Why the Self-Help and Personal Development Movement is now.
by Travis Wright 
Sometimes things take awhile to take notice. But, it appears to me that the Personal Development and Self Help Movement is now. Back in the early 1900s, Napoleon Hill wrote one of the first ’self-help’ books called ‘Think and Grow Rich’. Since then, many people have been inspired by his work and the works of many others. Now with blogging so prevalent, more people than ever are able to voice their thoughts on self-help and personal development. It is changing the way that people look at their life.
The Human Potential Movement came out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and was formed to promote the cultivation of extraordinary potential believed to be largely untapped in most people. The movement is premised on the belief that through the development of human potential, humans can experience an exceptional quality of life filled with happiness, creativity, and fulfillment. A corollary belief is often that those who begin to unleash this potential will find their actions within society to be directed towards helping others release their potential. The belief is that the net effect of individuals cultivating their potential will bring about positive social change at large.
Some people would call that “a left wing, liberal hippie” crap. But, it goes beyond political definition, as improving oneself has to be one of the most important elements of life. To learn and to grow are two of the main attributes of personal development. What else can I learn? What new skills can I develop? Who am I? Why am I here? And who else can I help learn and grow?
We are all very small… a conglomeration of electrons, neutrons and protons that form this matter we call our ’self’. Luckily, we are an intelligent self and we can make choices and decisions about things that affect our existence. We can choose to improve. We can choose to follow through. We can make better decisions. We can awaken our minds to the possibilities that life on Earth offers.
Its exciting, every day, I find a new blog or website about personal development, self help and self-improvement. Every day, people submit an article to CultivateGreatness.com and I then look at their site and am amazed by all the wealth of knowledge that people are sharing. There are literally thousands of resources online for self-help and personal development advice and information.
People are caring about other people. You can see this more and more everyday. Sure there is war going on all over the world, because of various disagreements and religious choices… however, the more people we have in the trenches of life sending out love, and actually caring about one another, the better the world will be.
The Hippies before us, had an idea… but they had the wrong approach. Too many druggie burn-outs turned off the masses. However, as more people join the Self-Help and Personal Development movement, the more the message is going to grow, thus meaning more people will join the movement.
With movies like “What the Bleep do we Know?” and “The Secret” moving into mass consciousness, more people are becoming aware, and tapping into the flow of universal knowledge. One by one we are changing the way people feel and look at life. This is an exciting time, and Im glad to be part of the movement! You want to be part of the movement? Get a blog and start sharing your thoughts… be a part of the Self-Help and Personal Development movement!
Much Love!
Travis Wright
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Travis,
You’re right. Some people do look at this as some left wing liberal hippie stuff, but it isn’t. Those are just meaningless labels anyway. I once ran for political office (state house of representatives) and lost (35% - 65%), but the interesting thing is…
The “liberals” said I was too conservative and the “conservatives” said I was too liberal. That’s when I knew I had good message. I intend to trancend this overly narrow-minded two party political system. We need people in office that insprire others, that have good ideas, that are great thinkers, and that aren’t afraid to try new things that we haven’t tried before. People that question the staus quo. that’s how we grow individually, and that’s how we grow as a community.
Most people vote against one guy or one party. They rarely vote for someone saying, “I love this guy! He has great ideas and vision. I’m going to vote for him! I can’t wait for election day.”
In my life I’ve only seen people respond to two politicians that way. Paul Wellstone and Ronald Reagan. I know they had very different beliefs, but they both insprired people to be great. They had a message of optimism and growth.
The one’s who believe it’s all a joke are the same ones who complain when they don’t get what they want. Each person is inspired by different things, and hopefully this personal development movement will pass Napolean Hill’s message to even more people.
BTW, Think And Grow Rich is an awesome book, highly recommended.
Matthew
http://www.StayMotivated.info