help books. What’s more, to my knowledge, it best explains WHY certain personal development exercises will work, by explaining the underlying psychological-, neurological and bodily mechanisms. The explanation includes a coherent conceptual framework which let you focus on the main ‘job’ within your personal development journey, instead of a cocktail of theories which might, or might not be, that effective.
Dealing with stress
The second topic in this section is ‘managing anxiety‘. Again, here I have selected an approach that originates from the ’60s (developed by Dr. Claire Weekes), has stood the test of time, and to my knowledge, best explains WHY you are experiencing what your are going through, and why the suggested solutions will work. Also, it presents a coherent theory under the name of ‘nervous illness’ which let you focus on the main ‘job’ at hand in regaining your composure. The suggested solution might seem too simple at first, but makes sense once you understand the underlying psychology and workings of the nervous system.
Self image in relation to nervous illness
Although I have some personal experience with both topics I would like to be clear that I’m not an professional expert. Still, based on my personal experience and my previous jobs (where I developed an academic and critical mindset) I’m fairly confident in the selected theories. Moreover, I think that both theories complement one another, in particular for those of you who are struggling with anxiety. The potential pitfall of the theory of ‘nervous illness’ is that it only focuses on what is currently happening to you, and not enough on where you want to go in terms of future self-image. Having a clear goal is of major importance to avoid meandering on your current anxiety state. I believe Claire Weekes briefly discusses working on your self-image in her books, but in my opinion this topic should make up a greater part of the recovery process.
Better decision making
The third topic in the ‘better me’ section is about better decision making. This topic concerns more the day to day challenges that pop up in a person’s life instead of the other two more fundamental life challenges. The ‘better decision making’ theme focuses on how rational decision making can be impeded by emotions, group pressure and false arguments (which on the surface seems to hold truth, but on further inspection don’t). The idea here is that learning to recognize flaws in your own argumentation and those of others will lead to a more pleasant social life. Ideally, it also contributes to solving controversial (and therefore highly emotional) issues that our societies are currently facing.
In conclusion: whether you want to start on a major journey of self-discovery or merely want to level up the quality of your decision making, you have come to the right place on IWANTTHEWORLD.
Go to the section ‘Psycho-Cybernetics‘.
Go to the section ‘Managing anxiety‘.
Go to the section ‘Better decision making‘.
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Kind regards,
Erik van ‘t Klooster