“I know for sure only one thing: I would like to become better,” wrote Albert Camus, and we all in one way or another can join these words. Everyone knows the path of self-change and everyone knows how thorny it is, how difficult it is even for the strongest of people. We also know how easy it is to be disappointed on this path, because we want a lot and at once, we stubbornly strive for sharp qualitative leaps in the manner of enlightenment in Zen Buddhism, but nature itself resists them: it moves along the path of evolution, not revolution - and precisely this simple fact holds the key to understanding the possibilities, limitations and mechanism of self-development. It itself is quite simple: at first we purposefully and usually hardly repeat some action new to us. Then, over time, it becomes a habit brought to automatism that does not require purposeful efforts. Finally,it enters our flesh and blood and turns into our second nature, becomes a part of the "I", an element of the personality itself. It is this circumstance that makes habits, both good and bad, both the habits of the flesh and the habits of the spirit, such a fundamentally important issue. Consciously or unconsciously forming one or another set of them in ourselves, we sculpt our own personality, determine the course, prospects and results of our own existence.prospects and results of their own existence.prospects and results of their own existence.
Therefore, one can imagine the process of self-development as being reduced in its essence to work on consolidating positive habits and eradicating counterproductive ones - and everyone, of course, decides for himself what combination of them he would like to see in himself. Any person is somewhat unique, but we have a common basis, because, no matter how much you deny it, in our essence we are a serial, streaming product. For this reason, it seems possible to formulate key general conditions that ensure our happiness and contribute to our development. And the earlier these conditions are formed, the better. According to ancient wisdom, the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. The second best is now. So if you haven't started paying due attention to what is going to be discussed a long time ago, maybe it should be done now.
1. Creativity and work
Life is movement, and movement brings us happiness, but only movement forward, and not backward or in a circle, meaningful, purposeful movement. This is exactly the working definition of creativity - it is any progressive, purposeful creative work. A person must go forward, must devote himself to something greater than himself, to what he considers important and corresponding to his deep interests, inclinations and abilities. By creating and investing ourselves in something external, we acquire ourselves, we do not just change this external, the process constantly changes ourselves and brings us happiness as a pleasant "side effect". Nobody argues - creation is difficult. But its absence is no less difficult, namely, the consumer's lifestyle, which almost inevitably leads to emptiness, melancholy, boredom, personal decay, the extinction of the spirit and vital energy.
Yuri Bykov writes:
2. Health and beauty
Our body is a complex instrument that needs careful care. Any significant malfunction in his work constrains our life, interferes with our goals and creative aspirations, and has a bad effect on our attitude. For two and a half thousand years, the greatest thinkers from Aristotle to Schopenhauer and Nietzsche have extolled health as one of the greatest benefits and called it the basis for a happy and productive existence. For the most part, however, in one way or another, we neglect its importance, let it run its course - and a change in attitude to this issue can radically change the quality of our life in the future. Many go to the point that, consciously or unconsciously, they consider any significant attention to health and appearance as shameful, vain, petty, superficial,partly - this is the legacy of ancient religious prejudices about the "body" as opposed to the "spirit" and the sinfulness of caring for it.
Of course, we have no control over many aspects of the state of our body and our appearance, but no matter how wonderful or bad they are, we must understand that what is always in our power is to change them for the better or for the worse. Needless to say, it is in our highest interests to purposefully, persistently and all our lives to contribute to the first of the alternatives? And it's not that difficult. Caring for them breaks down into a relatively small set of basic habits that need to get into the habit of eating, supplementing food, physical activity, sports, hygiene, cosmetics, stress management, and a number of other factors. And most importantly, it is vital to develop literacy in the relevant areas and the habit of adjusting and replenishing your knowledge in accordance with the state of science and technology. As with creativity, as with all the essential aspects of existence, this is a long and gradual process, the fruits of which you will begin to see only over time. Most importantly, be consistent and the results will pleasantly surprise you.
3. Cognition and self-improvement
Cognition of oneself and the world around, improvement of one's own personality are two fundamental forms of creativity, the importance and even lack of alternative of which for human existence was discussed above. They are the inalienable and natural impulses of every healthy rational being, vectors along which we are invariably pushed by the expansive energy of life sitting in us, Nietzsche's "will to power." For the same reason, they bring us the strongest joy, for there are forms of moving forward. Cognition and self-development also enable us to ensure the fundamental basis of human happiness - self-respect, healthy pride and self-satisfaction - and thereby eliminate the root cause of unhappiness, that is, bitter dissatisfaction with ourselves. Schopenhauer rightly writes:
Human nature and human culture, however, are prone to diseases, perversions and deformations: they easily suppress the most natural inclinations, therefore we should not wait for their spontaneous manifestation from case to case. Cognition and self-improvement should be perceived as conscious and purposeful attitudes, they should become a habit.
At the same time, it is important to understand that neglecting them has not only obvious practical drawbacks in the form of inferiority of our personality, our sense of life and even place in society (in an information society, education and development are becoming increasingly important social indicators). As soon as we stop growing, the forces of decay and degradation, which every second undermine us and everything in this universe, begin to overtake the forces of creation - we are more and more amenable to entropy. In real life, the situation is only slightly milder than in Through the Looking Glass, which Lewis Carroll writes about: here "you have to run as fast just to stay in the same place, and to get to another place, you need to run twice as fast." Running as fast as you can is not at all necessary, but if you do not step forward, your personality is doomed to premature decay.
4. Taste
It will take a long time to find a better description of what taste is than Nietzsche's:
Taste is thus a practical application of the ability to distinguish between useful and harmful. It is the ability to protect oneself from the harmful, alien and empty, the constant collision with which is fraught with energy waste that wears out us, the loss of time and the regression of our personality. Interaction with people who are developed, strong, moving forward makes us ourselves grow faster, inspires and motivates us to move upward and stimulates us to show our best sides in communicating with them. On the contrary, constant interaction with people empty, rolling on an inclined or at best walking circles with absolute inevitability makes us simplify and disfigure our thought, speech, feelings, discipline, their example and presence undermines the best sides of our "I", giving way to the forces of decay and regression. Selectivity in music, in literature,in cinema, in art in general, it implies at least a noticeable presence in our life of such works that encourage the best aspects of our personality, awaken and stimulate thought, feeling and imagination. If you stuff your consciousness with extremely low-quality food, empty chewing gum stuffed with stupid cliches, immature stereotypes of behavior and ideological viruses, our inner world will inevitably settle these guests. And this is another area of our life that should not be left to the mercy of spontaneity and spontaneity, expecting that the case will arrange everything in the best way.stuffed with stupid cliches, immature stereotypes of behavior and ideological viruses, our inner world will inevitably accommodate these guests. And this is another area of our life that should not be left to the mercy of spontaneity and spontaneity, expecting that the case will arrange everything in the best way.stuffed with stupid cliches, immature stereotypes of behavior and ideological viruses, our inner world will inevitably accommodate these guests. And this is another area of our life that should not be left to the mercy of spontaneity and spontaneity, expecting that the case will arrange everything in the best way.
5. Control of the world perception
It is not a secret for anyone that in general it is not so much the “objective” picture of the events taking place in our life and their plot that is important, but our attitude towards them. A person who considers himself happy, no matter how deplorable his position may be for an observer, is happy. A person who considers himself unhappy and in the most favorable circumstances from an external point of view is unhappy. However, to implement this clever trick of a radical change of focus in practice is a most difficult task, to which almost most of the spiritual practices and teachings of mankind are devoted. It is not necessary to go so far, however, in order to begin to derive certain benefits from the use of this fact. You need to treat the control of your feelings, emotions and reactions like any other established habit: gradually,by encouraging some states of consciousness and suppressing others, change their balance within our "I" in the desired direction. And this simple strategy has been known for a long time. Thus, the great Stoic Epictetus notes:
A purposefully and consciously formed habit of controlling states of consciousness and emotions allows a person to significantly improve the microclimate of his own inner world - albeit not at once; usually only after a number of years of effort. Having learned to react constructively to human rudeness, limitation and stupidity, to our failures and misfortunes, without exaggerating their scale, to find joy in the moment, we not only save our own energy and improve the quality of life. As modern science has proven, stress has such a deep negative effect on the body that it reaches even the most fundamental level of its functioning: it suppresses the secretion of the enzyme telomerase - and this is precisely the basic mechanism of aging. So save yourself from premature decrepitude.
6. The quality of speech and thought
The last habit - and, I want to say, not by importance - is at the intersection of the five points described above. Work on how you think and how you express your thoughts, on beauty, precision, coherence, brevity and richness of style. This is not just the most important area of self-development and the key to success in many areas of life. Language is a means by which we give an outlet and expression to our "I", and the more fully we are able to do this, the freer we breathe. Language, further, is a prism through which we perceive the world around us, and the richer, more perfect and more complete it is, the more fully and beautifully the universe is revealed to us. The world of a tongue-tied man is, with rare exceptions, the world of a caveman. It has neither depth nor dimensions, it consists of the simplest forms and colors. Do not impoverish yourself and do not become like cavemen, use the opportunities that nature has given us: by improving the means of interpreting and describing reality, we are improving it itself. By creating our inner world, we create the outer world as well, for no other reality, besides the one given to us in sensation, consciousness and language, is not available to us. Make this creativity a habit and you'll be rewarded. Not immediately, but over time, for this is a long and difficult path.
Joseph Brodsky, who knows a lot about this topic, calls on all of us:
© Oleg Tsendrovsky