|
NATION BUILDERS INTERNATIONAL
Category:
Self-Help
Publisher: NBI Publishing house
Type: Non-Fiction
Self development is a concept born out of time tested and proven results, research and experience.
It is intended to revolutionalise individuals and to inspire self development out of conventional and traditional pattern.
Since I have no school sponsor, can I study on my own?
Can I proceed further than my credentials?
Can I be more effective than I am?
Is dynamic living a possibility?
Is my present achievement the end to all I can be?
As a woman, can I become more relevant than I am?
Does Africa have a future?
All these questions confront humanity daily.
The 21st century strategic study on self development seeks to provide answers to the above questions. It unlocks a whole world of possibilities surrounded by the myth of impossibility. It renders all human excuses for failure a myth.
You can study on your own. Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) a mathematician and inventor did just that.
You can proceed further than your credentials. Michael Faraday, the father of electricity did just that.
You can be more effective than you are. Mary Mcleod Bethune (1875-1955) founder of Bethune-CookmanCollege did just that. She lifted herself from the cotton field to the white house as an advisor to the president of the USA.
Dynamic living is a possibility. Benjamin Franklin proved it. He moved from an apprentice printer to an American hero and patriot.
Your present achievement is not the end to all you can be.
As a woman, you can be more relevant than you are.
Africa has a great future.
Follow me as we explore the principles which makes the dynamics of self development a reality. Read and study this book as a means to the world you have never dreamed of.
Excerpt
UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT
Development is a principle of life which defines the path to the ultimate. Everything is intended to develop so as to attain the ultimate satisfaction in itself, its productivity and impact.
Underdevelopment is a negative feedback to the principle of development. It is a reversible reaction which renders deficient the output of life.
Development is the natural course life ought to take in all things. And development is an outcome based on correct application of principles.
Development is in two dimensions: Evolutionary and revolutionary development.
Evolutionary development is systematic and gradual development relative to time and demand.
Revolutionary development is a radical developmental approach with a breaking away from the status quo and from the conventional, charting new courses, setting new paths, approaches, methods and assuming new forms and operations.
DEFINITION OF SELF DEVELOPMENT
Self development is a process of self improvement for self reliance through personal involvement in learning, exposure and service.
It is all what an individual can put in as positive actions towards his/her improvement in all areas.
The definition of self development constitutes key factors like:
(i) Process
(ii) Improvement
(iii) Reliance
(iv) Involvement
(v) Learning and exposure
(vi) Service
We will look at each of the above factors and how they relate to self development.
(i) Process: Self development is not an accidental occurrence, but a breakthrough within a period of time based on an individual’s input or investment in learning, exposure and service.
Time on its own does not develop people but what people do in time.
Every positive result, change and development is a function of a due process. Process embodies the necessary actions involved in the passage of time to birth a result or an experience.
Process is more of a principle than a mere fact. Every desired breakthrough has a relative process.
Process defies the trial and error approach to development and the accidental concept of development. It defines development as an outcome with an underlined procedure. Not as an accidental occurrence.
In the absence of a process for attainment, what will remain will be gambling and all forms of manoeuvre.
Every process requires time for its completion, so is the process of self development. There is no self development which does not consume time.
Individuals with the “Everything quick” mentality cannot pursue their need for self development.
Since development is either evolutionary or revolutionary, the process of self development has different levels and dimensions. Sometimes it is systematic and gradual with individuals experiencing different phases of changes in their development.
When different levels or phases of development culminate, it results to a radical developmental experience, with a breaking away from the status quo. This is revolutionary development. It always comes after evolutionary development.
(ii) Improvement: This is a law in self development. Improvement is simply the enhancement in quality, value, standard and experience. Self development is all about self improvement. That is, adding quality, value, standard and experience to one’s personality, identification or uniqueness, character, value system, talent, potential and one’ s operational dynamics, etc.
The largest room in the world is called improvement. Everything can be improved upon. An individual can improve upon himself to any level depending on his/her willingness to apply the principles of self development.
Individuals who surrender to who they are are simply operating against the possibility of improvement. Nothing can arrive it’s ultimate quality, value, standard and experience without improvement.
Life void of improvement becomes a burden. The law of progress states, “Every quality and positive result in life is progressive in dimension, with each phase of progress relative to timing”.
(iii) Reliance: Self development is the only authentic means through which an individual can attain self reliance. Self reliance is a level of attainment through self development, where an individual can define his/her own life positively, in the judgment between right and wrong, decision making, planning for the future and employing oneself through the deployment of the products of self development.
The world is full of dependent individuals simply because few individuals have left the general plat form through self development, to the deployment of their development for employment.
Self reliance through self development is the answer to the present unemployment plight of the world. Self reliance on the other hand does not imply self sufficiency. It is simply independence for interdependence in exchange of goods and services.
Every successful man is a self-made man; yet he is also a composite: that is, in addition to his own efforts, he is composed of contributions from various sources.
“Whenever you hear of a man doing great things, you may be sure that behind it somewhere is a great background. It may be a mother’s training, a father’s example, a teacher’s influence, or an intense experience of his own, but it has to be there or else the great achievement does not come, no matter how favorable the opportunity”.
CATHERINE MILES
Thus, self development must culminate to self reliance.
Self reliance takes a man from:
-A liability to an asset
-A complainer into a master planner
-A collector to a distributor
-A pensioner to a pioneer.
(iv) Involvement: Involvement embodies the engagement of oneself towards an accomplishment. In self development, it denotes individual participation and contribution towards self improvement for self reliance.
Man, for the most part, is the architect of his own destiny. He makes his own success. He is responsible for his failures.
His future depends mainly on his personal efforts. Other factors contribute sometime, but the final result rests with the individual.
There can’t be any self development without the input of one’s effort. An individual must invest 80% of his aspiration for self development, then will the 20% inspiration from others make a difference.
YOU ARE THE HANDICAP YOU MUST FACE
“Figure it out for yourself, my lad,
You’ve all that the greatest
Of men have had,
Two arms, two hands, two eyes,
And a brain to use if you
Would be wise.
With this equipment they all began,
So start for the top and say, “I can.”
Look them over, the wise and great,
They take their food from
A common plate,
And similar knives and
Forks they use
With similar laces they
Tie their shoes,
The world considers them
Brave and smart,
But you’ve all they had
When they made their start.
You can triumph and come to skill,
You can be great if you only will.
You’re well equipped for
What fight you choose,
You have legs and arms and
a brain to use,
And the man who has risen great deeds to do,
Began his life with no
More than you.
You are the handicap
You must face,
You are the one, who must
Choose your place,
You must say where you want to go,
How much you will study
The truth to know.
God has equipped you for life, but
He let you decide what
You want to be.
Courage must come from
The soul within,
The man must furnish
The will to win.
So figure it out for yourself, my lad,
You were born with all that the great have had,
With your equipment
They all began.
Get hold of yourself,
And say: “I can”.
EDGAR A. GUEST
(v) Learning, exposure and service: These are the principles or methods through which one can achieve self development. This will be seen in details in subsequent chapters. I often say, “Self development will ultimately lead to self realisation”.
|
