Personal development is as old as Plato and Aristotle. In fact, personal development was considered by many societies to be the only true calling. They also believed that the study and application of philosophy was the best method for personal development.

Various cultures and various individuals throughout history have discussed and studied the need for and ways to achieve personal development. Sometimes it has been called “virtues”, or “moral character”, and at others it is called “ethics”. Christianity has been concerned with the “moral development” of individuals and took its “virtues” from the Bible. These are: Faith, Hope and charity or love/agape.

Virtue, as defined by the ancient Greeks, was: A commitment to “habitual excellence.”

In most cases, the main concern was “personal development.” Each defined ways and means to achieve this development. Aristotle believed that it was necessary to achieve the “golden mean” between one trait and its opposite. Take Aristotle’s example of courage. “Courage is the balance between cowardice (lack of courage) and recklessness (excess courage)”. So Aristotle’s Golden Ratio would be in the middle between these two extremes, but closer to “recklessness than cowardice”.

Benjamin Franklin developed a 13-week system in which he focused on one character trait per week. Listed below are the traits he felt were most important for him to work on to be successful.

character traits

Self-Control: Be determined and disciplined in your efforts.

Silence: listen better in all discussions.

Order: do not agonize-organize.

Commitment: promise to put your best effort into today’s activities.

Savings – See how you spend your money and time.

Productivity: work hard, work smart, have fun.

Fairness: treat others as you want them to treat you.

Moderation: avoid extremes.

Cleanliness: having a clean mind, body and clothes.

Peace of Mind: Take some time to slow down and “smell the roses.”

Charity: helping others.

Humility: keep your ego in check.

Sincerity: Be honest with yourself and with others.

These are just brief examples from the history of “character development” or “personal development.” It is beyond this article to provide a history of personal development, but I can give a brief discussion of what personal development means to me.

Stephen Covey in his books on “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, discusses the evolution of “personal development”. In one section he discusses his study of personal development and makes a significant observation. He maintains that prior to the 1920s and 1930s, personal development was defined as “Character Development.” Ben Franklin’s list of character traits highlights the idea that a person needs to develop his “character.”

However, in the 1920s and after, he claims that the focus of personal development changed from character development to “personality development”. The developmental focus shifted from internal development to focusing on a person’s external traits or personality traits, such as a “nice personality” or “having a positive personality.” With this as a guideline, it’s not important if we actually have a positive personality or if we have a nice personality, it’s more important to “act” like we do. Mr. Covey argues that this translates into other virtues and traits and what we end up with is all flash and no substance.

Mr. Covey provides several examples of this, using then-President Clinton and other politicians as examples. Instead of “being” honest or committed to excellence and integrity, they decided that “acting” honestly or acting like a person with integrity is more important because then they appeal to the widest possible vote base.

I went through alcohol treatment in 1977 and again in 1978. In March, I celebrated 30 years of being clean and sober. When I first sobered up in 1978, self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous exploded onto the American scene.

Since then, we have numerous groups that have modeled themselves after Alcoholics Anonymous, adopting and modifying the Twelve Steps of AA to suit their particular problem.

However, at the base of all of them is “personal or character” development. Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, says in his book, “As Bill See’s It,” “The primary goal of AA’s 12 Steps is ‘character development’ or working on your ‘character’? He also maintains that AA is a spiritual kindergarten. While the primary purpose of AA is abstinence from alcohol, Mr. Wilson maintains that the only way to achieve that goal is to commit ourselves, one day at a time, to developing our character .

This is the case with the other self-help programs that use Alcoholics Anonymous as a base.

On a personal level, a couple of months ago, my son, who is 14 years old, was making fun of me for the “self-help” books I read. I told him that he should be thankful that he had continued to read and use those books, because if he hadn’t, his life and mine would be completely different, and not in a good way.

Personal Improvement, in my experience, covers all areas of our lives. Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. There’s an old saying in AA that goes, “If you’re not going forward in your life, you’re going backwards.” This means that there is no status quo. We cannot rest on our laurels or on what we did yesterday. As Ben Franklin showed, self-improvement is a lifelong pursuit and if we don’t actively seek excellence, we are at the mercy of mediocrity.

As one person noted, “If we’re not pursuing our own goals, we’re working toward someone else’s goals.”

Personal development, for me, gives meaning to my life. It gives me a measuring stick to measure my progress in life. What is personal development? When I first got sober, I went to a meeting where on the wall behind the speakers were two boards.

About 20 different positive character traits were listed on a board, such as courage, integrity, patience, gratitude, determination, persistence, etc. On the other board their opposites were listed.

During the meeting, at least once a week, my sponsor would lean in and quietly ask me, “Which side of the board are you on?”

A commitment to personal development ensures that I stay on the right side of the board!