The reason I focus on living with a restricted diet and personal development is not only because I believe tackling wellness concerns forms an essential foundation relating to mind and body symptoms that act as barriers to development. There is a more general and fundamental reason for dealing with these two subjects together beyond the specific concerns which affect me.
Many people beginning a personal development build have figured out that having the right building plans is essential. Frequently, people approach their desires for change and improvement without clear and detailed goals, markers, and plans. Eventually, many have an aha moment, and drill down, getting to the truth of the details of their aims and desires. I write about this process myself, and recognize it as a main developmental tool. Sound familiar? Okay, this post is not about that.
Something even more fundamental is more often forgotten, and is even more directly linked to success and achieving meaningful development. Moreover, while the above clear goals prerequisite could arguably be primarily a personal development process, what I am write about today represents nothing less than the mutual structure of wellness and personal development. I will refer to this concept as Goal Superstructure (or GS).
You may even have guessed that GS tends to consist primarily of habits. It is not very useful to realize both that you need clearly defined goals, as well as the habits to support them and leave it at that. I wrote about Building a Wellness Habit in a previous post. After you have the ability to build a wellness habit, and know what you are building for, you already have the ability to avoid this GS pitfall. If you have sufficient motivation and clearly defined goals, the desire and ability to faithfully think about what needs to be done may not be enough. The desire to faithfully act may not be enough. You also have to ensure you have enough of the right habits to prevent you from in effect sabotaging yourself. There is a reason you haven’t already accomplished the the goal in front of you, and the goals you once sought but have now abandoned or failed to achieve.
You do not necessarily need to have all of your habits in place before your begin. You do have to consider what habits you have in place already either negative or those you perceive to be beneficial. Addictions go in this category. Habits that compete for the resources you need to accomplish the goal in question, such as time, energy, or money, do as well.
Habits have gravity. The ones that interfere with the goal you are moving towards, may be difficult to reconcile. You must determine when there is a conflict and accept that to achieve your goal, you may need to modify other seemingly unrelated areas of your life. No matter how much motivation and desire you bring to bear upon your efforts, you risk sabotaging yourself and ultimately failing. You may feel that your pre-existing behavior is vital, or that it is not fundamentally related. Decide which is more important to you. Be prepared to force yourself to modify your behavior in ways you didn’t expect. Consider how an old behavior could possible hinder your efforts then analyze the extent of the relationship. You may minimize the connection to protect the preexisting habit, even though you will tell yourself excuses that sound disarming. Be prepared for this. Analyze your motivations.
Whether the goal relates to a specific personal development task, wellness building, or improvement in some specific area of your life, such as your career, remember that commitment and motivation are not enough. Action is not enough. Analyze any behavior that stands in the way of your goal. Decide what is important to you. Make a choice.
Build well,
CRC
