Foundational to personal development is the idea of constant and never-ending improvement. “What isn’t growing is dying.”
Tell me, what in nature grows constantly and never-endingly without regard for its relationships with others?
Trees reach a certain height and stop, and eventually die. All animals grow for a time, mature, reproduce, and die.
Here are some things that grow endlessly: cancer cells, suburbs, landfills, the yeast that creates vodka as a waste product which eventually kills itself. Our capitalist global economy requires endless growth just to survive. We can see how well that is doing….
Growth is an important part of any animal’s development. In particular, it’s a very important part of adolescence. Most human beings have a great untapped potential, but nearly so great as advertised by personal development literature. The reason we have a great untapped potential in many cases is because the structure of our civilization keeps it untapped. In school we are trained to keep our creativity and genius to ourselves, to sit down and shut up and behave. We have to engage in conscious growth just to reach an acceptable adulthood!
At some point however, growth outgrows itself. Then what? What comes after personal development?