‘Personal Development’ is a term that most people have heard of. Thousands of books have been written about it and numerous practices developed and commercialized in the name of ‘personal development.’ But what really is 'personal development'? I like to describe personal development as a process of developing oneself, taken on in an intentional, committed way, over time. The words 'intentional' and 'committed' indicate that personal development requires effort - if you're tempted to shy away from the effort, thinking you've...

Research conducted in the 1960’s uncovered an interesting finding — humans are born with two types of fears. The fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. These seem like evolutionarily good fears. Falling can hurt or kill us and loud sounds can indicate impending danger or attack. Both of these fears have kept our species alive. What is even more interesting is that this and other research findings also show that many of our fears are actually learned. It follows...