Indian Ethos & Values

Term Paper
of
Indian Ethos & Values

Topic: Personal Growth

Submitted By:
Praveen rai
Institute of Business Management,
C. S. J. M. U., Kanpur.
MBA (Full Time) 2009-11

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 Indian Ethos & Values

INDEX

S.
Page
No Topic
No.
.
1. Introduction 3
2. Sources of Personal Growth 3–6
Sequencing of Growth in Formative
3. 7
Period of Life Cycle
Characteristic Trends of
4. 7–8
Developments
5. Principles of Growth 8-9

6. Characteristics of Healthy Growth 9

Factors Affecting the Personal
7. 9 – 18
Growth
Sustaining Personal Growth (Change)
8. 18 – 20
– Seven Tools for Personal Growth
Some Effective Personalities
9. 21 – 23
(Indians)
10. Conclusion 23

11. Bibliography 24

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Personal Growth
1.Introduction:
Personal growth is a process that produces personal change and progress. And
it starts from within you.

Personal development will happen when you make a firm decision to...

• Understand yourself

• Improve your awareness

• Work on your attitude

• Believe in yourself and your potentials

• Develop your skills

• Set your goals

• Begin with the end in mind

"Of all the things that can have an effect on your future, I believe personal growth is
the greatest. We can talk about sales growth, profit growth, asset growth, but all of
this probably will not happen without personal growth." - Jim Rohn

2.Sources of Personal Growth:

1. The basic sources of personal growth are heredity and environment, however
as a person genetic inheritance interacts with, and shaped by environmental
factors, self structure of person emerges and it also influences in shaping
further development and behaviour.

2. Heredity:- Each type of living thing, transmits specific hereditary information

from one generation to next, when an egg cell of female is fertilised by sperm
cell of the male that at the time of conception, each new human being receives
a genetic inheritance that provides potentialities for development and
behaviour throughout a life time. This inheritance, influential the growth of
some traits more than others including influential role in “primary reaction
tendencies ” such as –

a. Activity level
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b. Sensitivity to stimuli

c. Adaptability

Even very young babies reveal differences in their reaction to particular

kind of stimuli.

d. Some of them are started at even slight sound.

e. Some cry if sunlight hits their faces.

Most unique aspect of our human inheritance is brain. It is most highly

organized apparatus consisting of about TEN BILLION (100 crores) nerve cells or
Neurons with countless interconnecting pathways and connections with other
part of body.

f. Brain provides fantastic communication and computing network.

g. Tremendous capabilities of learning and storing experience.

h. Reasoning, imaging and problem solving.

i. Integration of overall functioning of organism.

Heredity is thus important source of individual differences.

3. Environment:-

a. In addition to genetic inheritance that is end product of millions of

years of biological evolution, we also receive a socio cultural
inheritance that is the end product of many thousand years of social
evolution.

b. Each group fosters its own cultural patterns on its off springs and
each member conforms to certain “basic personality type”.

c. Each individual is exposed to various interactions with other

persons, beginning with family members and gradually extending to peer
group members and other “significant individuals”. Much of
individual’s personality growth reflects the experience with these “key
people”.

d. Socio cultural environment is the source of difference (due to

differential participation) as well as commonalities in personal growth.

Thus we may say that our genetic endowment provides our potentialities
both for biological and psychological development, but shaping of these
potentialities, in term of perceiving, thinking, feeling and acting depends
heavily on our physical and socio cultural environment.

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4. Self Structure:-

a. When child is born he is just mass of protoplasm and capable of

responding to external stimuli without being conscious of own response.
After few months child becomes Confucius of particular name assigned.

b. At this stage he/she begins to respond through self and learn to

distinguish himself and other people and things. This is the foundation of
personality and self-structure develops. It becomes integrating core of the
personality the reference point around which the individuals experiences
and coping patterns are organised, when self comes contact with outer
reality more and more, inner-self also expands gradually.

c. The story of the development of human personality is the story of

constant interaction between self (the inner reality) and environment
(the outer reality).

d.

I. Up the Adolescence the outer reality influences the inner reality

more.

II. The inner reality perceives the outer reality, interprets it and
responds to it. By the time one attains psychological maturity the
inner reality begins to influence the outer in equal share, if not
more. In fact psychological maturity and physical maturity go hand
in hand.

III. Hence it is adolescence period which is most crucial for inner reality
development, though process goes on throughout life.

IV. Surveys have shown that pattern of inner reality develops up to early
twenties and remains more or less stable throughout life (Hence
Brahm Charya phase is up to 25 Years).

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e. Fundamentals of functioning of self-systems are based on three

assumptions.

I. Reality assumption: The view of the things as individual thinks they

really are, depends on-

(aa) Kind of person he is

(ab) Nature of surrounding world
II. Possibility assumption: The view of how things could be, of
possibilities for change of opportunities for personal growth and social
progress.

III. Value assumption: The view of the way things should be, of right
and wrong, good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

f. Above three sets of assumption provides the individual with frame of

reference for guiding the behaviour.

g.

I. Frame of reference provides self identity, a realization of who and

what he is , it also provides him self ideal – a picture of what he
could and should be unclear self identity or marked discrepancy
between ‘real’ and ‘ideal’ selves, can lead to serious inner conflict.

II. Pattern of individual’s assumptions, contributes to consistency in

perceiving, thinking and feeling and acting and leads to evolution of
Characteristic life style.

III. Assumption of individual serves as inner controls-

Example: - Value assumption may prevent the individual from

stealing or behaving in ways which he considers unethical.

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(aa) such value assumption are referred to as Conscience.

(ab) When inner controls are strong enough to direct the behaviour
in accordance with expectations and norms of the group, the
individual are said to be socialised.

IV. Particular assumption may be valid or invalid, they may be held

with varying degree of conviction and subject to modification.

V. The frame of reference that the individual develops provides the

essential basis for evaluating new experiences and for coping with
his world.

aa) As consequence he tends to defend his existing assumptions

and rejects or distrusts new information that is contradictory
to them.

ab) Thus individual starts to develop a system of ego of self-

defense mechanisms to maintain the adequacy and worth
of self and to defend it from devaluation.

3.Sequencing of Growth in Formative Period of Life

Cycle:

• Under the combined influence of inner and outer are determinants,

human development follows a predictable sequence and proceeds in
characteristic directions, depending on environment and individuals
learning essential information competencies.

• Although persons, growth in formative years, shaped in different ways,

in different socio-cultural settings, there are certain characteristics trends
in development that are seen in any society, primitive or advance. These
trend lead the individual toward

a. Responsible self-direction
b. Ability to participate in society
c. Ability to contribute to society

4.Characteristic Trends of Developments:

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a. Dependence to self-direction:- This is because of development of clear

sense of personal identity and acquiring of information, competencies and
values.

b. Self control: - This is because of subordinating the pleasure to reality,

distinguishing between fantasy and reality, controlling impulse and desire,
delaying immediate gratification in the interest of long range goals and
learning to cope with inevitable hurts, disappointments and frustrations of
living.

c. Ignorance to Knowledge: - With passage of time as infant grows,

sizable information is organized in to coherent patterns of assumptions
concerning reality, possibility and value for guiding the behavior. This
frame of reference is to prove adequate. It needs to satisfy following:

I. It should be realistic
II. To be relevant to kinds of problems that he must deal with
III. Individual should have faith i.e. it should not be imposed.

It should be flexible enough to be modified by new experience.

d. Incompetence to competence: - The entire pre-audit period from

infancy through adolescence is directed towards mastery of intellectual,
emotion, social and other competencies essential for adulthood. The
individual acquires skills in problem solving and decision making, learns to
control his emotions and to use them for enrichment of living and learns
to deal with others to establish , satisfying relationships and preparation
of various roles associated with adult life.

e. Amoral to moral:-

I. A newborn is amoral that is he has no concept of right or wrong.

Very early, now ever he learns that certain forms of behavior are
“approved” or “good” while other forms are “disapprove” or “bad”.
Gradually he learns a pattern of value assumption operates s inner
guides and controls of behavior.

II. Initially the individual accepts these value assumptions blindly, but
with increasing maturity he learns to appraise these value
assumptions and works out a valve assumption that bears his own
start up.

f. Self-centered to other -centered:- Infants are concerned almost

exclusively with their own needs, but with time there is normally an
expanding understanding and concern for needs of others as well, this
includes the ability to give love is one’s family settings and to concerned
about and involved with people and one’s own community and with
society as a whole.

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There are wide spread differences in the success with which individual
reach these goals but all are important in realizing one’s growth potential &
development into productive and effective member of society.

5.Principles of Growth:

Following general principles provided useful perspective for viewing overall

nature and course of human growth.

a. Growth normally proceeds in an orderly sequence (in stages) although

rate is not constant.

I. Each part and sub system has its own pattern and sequence of
development.

II. There may be differing characteristics of growth during infancy,

childhood and later life periods.

b. Each new stage of growth builds on and in limited by previous growth and
in turn provides foundation for stages that follow. What happens in child
hood is influenced by events of infancy and in turn helps co-determine the
course of adolescence.

c. Pathway from infancy to maturity involving differentiation, integration and

complexity of structure and behavior. On a psychological level this is
evidenced in the progression from dependence to self-direction.

d. There are both similarities and differences in the growth of individuals.

Each person goes through the same stages but there are differences in
learning, growth pattern and outcomes among the members of any age
group.

e. Growth may be normal or faulty depending on the quality of interaction of

genetic and environmental factors.

6.Characteristics of Healthy Growth:

While there are differences in emphasis, most of the investigators consider

following personality characteristics essential for healthy growth and effective
coping behavior and fro achieving meaningful and fulfilling way of life.

a. Adequate frame of reference: - Accurate reality, possibility and value

assumptions concerning oneself and one’s world.

b. Essential competencies: - The mastery of needed physical, intellectual,

emotional and social competencies.
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c. Self-direction:- Adequate self-identity, independence from social

influences and stress tolerance to enable meaningful self-direction.

d. Personal Growth & Self-actualization:- Trends towards the

development of one’s potentials and self fulfillment as a person.

7.Factors Affecting the Personal Growth:

Personal growth of any man depends on following points:

A. Importance of Attitude

B. Success

C. Self-Esteem

D. Goal Setting

E. Ethics

F. Vision

A. Importance of Attitude:

a. Our attitude contributes to success:

A study attributed to Harvard University found that when a person

gets a job, 85% of the time it is because of their attitude, and only 15% of
the time because of how smart they are and how many facts and figures
they know. Surprisingly, almost 100% of education dollars go to teach
facts and figures which account for only 15% of success in work!

b. Acres of Diamonds:

There was a farmer in Africa who was happy and content. He was
happy because he was content. He was content because he was happy.
One day a wise man came to him and told him about the glory of
diamonds and the power that goes along with them. The wise man said,
"If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, you could have your own
city. If you had a diamond the size of your fist, you could probably own
your own country." And then he went away. That night the farmer couldn't
sleep. He was unhappy and he was discontent. He was unhappy because
he was discontent and discontent because he was unhappy.

The next morning he made arrangements to sell off his farm, took
care of his family and went in search of diamonds. He looked all over
Africa and couldn't find any. He looked all through Europe and couldn't
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find any. When he got to Spain, he was emotionally, physically and

financially broke. He got so disheartened that he threw himself into the
Barcelona River and committed suicide. Back home, the person who had
bought his farm was watering the camels at a stream that ran through the
farm. Across the stream, the rays of the morning sun hit a stone and
made it sparkle like a rainbow. He thought it would look good on the
mantle piece. He picked up the stone and put it in the living room. That
afternoon the wise man came and saw the stone sparkling. He asked, "Is
Hafiz back?" The new owner said, "No, why do you ask?" The wise man
said, "Because that is a diamond. I recognize one when I see one." The
man said, no, that's just a stone I picked up from the stream. Come, I'll
show you. There are many more." They went and picked some samples
and sent them for analysis. Sure enough, the stones were diamonds. They
found that the farm was indeed covered with acres and acres of
diamonds.

What is the moral of this story?

There are five morals:

I. When our attitude is right, we realize that we are all walking on

acres and acres of diamonds.

 Attributed to Dr Russel Conwell.

 Opportunity is always under our feet. We don't have to

go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.

II. The grass on the other side always looks greener.

III. While we are dyeing the grass on the other side, there are
others who are dyeing the grass on our side. They would be happy
to trade places with us.

IV. When people don't know how to recognize opportunity, they

complain of noise when it knocks.

V. The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may
be better or worse, but it is never the same one.

c. Factors that determines our attitude:

Are we born with attitudes or do we develop them as we mature?

What are the factors that form our attitudes?

If you have a negative outlook on life because of your environment,

can you change your attitude? Most of our attitude is shaped during our
formative years.
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There are primarily three factors that determine our attitude. They are:

I. environment
II. experience
III. education

These are called the triple Es of attitude. Let's evaluate each of

the factors individually.

I. Environment:

Environment consists of the following:

 Home: positive or negative influences

 School: peer pressure

 Work: supportive or over critical supervisor

 Media: television, newspapers, magazines, radio, movies

 Cultural background

 Religious background

 Traditions and beliefs

 Social environment

 Political environment

II. Experience:

Our behavior changes according to our experiences with

people and events in our life. If we have a positive experience with
a person, our attitude toward him becomes positive and vice
versa.

III. Education:

I refer to both formal and informal education, not just

academic qualifications. Knowledge strategically applied translates
into wisdom, ensuring success. I talk of education in the broader
sense. It makes the role of the; educator vital. A teacher affects
eternity. The ripple effect is immeasurable.

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We are drowning in information but starving for knowledge

and wisdom. Education ought to teach us not only how to make a
living but also how to live.

d. The benefits of a positive attitude:

These are many and easy to see. But what is easy to see is also
easy to miss. To mention a few, a positive attitude

 Increases productivity

 Fosters teamwork

 Solves problems

 Improves quality

 Makes for congenial atmosphere

 Breeds loyalty

 Increases profits

 Fosters better relationships with employers, employees, and

customers

 Reduces stress

 Helps a person become a contributing member of society

and an asset to their country

 Makes for a pleasing personality

e. Steps to building a positive attitude:

 Become aware of the principles that build a positive attitude

 Desire to be positive

 Cultivate the discipline and dedication to practice those

principles

B. Success:

Success is not an accident. It is the result of our attitude and our attitude
is a choice. Hence success is a matter of choice and not chance.

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How do we define success?

What makes a person successful? How do we recognize success?

To some people, success might mean wealth. To others, it is recognition,
good health, good family, happiness, satisfaction, and peace of mind.
What this really tells us is that success is subjective. It can mean different
things to different people. The definition that I feel summarizes "success"
well is:

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal”.

Earl Nightingale

Some obstacles to success (Real or imagined)

 Ego

 Fear of failure success ; lack of self esteem

 No plan

 Lack of formalized goals

 Lack of commitment

How do we measure Success?

True success is measured by the feeling of knowing you have done

a job well and have achieved your objective.

Success is not measured by our position in life but by the obstacles

we overcame to get there.

Success in life is not determined by how we are doing compared

with others, but by how we are doing compared with what we are capable
of doing. Successful people compete against themselves. They better
their own record and keep improving constantly.

Success is not measured by how high we go up in life but by how

many times we bounce back when we fall down. It is this bounce back
ability that determines success.

Qualities that make a person successful:

 Desire

 Commitment

 Responsibility
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 Hard Work

 Character

 The Power of Persistence

C. Self-Esteem:
Building a positive self-esteem & image

Self-Esteem:

 Builds strong conviction.

 Creates willingness to accept responsibility.

 Builds optimistic attitudes.

 Leads to better relationships and fulfilling lives.

 Makes a person more sensitive to others' needs and develop a

caring attitude.

 Makes a person self-motivated and ambitious.

 Makes a person open to new opportunities and challenges.

 Improves performance and increases risk-taking ability.

 Helps a person give and receive both criticism and

compliments tactfully and easily.

Some characteristics of people with:

S.
High Self-Esteem Low Self-Esteem
No.
1. Talk about ideas Talk about people
2. Caring attitude Critical attitude
3. Humility Arrogance
4. Respects authority Rebels against authority
5. Courage of conviction Goes along to get along
6. Confidence Confusion
7. Concerned about character Concerned about reputation
8. Assertive Aggressive
9. Accepts responsibility Blames the whole world
10. Self-interest Selfish

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11. Optimistic Fatalistic

12. Understanding Greedy
13. Willing to learn Know it all
14. Sensitive Touchy
15. Solitude Lonely
16. Discuss Argue
17. Believes in self-worth Believes in net worth only
18. Guided Misguided
19. Discipline Distorted sense of freedom
20. Internally driven Externally driven
21. Respects others Looks down on others
22. Enjoys decency Enjoys vulgarity
23. Knows limit Everything goes
24. Giver Taker

D. Goal-Setting
Setting & Achieving your goals

Dreams

People confuse goals with dreams and wishes. Dreams and wishes
are nothing more than desires. Desires are weak. Desires become strong
when they are supported by:

 Direction

 Dedication

 Determination

 Discipline

 Deadlines

That is what differentiates a desire from a goal. Goals are dreams

with a deadline and an action plan. Goals can be worthy or unworthy. It is
passion, not wishing, that turns dreams into reality.

“Life is hard by the yard,

But by the inch,
It’s a cinch”.
--Gean Gordon

Goals Must Be Balanced:

 Our life is like a wheel with six spokes.

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 Family: Our loved ones are the reason to live and make a living.

 Financial: Represents our career and the things that money can
buy.

 Physical: Our health, without which nothing makes sense.

 Mental: Represents knowledge and wisdom.

 Social: Every individual and organization has social responsibility

without which Society starts dying.

 Spiritual: Our value System represents ethics and character.

If any of these spokes is out of line, our life goes out of balance.
Take a few minutes and just think. If you had any one of the six missing,
what would life be like?

E. Ethics:

Bad circumstances are not excuses for making bad choices and leading
poor lives. Values and ethics are not just designed for good times, but also to
prevent bad times. They are like the laws of the land which you need when
people are good and you need even more to protect them from the bad.

Most choices are not ethical choices. For example, what clothes to buy or
what TV to get are personal choices based on what is more appropriate. They
are not ethical choices. For some people the right choice may be Panasonic
instead of Sony for affordability. Personal choices are subjective, not objective,
and even though these are not ethical issues they certainly involve
responsibility. Ethical choices reflect objectivity between right and wrong.

That is why our conscience hurts when making an unethical choice and
does not hurt when making a wrong personal choice. Choices are personal
because the person makes it, but the rightness or wrongness does not change
from person to person. Just like in a math test, who takes it and what answer
they give varies from person to person, but what makes it right is not the
choice, but the independence of the correct answer. Of course, ethical choices
are not always like making choices in math, just like being a nice person is not
the same thing as being a good and ethical person. A person could be socially
nice yet be a cheat and a liar. That makes him nice yet unethical. Niceness
reflects social acceptability. Nice does not mean good.
In fact, most of our choices today are based on:

a. Our desire for convenience, comfort, and pleasure.

b. Our feeling--do what feels good, it is good for you. The criterion is to feel
good rather than doing what is responsible.
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c. Social fads and ads--everyone else is doing it, so should I.

F. Vision:

Why don't people achieve excellence? The big reason is the lack of vision
or limited vision. We need to dream beyond what is possible. Everything that
we see today was a dream before it became reality. Live with enthusiasm,
direction and with a sense of purpose. Do you have a dream? What is your
dream? Every day that you live, are you getting closer to your purpose? Get
your advice from successful people and not from living failures who will tell
you how to succeed.

“Where the vision is one year, cultivate flowers.

Where the vision is ten years, cultivate trees.
Where the vision is eternity, cultivate people”.
Oriental saying

Remember, winners don't do different things, they do things differently!

8. Sustaining Personal Growth (Change) – Seven

Tools for Personal Growth:
The degree of awareness that you are able to bring to yourself as you
"catch yourself in the act" and see your personality patterns at work is the degree
to which your personal growth will occur. You actually do not have to "do"
anything: just show up and become aware of yourself and your personality's
habitual routines—without acting them out, of course.

To benefit fully from the following recommendations for personal growth

for each type, be sure that you have typed yourself correctly. Following are the
tools:

A. Seeking Truth:

If we are interested in personal growth, no element is more

important than developing a love of truth. Seeking the truth means being
curious about what is going on in ourselves and around us, not settling for the
automatic answers our personality feeds us. If we observe ourselves, we will
see that many of the stock explanations that we give ourselves for our
behavior or for the actions of others are a form of resistance. They are a way
of avoiding seeing more deeply into our current state. For example, one stock
answer might be, "I am really angry at my father," but a deeper truth might be
that I really love him and desperately want his love. Both levels of truth might
be difficult for our personality to accept. It could take a long time to admit that
we are angry with our father—and even longer to acknowledge the love
beneath the anger.
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As we learn to accept what is real in the present moment, we are more

able to accept whatever arises in us, because we know that it is not the whole
of us. The truth encompasses both our fearful reactions and the greater
resources of our soul. While our automatic reactions can derail our search for
the truth, acknowledging their presence brings us closer to the truth. When we
are willing to be with the whole truth—whatever it is—we have more inner
resources available to deal with whatever we are facing.

B. "Not Doing":

The process of spiritual growth sometimes seems paradoxical because we

speak of struggle and effort as well as of allowing, accepting, and letting go.
The resolution of these apparent opposites lies in the concept of "not doing."
Once we understand "not doing," we see that the real struggle is to relax into
greater awareness so that we can see the manifestations of our personality.
By neither acting on our automatic impulses nor by suppressing them, we
begin to understand what is causing them to arise. Not acting on our impulses
creates openings through which we can catch glimpses of what we are really
up to. Those glimpses often become some of our most important personal
growth lessons.

C. Willing to be Open:

One of the primary functions of the personality is to separate us from

various aspects of our own true nature. It causes us to limit our experience of
ourselves by blocking from awareness any parts of ourselves that do not fit
our self-image. By relaxing our bodies, quieting the chatter in our minds, and
allowing our hearts to be more sensitive to our situation, we open up to the
very inner qualities and resources, which can help us grow.

Every moment has the possibility of delighting us, nurturing us,

supporting us—if we are here to see it. Life is a tremendous gift, but most of
us are missing it because we are watching a "mental movie" of our lives
instead. As we learn to trust in the moment and to value awareness, we learn
how to turn off the internal movie projector and start living a much more
interesting life—the one we are actually starring in.

D. Getting Proper Support:

The more support we have for our personal development, the easier our
process will be. If we are living or working in dysfunctional environments,
personal growth is not impossible, but it is more difficult. Most of us cannot
leave our jobs or our families so easily, even if we are having difficulties with
them, although we can seek out others who give us encouragement and act as
witnesses to our growth. Beyond this, we can find groups, attend workshops,
and put ourselves in situations that foster our real development. Getting
support also entails structuring our days in ways that leave room for the
things that nurture our souls.
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E. Learning from Everything:

Once we have involved ourselves in the process of personal growth, we

understand that whatever is occurring in the present moment is what we need
to deal with right now. And whatever is arising in our hearts or minds is the
raw material that we can use for our growth. It is an extremely common
tendency to flee from what we are actually facing into our imagination,
romanticizing or dramatizing our situation, justifying ourselves, or even
escaping into "spirituality." Staying with our real experience of ourselves and
our situation will teach us exactly what we need to know for growth.

F. Cultivating a Real Love of Self:

It has been said many times that we cannot love others if we do not love
ourselves. But what does this mean? We usually think that it has something to
do with having self-esteem or with giving ourselves emotional "goodies" to
compensate for our feelings of deficiency. Perhaps, but one central aspect of a
mature love of ourselves is caring about our growth sufficiently not to flee
from the discomfort or pain of our actual condition. We must love ourselves
enough not to abandon ourselves—and we abandon ourselves to the degree
that we are not fully present to our own lives. When we are caught up in
worry, fantasy, tension and anxiety, we become dissociated from our bodies
and our feelings—and ultimately, from our true nature.

True love of self also entails a profound acceptance of ourselves—

returning to Presence and settling into ourselves as we actually are without
attempting to change our experience. It is also aided by seeking the company
of people who possess some degree of this quality themselves.

G. Having a Practice:

Most spiritual teachings stress the importance of some kind of practice,

be it meditation, prayer, yoga, relaxation, or movement. The important thing
is to set aside some time each day to reestablish a deeper connection with our
true nature. Regular practice (combined with participation in some kind of
teaching or group) serves to remind us over and over again that we are
hypnotized by our personality. Spiritual practice interferes with our deeply
ingrained habits and gives us opportunities to wake up from our trance more
often and for longer periods of time. Eventually, we understand that every
time we engage in our practice we learn something new, and every time we
neglect our practice we miss an opportunity to allow our lives to be
transformed.

A major obstacle to regular practice is the expectation of the personality

that we attain specific personal growth results, and, ironically, this is
especially true if we have made significant breakthroughs in our spiritual
growth. The personality seizes on breakthroughs and wants to recreate them
on demand. This is not possible because breakthroughs occur when we are
completely open to the present moment, while anticipating a certain payoff
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distracts us from experiencing how we actually are. In this moment, a new gift
or insight is available—although most likely not the one that was available last
week. Furthermore, the personality uses our breakthroughs as justifications to
stop practicing saying, "Great! You've had a breakthrough! Now you're 'fixed'
and you don't need to do this anymore."
Along with our regular daily practice, life presents us with many opportunities
to see our personality in action and to allow our essential nature to come forth
and transform our personality. But it is not enough merely to think about
personal development or to talk about it or to read books about it.
Procrastination is a great defense of the ego. The only time to use the tools of
personal growth is now.

9. Some Effective Personalities (Indians):

Following are the examples of personalities which have achieved the higher
level of personal growth:

A. Swami Vivekananda:

He was the most influential social reformer of the

19th Century. He is considered as a major figure in the history of the Hindu
reform movements. He was the first Hindu sage to travel to the West, where
he introduced Eastern philosophy at the World’s Parliament of Religions in
1893.

B. Mother Teresa:

Mother Teresa was an Albanian-born Roman Catholic nun. In 1950, she

founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. She ministered the poor, sick,
orphaned, and dying for more than forty years. In 1979, she was conferred
with the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1980 she was honored with the Bharat
Ratna, for her humanitarian work. She was given the title ‘Blessed Teresa of
Calcutta’ by Pope John Paul II.
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C. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam:

He was the eleventh President of India and served from 2002

to 2007. Before his term as president, he was a distinguished
engineering visionary and was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1997
for his role as Scientific Advisor to the Indian government. Dr. Abdul Kalam is
considered as a progressive mentor and innovator and is popularly known as
the ‘Missile Man of India’. He has received honorary doctorates from more
than thirty universities.

D. Ratan Tata:

Ratan Tata is presently the Chairman of Tata Sons, the

holding company of the Tata Group. Ratan Naval Tata is also the Chairman of
the major Tata companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata
Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata
Teleservices. He has taken Tata Group to new heights and under his
leadership Group's revenues have grown manifold. In 1998, Tata Motors came
up with Tata Indica, the first truly Indian car. The car was the brainchild of
Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata was honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian
awards in 2000. He was also conferred an honorary doctorate in business
administration by Ohio State University, an honorary doctorate in technology
by the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and an honorary doctorate in
science by the University of Warwick.

E. Indra Nooyi:

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is the Chairperson and Chief

Executive Officer of the fourth largest food and beverage company of the
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world. As per the polls conducted by Forbes magazine, Indra Nooyi ranks fifth
in the list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2007. She is the number
one Most Powerful Women in Business for the year 2006 and 2007, according
to Fortune Magazine. She was bestowed with Padma Bhushan by Government
of India in 2007 and nominated to the fellowship of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences in 2008.

F. Kiran Bedi:

Kiran Bedi is a retired Indian Police Service officer and a social

activist. She became the first Indian women to join the Indian Police Service in
1972. She retired in December 2007 and she was last posted as Director
General. During her service, she was also posted as the Inspector General
Prisons of Tihar Jail from 1993 to 1995. Her prison reform policies lead her to
win the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award. She has founded two NGOs in India-
Navjyoti in 1987 and India Vision Foundation in 1994. She has influenced
several decisions of the Indian Police Service, especially in the areas of control
over narcotics, traffic management, and VIP security and has been honors with
several prestigious awards.

10. Conclusion:
• Personal growth is a process that produces personal change and
progress. And it starts from within you.

• The basic sources of personal growth are heredity and

environment and then self-Structure.

• The story of the development of human personality is the story of

constant interaction between self (the inner reality) and environment
(the outer reality).

• Growth normally proceeds in an orderly sequence (in stages)

although rate is not constant.

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• There are both similarities and differences in the growth of

individuals. Each person goes through the same stages but there are
differences in learning, growth pattern and outcomes among the
members of any age group.

• Positive Attitude, Self-Esteem, Goal setting, Ethics and Vision are

the main factors which affect the Personal growth.

• Successful persons have one thing in common which is their high

attained- Personal Growth.

11. Bibliography:
 “You Can Win” by Shiv Khera

 “Story of my experiment with truth” by M.K. Gandhi

 “Keeping well at work”: A TUC guide by Pearson

 The Wisdom of the Enneagram (Bantam, 1999, pages 345-347);

http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/books/Books_Wisdom.asp

 http://www.google.com

 http://www.iloveindia.com/

 http://www.Webindia123.com

 www.Wikipaedia.org

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