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I thought the same thing. I would imagine that happy and content would be the ultimate goal in life (in very general terms), whether it is from becoming uber successful intellectually or financially, or being a SAHM.
Nowhere did I mention "happiness." This thread is addressing psychological and emotional growth (or lack thereof) - nothing to do with "happiness." Not sure how that idea was introduced into the conversation.
"Growth" is incredibly broad. How would you even determine that someone has no interest in it? Especially because the thread seems kinda focused on a view of self, and state of mind of self. That is all internal growth that you would see no evidence of. And we really only see "snapshots" of people, so knowing someone for say the last year, would give no indication how much they may have grown in the past decades.
I can give a personal example. I had a huge epiphany of who I was (20-ish time frame). I had always had "X" view, and thinking about it, I had to come to the uncomfortable conclusion that I was wrong, and I had been putting a positive spin on some things. It was like a body blow. I'm fine with it, I appreciate truth, or as close as I can come to it! BUT, no one knows I had this epiphany. Not for any reason, it just hasn't come up in the last couple weeks, and in a way, I am still coming to terms with it.
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Nowhere did I mention "happiness." This thread is addressing psychological and emotional growth (or lack thereof) - nothing to do with "happiness." Not sure how that idea was introduced into the conversation.
What is the goal to all of the self actualization and awareness? How do you measure success?
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"Growth" is incredibly broad. How would you even determine that someone has no interest in it? Especially because the thread seems kinda focused on a view of self, and state of mind of self. That is all internal growth that you would see no evidence of. And we really only see "snapshots" of people, so knowing someone for say the last year, would give no indication how much they may have grown in the past decades.
I'm just going on my own experiences and observations. I have known a lot of people who had no interest in self-development and I have been curious about it.
There is no "goal," just self-realization and development to capacity.
Which brings up the equally interesting question of whether a person's capacity to "be the best human being they can be" continues to increase throughout their entire life .... or not.
Ideally you'd think that it should, assuming that the person continues to go forward instead of backward when it comes to how they deal with daily life and the myriad things that can and do happen. It's what my mother used to call "learning from your mistakes", LOL. But I'm not sure that's a given for everyone.
I sometimes wonder whether people who seem to never learn from their mistakes are actually that clueless (or "non-self-aware") or whether they can't bring themselves to ever admit that they were wrong -- whether to the rest of the world, or to themselves. Either or both, perhaps.
I think most retirees have more personal choices and a greater level of free-will options than they did when they worked 40+ hours a week, were parenting, and facing considerable burdens of debt and schedules. In some ways our life shrinks, perhaps by choice, and in other ways it expands into new areas and interests. Self awareness (real or imagined) is part of the process of making choices. Our lives are a caravan of the choices we make and we carry baggage of these past choices that make up a part of our self awareness.
Personal development, for me, was an expansion of some of the interests that I had for years but didn't have time or the freedom to pursue. I live alone (a widower) and probably have more freedom and independence than some others and feel free to do more spontaneous things. My retired friends of my age (+/-) seem to be on a similar track. Our interests are very broad ranging from mountain biking, volunteering, writing, photography, fishing trips, crafting, rock concert trips, gardening, target shooting, and travel. Those things add to our self awareness and change the ways we define ourselves. (We used to be defined by our work)
Last edited by SunGrins; 06-15-2019 at 02:03 AM..
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