Where on earth did people get the idea that just because you work in the personal development industry that your life is supposed to be perfect and happy clappy and that you are never supposed to be ruffled or affected by anything unless that ‘anything’ is good?
Really?
Well obviously I missed that memo.
Apparently, being in my line of work it would be preferable for the sake of client (and potential client) appearances that I only wrote about the good stuff and the positive things, and that it was best if I didn’t share if I was having a moment or that I wasn’t happy about something.
I beg to differ.
“But I never would have guessed you even know what that was like!”
I was also kind of stunned this week when one of my clients exclaimed (after I shared some of my previous challenges with them) that I would have ever had a similar problem. It really left me wondering where people get the idea that life is charmed all the time.
“It’s not perfection. It’s resilience.”
What I would say about personal development is that it does not (in my part of the universe at least) make me immune from the ‘downs’ of life. It does however afford me a quicker and faster sense of perspective and resilience such that when I’ve been down, rather than staying down for weeks, months, years, or even decades, I am able to take stock, re-focus, fill up my learning library, and if I so choose to, get back up and get re-started.
That for me is a whole other kettle of fish to going through life unaffected by what it throws at you or pretending that everything is all sweetness, smiles and light.
Yes I get annoyed about things. Yes people sometimes pee me off. Yes, I sometimes have to stop and give myself a talking to after doing something crazy. The difference is, post personal development, is that it might now last for all of 5 minutes rather than ruining my entire day, week, month, or year.
Of course there are many things that I have figured out about life and gotten the answers to since I began this journey of personal and spiritual development 14 years ago, and as Oprah says, things that “I know for sure.” There are also many things which I continue to come up against as I grow and evolve and learn and discover and push the boundaries on old thoughts, beliefs, or ideas.
I see life as a work in progress, always shifting and changing according to our rate of development. Some of our growth comes through joy, some a result of breaking through old limitations.
I’ve had some great responses to this post on Facebook (thank you all for your wonderful comments and shares), and if they give me permission I will update this post and add a few of them here.
Now, somebody hand me that fairy dust and make it snappy!
Marilyn x
ABOUT MARILYN DEVONISH
Marilyn Devonish is a Global Thought Leader, increasingly Free Thinker, Freelance Magazine Writer, TranceFormational Change Coach, and Hypnotherapist. She is a long time advocate of personal development and is a Certified Trainer of NLP, Hypnosis, Time Line Therapy, and PhotoReading. She is also a Soul Plan Reader, Angel Tarot Card Reader, Archetypal Profiling Consultant, and Life & Executive Coach. She is also a Practitioner of Hawaiian Huna, EFT, DNA Theta Healing, EmoTrance, Positive EFT, Energetic NLP, Access Bars, Access Consciousness, OTH (Opening The Heart), and Reiki.