You want rapid personal growth? Be ready to be brutal with yourself.

2 points by skowmunk ↗ HN
The rate of one's personal growth is directly proportional to one's readiness to be BRUTALLY honest with oneself.

Yep, brutal.

The more painful a truth about oneself is, the more we tend to cover it up from ourselves and the more ready we have to be, to be brutal with ourselves to uncover it, to accept it. Because uncovering and accepting the truth is quite often painful and the first step to progress over an obstacle.

Of course, this is assuming that there aren't enough of people with enough of wisdom around us to tell the truths about ourselves in sweet and painless way. Some of us are lucky enough to have such people, but do all of us?

One good thing about this is, the more habituated you become in being honest with yourself, the more you will see the gains in being honest with yourself. The more gains you see, the less painful it becomes over time to be honest with yourself.

2 comments

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Why must being honest with yourself equate to being brutal with yourself?

We aren't all ridden with mistakes and wrong things we do and falling to temptations. We do a lot of good things which need as much attention as the things that need brutality to keep our healthy balance.

The way to rapid personal growth is to be beyond yourself, sort of hovering over yourself, be detached if you like, and view what is from the perspective of reason and logics.

Don't be brutal to yourself. It does not work. Love is superior :)

I agree with you.

What you have stated is the other half of my belief regarding rapid personal improvement. I might have given the wrong picture by stating just one half of my belief. But then I did that, because its this part that most people hinder themselves at as they often find it distasteful or painful to accept the bitter truths about the way they do some things.

Its as important to recognise the enabling(the good) characteristics in oneself as it is to recognize the disabling(the bad) characteristics. We are like everybody else, a mix of both, good and bad, often in varying levels and levels that can change with time.

keep recognizing and repeating the good behaviors, keep recognizing and getting rid off the bad ones. Its a never ending process.

Cheers!