DEVELOPMENT AS A NATURAL HUMAN NEED

DEVELOPMENT AS A NATURAL HUMAN NEED

The paper examines various aspects of human development as a harmonious improvement of personal qualities and abilities, including spiritual, intellectual and physical development. The basic principles of development are revealed. Proposals for the assessment (self-assessment) of development are given.
Keywords: development, self-development, spiritual development, principles of development, assessment of development.

Khvostychenko O. M.
Candidate of Military Sciences, Associate Professor,
World Scientific Noosphere-Ontological Society, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.147

A person by nature strives for their own development and cognition of the world around them [1, 2, 3]. The need for development and cognition is especially pronounced in children under 3-5 years of age, until stereotypes of other behavior, imposed by parental example, and later by social programming and the imposition of false public opinion, begin to take effect.

Education, implemented by the social system, exploits the natural need for development to form people convenient for the system and to achieve its other goals [4]. Ideally, the task of the education system should be to create favorable conditions for a person to fully realize this natural need, to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for a happy life, to instill the ability to solve vital problems: in development, self-realization, relationships, and a healthy lifestyle. That is, those tasks that lead a person to happiness, to the realization of his or her destiny.

However, little attention is paid to this in our education. That is why the current generation of schoolchildren has very little motivation to learn, and they see no prospects for applying the knowledge they have acquired. This blocks the opportunity to take from the education system everything that is necessary for life, for shaping the worldview, training memory and thinking. People are forced to look for what is missing in other sources, sometimes not the best ones. That is why self-development based on personal responsibility for one’s personal growth, regardless of the sources of knowledge, both in the education system and on one’s own, is relevant in the modern world.

Development can be subconscious (under external programming – “it is necessary”, “everyone learns”, “it will be useful later” – no personal goal, motivation, etc.) and conscious (understanding of the goal, personal motives, vision of stages, results, thirst for knowledge, its relevance in practice, etc. In this article, self-development is considered as a purposeful change of oneself, formation of oneself as a person, as a person worthy, strong, honest, fearless, noble, highly ethical, capable of achieving significant goals in life – all this is part of the system of spiritual and intellectual education and training.

Development ensures the harmonious improvement of personal qualities and abilities. In this context, it is logical to consider the following types of development:

– Spiritual – worldview, growth of strength of mind, honor, responsibility, disclosure of feelings, all personal qualities;
– intellectual – logic, memory, ability to analyze, deduce, calculate, develop options for decisions that a person has to make in everyday life, especially regarding goals and plans, etc;
– physical – improving health, increasing physical strength, flexibility, and other capabilities, including the general energy of a person (fullness of vital energy).

All of these areas of development are important, interdependent, and have a synergistic effect. Therefore, the realization should go in all these directions in parallel. Let us consider each of them.

Spiritual development. At the stage of subconscious development, spirituality in a person is revealed through parents (their example of relationships and behavior) and social programming (relatives, friends, kindergarten, school, media, etc.).

The need for conscious spiritual development arises with the emergence of internal, yet unconscious, aspirations for change. This is the beginning of the first stage, the “Seeker” stage, which ends with answers to the questions “Who am I?”, “What do I want?”, “What is my path?”. Answers to these questions help to understand oneself, make an initial choice of path, remove doubts, and make a promise to oneself to develop.
The second stage, the “Disciple” stage, involves gaining initial knowledge, choosing a path, defining a system of knowledge (worldview, analysis – what is there, what the spiritual heart responds to), and specifying goals for life and development. When a person says: “I have chosen my path,” he understands where and how to go, and moves on to the next stage.
The third stage is “the one who walks” along the path of development. This is where conscious spiritual development begins and continues uninterrupted throughout life, step by step (because there is no limit to perfection) [5].

According to experts, spiritual development includes

– detailing of the worldview based on the unity of the spiritual and material (the structure of the World, the place and role of a person in it), ideals, values, beliefs
– self-knowledge, self-control (inner state, reactions, emotions, actions, thinking) and disclosure of inner potential through the growth of strength of spirit (connection with the Highest, faith, love, will, calmness, etc.), development of personal qualities and abilities (empowerment)
– formation of attitude towards the Highest, oneself, others, the World;
– disclosure of abilities to relationships (personal, family, friendship, team, service, etc.), and on their basis, movement towards mastery in relationships;
– development of the ability to influence (only positive – charisma, oratory, acting, etc.), growth of the power of influence (from one person to large masses of people);
– development of creative abilities (in the arts, in everyday life – in business and relationships), the ability to create one’s own life – life-creation.

Intellectual development includes: development of memory; development of logic and multivariate thinking; formation of concepts and its connections; development of attention.

Physical development includes: development of strength, speed, endurance, flexibility; formation of a healthy lifestyle (proper nutrition, good sleep, absence of bad habits, combination of active and passive recreation, etc.)

Let’s also turn to the principles of development. Among them, the following should be highlighted:

Purposefulness – having clear goals and striving to achieve them. Development is impossible without goals. If you need to change yourself, you need to have a clear idea of what that something should become. define clear images and characteristics of what you want.

Continuity – development should last a lifetime, be one of the main meanings of life and tasks of the soul. Even in the professional sphere – if earlier it was enough to acquire a profession and live with it all your life, nowadays you have to change several professions during your life, because the types of activities are changing rapidly.

Sequence is the gradual acquisition of more and more complex knowledge and skills. Jumping around leads to frustration and disappointment.

Positivity is the degree to which the acquired knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and manifestations of a person correspond to the spiritual laws of distinguishing between good and evil [5].

Harmony is a comfortable (without internal conflicts) movement towards the goal, taking into account all spheres of life, based on the completeness and consistency of knowledge, set by integrity, wisdom (multiple solutions and choosing the best).

Controllability – regular evaluation of results (e.g., keeping a diary), an outsider’s view, a competent opinion of an authority (accepting criticism, drawing conclusions) – gives adequacy (without illusions), increases self-esteem, and motivates further development.

Many people understand that development is good, that everything should be great in a person. But change is hard, so most people don’t change on their own. After all, to change means, first of all, to change one’s attitude: to oneself, to others, to situations and circumstances. The attitude that a person feels is in many ways primary.

It is not enough for a person to know a lot and perceive knowledge correctly. It is necessary for a person to act in accordance with this knowledge. A person can know that it is useful to exercise, that it is harmful to smoke, can dream of happiness in his or her personal life, of a stunning career, but if he or she does nothing to achieve this, then his or her dreams are worthless. What matters is how a person implements knowledge, not how much they have on their shelf. When knowledge does not become action, behavior, it is worthless because it does not lead to the desired result. After all, those who know a lot consider themselves smart and righteous.

In this regard, developmental assessment is important. It should include both attitudes (how a person feels) and actions (how a person implements). We propose the following grading system.

Minus one point is a negative attitude: “Don’t touch me, I have smoked, I will smoke and I will smoke!”. The person defends his or her false position, maybe even aggressively (if it is to the point of rage, minus two points). This can be true for any issue: fear, rudeness, nutrition, communication style, complexes, resentment, etc.
Zero points is a neutral attitude: “I don’t care: I’m weak, strong, smart, stupid, I don’t care how long I live and how I live.” This is indifference – there is neither aggression nor benefit. As the people say: “Neither fish nor flesh”.
One point – I accept that it is right, but do nothing. I agree, but I can’t do it because I don’t have the will.
Two points – I accept, agree that it is necessary to do it, but I do it once in a while, I have no habit.
Three points – I accept it, I do it regularly, but ineffectively, the result is not achieved or is insignificant.
Four points – I do it regularly, I try, but the results are unstable or average.
Five points – I do and get the desired result.

The task of self-development is to prove your attitude to five points for each development task. This is the way from “it would be nice to…” to a fiery feeling of “I want and strive with all my heart, I will train, I will do everything I need to do” to the determination to achieve the goal: “I will be like this – I am becoming like this – I am like this.”

The right attitude – when a person has the right principles in his or her life, they apply to everything: behavior, relationships, and environment. For example, I choose a healthy lifestyle, and I should not be around people who drink and smoke. The principle is that I choose this, cultivate it in myself and appreciate it in other people, and that the opposite (bad) should not be around (at least). Any value of an indicator is a condition for achieving more significant results in life.

It is important that the education system from early childhood forms a responsible attitude to development (instills love for it), an understanding that development is a condition for achieving any significant goals and a condition for self-knowledge and personality formation.

List of references

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