Thursday, June 11, 2015

The Most Important Trait Related to Personal Growth

"Give instruction to a wise man, and he will still be wiser; 
Teach a just man and he will increase in learning."
Proverbs 9:9

In my time in the blogging world I have found that the most popular blogs have something to do with self development. People are constantly looking for ways to better themselves and improve their situation. They want to be able to get that new job, that promotion, or simply "succeed in life". There are a lot of good blogs that give good tips for those people. I wrote about one of them here. Another very popular blog along these lines is http://michaelhyatt.com/

There is a wealth of great information and tips on how to improve yourself and build personal growth and I highly recommend them. However, I believe there is one quality that is the most important thing towards personal growth:

You must be teachable.

In order to have any true growth we must learn to be teachable. That is why Solomon says that the wise become wiser because they are willing to learn from those around them and increase their wisdom. In another proverb he makes his point a little bit stronger:

"Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."
Proverbs 12:1

If you are now willing and able to take correction then Solomon says plainly that you are stupid. It is a stupid thing to not take correction because we are then never able to learn and grow. Also I can tell you from experience as a supervisor, I will put up with a lot of stuff from my employees as long as when I correct you, you listen and learn as evidenced by your changing your actions the next time. I would rather have someone who is inexperienced and uneducated yet teachable then to have someone who has ten years of experience and a masters degree but think they have everything figured out already. 

So if you are serious about self improvement and personal growth take this one step:

Learn to accept correction and listen to instruction.

What do you think is the most important trait towards personal growth?

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree, Matt! Teachable is an attitude and mindset the best people/leaders foster. Being teachable to learn and grow moves us closer toward our potential.

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