Discovering
the laws of personal growth
This page describes
how to start transforming your life by using the laws of personal growth.
First law. Take an active approach to life.
If you want to improve your outer situation, your inner situation or
your understanding of some aspect of life, you must begin by taking
an active approach to bringing about that change.
Many people see themselves as victims of circumstances beyond their
control. They reason that because they cannot change certain outer circumstances
or the behavior of other people, there is nothing they can do to improve
their situation. This is not a constructive approach, because it paralyzes
you and places you at the mercy of outer circumstances.
To overcome the feeling that you are a victim, you must begin by realizing
that the key to improving anything is to first attain a deeper understanding
of the situation. Before doctors discovered bacteria, many diseases
were considered incurable. When bacteria were discovered, it immediately
became obvious that you can cure many diseases by killing the bacteria
that cause them. The key to this advance in medical science was a new
understanding of what causes disease. Likewise, any other progress produced
by humankind or by an individual person begins with a higher understanding.
Second law: There is always something you can do to improve a situation
Because the key to progress is to seek a higher understanding, you are
never completely paralyzed. No matter how difficult the situation might
seem, there is always something you can do. Instead of waiting for outer
circumstances or other people to solve the problem for you, instead
of looking for a magic wand, you can make the decision to take an active
approach and begin to look for a higher understanding of the situation.
When you attain this understanding, the solution will become obvious.
Taking an active approach to life means accepting that every problem
has a solution. The solution might be hidden from your view at the moment.
Yet, if you are willing to make a determined effort to look for the
solution, you can and will find it. However, the solution will not simply
fall in your lap, you must go out and look for it.
Third law. Higher understanding is the key to growth.
The driving force behind all personal growth is to seek a higher understanding
of a particular aspect of life, of yourself or of life in general. Many
people feel that they have looked for such an understanding without
finding it, but you will only find understanding by looking in the right
place.
Whenever you face an unanswered question or an unsolved problem, you
must open your mind and look for the solution outside the container
of your current knowledge.
This line of reasoning points to the essential reason why so many people
fail to find solutions to their problems or fail to experience the full
results of their self-help efforts. The simple fact is that many people
become so attached to their current knowledge and beliefs about life
that they are not open to ideas that go beyond those beliefs.
If you want to grow, if you want to improve any aspect of your life,
you must begin by seeking a higher understanding.
If you want a higher understanding, you must be willing to look beyond
the framework of your current knowledge and beliefs.
This is simple logic, yet many people are not willing to open their
minds to new ideas.
Fourth law. Outer knowledge will not change your life.
Being open to new ideas is not simply a matter of seeking such ideas
outside yourself. Some people read dozens of books about self-help,
yet their lives never change. The reason is simple. Outer knowledge
or intellectual knowledge is not enough to bring about change in your
life.
Let us consider the question of why people continue to smoke. Many people
attempt to quit smoking, yet they are not successful and the explanation
is simple. People often decide to quit smoking because of outer or intellectual
knowledge that smoking is dangerous to their health. People smoke because
smoking fills an emotional desire. The human intellect is a poor tool
for controlling emotional desires, and therefore an intellectual decision
usually cannot override an emotional desire.
The only way to overcome a desire is to replace it with a higher desire.
You must attain an inner resolution that makes you want something, for
example good health, more than you want to smoke. This inner resolution
cannot be the result of outer or intellectual knowledge. It can only
come from a deeper understanding whereby knowledge is integrated into
your consciousness. This deeper understanding will not override your
emotional desire; it will replace it with a higher desire. Therefore,
a true inner understanding will empower you to change old habits.
Fifth law. True understanding comes from within.
The only form of knowledge that will change your life is an inner understanding.
This form of understanding comes from a higher part of your own mind
and it is expressed in a language that you can understand and accept.
Therefore, this form of knowledge is integrated into your consciousness
and that is why it will produce change in your life.
As already stated, inner understanding is a product of intuition. Intuition
is often described as an inner knowing. It comes in the form of an “Aha
experience” whereby you suddenly understand something in a new
and profound way. In many cases, intuition will tell you things you
already knew with your conscious mind. However, because the intuitive
insights come from inside yourself, the knowledge is now integrated
and you suddenly understand it instead of simply knowing it. It is this
understanding that opens the door for positive change in your life.
Sixth law. The key to understanding is to take the inner approach to
knowledge.
To successfully answer the deeper questions of life, you must adopt
the inner approach to knowledge.
In the past, many educational institutions were based on the outer approach
to knowledge and students were required to memorize facts. However,
many educators now realize that this approach has severe limitations.
For example, teaching a student the facts about bridge building does
not guarantee that the student can actually build a bridge. A complex
task, such as building a bridge, requires a deeper understanding of
the topic, and that understanding is not the automatic result of pouring
facts into a person’s mind.
When you take the inner approach, you are actively looking for a deeper
understanding that comes from inside yourself. Intuitive knowledge is
more than factual knowledge, although it might be based on certain facts.
However, instead of being understood only on an intellectual level,
these facts are now integrated into your consciousness. For example,
a good engineer develops an intuitive feel for how to build a bridge.
A good engineer can use this understanding to take bridge building to
a new level. Innovation does not come from factual, intellectual or
theoretical knowledge. It only comes from integrated knowledge.
If you want answers that are truly meaningful and that will help you
transform your life for the better, you must adopt the inner approach
to knowledge. However, the outer and inner approaches are not mutually
exclusive. In fact, you will get the best results from integrating them.
Seventh law. You can produce intuitive insights.
In recent decades, psychologists and other scientists have become increasingly
aware of the value of intuition. Yet, because many things related to
the human mind are difficult to research with traditional scientific
methods, there is not a lot of so-called solid scientific evidence about
intuition. Therefore, many people tend to think that intuition either
happens or doesn’t happen, and that they have no control over
the process. This is incorrect. You can do much to sharpen your intuition
and to increase the frequency of your intuitive insights.
Intuition is an ability that is built into the human mind. A few decades
ago, most people believed that if you were born with a slender constitution,
you had no chance of developing a muscular body. People now realize
that by using a systematic approach, you can dramatically change the
appearance and strength of the physical body.
Likewise, intuition is simply an natural ability of the human mind.
If you are willing to take a systematic approach, you can bring about
dramatic changes in your ability to receive intuitive insights. Through
these insights, you can find meaningful answers to all of your questions
about life.
To learn how to
sharpen your intuition.
Go back to How
to find answers main page.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
