Self-Help vs Personal Development vs Self-Actualization etc.

[Regan]

Opinions on the optimal term to describe 'this work'

 

Self-Help?  Personal Development? Self-Actualization? Self-Improvement? Any others?

 

And why?

[melodydanielluna]

Hmm.  Good question, and something I have often thought about while going about my day-to-day life.

To me, self-help comes with the implication that you NEED help.  Like you have some sort of issues, be it clinical or not, that is making your quality of life worse than average.  For example, you would buy a self-help book for developing more confidence, or to help you deal with your anxiety disorder. 

Where as I feel the term 'personal development' feels a little more general.  Anyone could embark on a personal development journey.  This would be more like getting to know yourself, identifying your values, goal-setting, taking action towards those goals, etc.  (Of course, self-help could be a part of your personal-development.  For example, if you had discouraging parents, healing that old wound so you CAN go pursue that career of your dreams.)

Self-actualization, to me, is the process of becoming your highest, most actualized self.  Self-actualization work starts with the most urgent things.  For example, before I could start working on my life purpose and on enlightenment (personal development), I had to go to therapy for my eating disorder (The THERAPY wasn't technically self-help, but I engaged in a lot of self-help at the time.) 

Self-improvement happens in many aspects of your life.  I'm self-improving at work when I do a better job ensuring all the tasks are done before I go home for the night.  I'm self-improving when I deal with conflict in my relationships.  And I'm self-improving when I am engaging in self-help/personal development/etc.  I feel it has an even more casual implication that personal development, because self-improvement is something lots of people, including people who never get into self-help, personal development, enlightenment, etc. strive for.  Not everyone, of course.

Ultimately, all of these things really mean the same thing, but it is interesting to tease them apart and see how they differ.  Doing this has also given me a better idea of what I most need right now.  For example, currently, I don't need a lot of 'self-help', because I am more or less mentally well.  But I do need a lot of personal development to help me realized my life purpose.

[Regan]

@melodydanielluna that's an interesting take

 

 

[Regan]

and yeah I agree that all terms lead to the same path providing one goes far enough down the rabbit hole

[Hulk]

@Regan

On 7/10/2021 at 11:22 PM, Regan said:

Opinions on the optimal term to describe 'this work'

Actualized.org is religion. The best way to describe it is religion-agency.

Quote

Self-Help?  Personal Development? Self-Actualization? Self-Improvement? Any others?

 

And why?

This things are hard to define clearly. 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Hulk
missing word

[Regan]

5 minutes ago, Hulk said:

@Regan

Actualized.org is religion. The best way to described is religion-agency.

I wasn't referring to Actualized.org

5 minutes ago, Hulk said:

This things are hard to define clearly. 

I'm not trying to define the terms either, I was asking for opinions on which is the most optimal

Edited August 3, 2021 by Regan

[Preety_India]

@Regan  hey good question. 

I'd say a lot of these terms are slightly synonymous but not completely synonymous. 

But they generally capture the overall length and breath of this work. So you can use them interchangeably with slight nuances. 

Self-Help? Personal Development? Self-Actualization? Self-Improvement? Any others?

Imo, personal development seems closer to what we're doing here and mostly in life. Personal development seems to be like a broad umbrella term that covers various aspects of self help, self Actualization, self improvement. 

Self Actualization to me means trying to fulfill higher needs of the mind and spirit on the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. For example, if you're trying to learn more about spirituality and high consciousness and raising your overall vibration I'd call it self Actualization. 

Self improvement could mean incremental improvements in your daily habits. For example if you lost weight or dropped an addiction or got better at organizing your daily life, I'd call it self improvement. Yet I'd still consider this to be a part of Self Development or Personal Development. 

I see personal development more relevant to lower stages of Spiral Dynamics and lower on the Chakra scale like the root and solar plexus Chakra. 

Whereas I'll consider self Actualization as a part of Crown Chakra and Stage Green and upwards, I hope this makes sense. 

Now self help looks more of a therapy based term. I remember this term being very popular during 1950s Era where people would talk about improving states of mind, I remember those "how to...." books in the market like "how to speak effectively," "how to have a good memory,","how to get rid of phobia in minutes." Somehow the term self help reminds me of that Era. And I guess self help is more specific to a certain issue you're dealing with currently in your life.