A brief conversation on Twitter with Duff helped me crystallize something that’s been bothering me here lately. Bear with me on this point, because I’m going to violate my standing rule about talking directly about philosophy. (As some of you may know, I’m slowly working on finishing my Ph.D. in philosophy.)
What’s been bothering me is the boundaries of productivity and personal development. When most people talk about productivity, they’re talking specifically about action. When they talk of personal development, they tend to talk about thinking, believing, etc. There seems to be this conceptual split between thinking (personal development) and doing (productivity).
This split is nonsense, really. Productivity without perspective and intention is just wheel-spinning. Personal development without action is just daydreaming.
On to the philosophy bit. The Greeks had two words for the intellectual virtues: sophia and phronesis. Sophia is what many of us would think of as wisdom, and phronesis is something like practical wisdom. Sophia is concerned with generalities, such as the law of gravity, whereas phronesis is concerned with more particular things like using levers to lift heavy objects.
The main insight that I’d like to draw out here is that we need both sophia and phronesis to flourish. Knowing the types of things that make us flourish (sophia) is well and good, but it’s insufficient to bring about our flourishing. Knowing how to make things happen in the world (phronesis) is handy, but fire both destroys and creates – we have to direct our actions toward the good to flourish.
Back to personal development and productivity. I’ve had trouble recently talking about productivity and personal development in a mass format because I have to speak in generalities, when I know that true, personal change only happens in the particulars of our daily life. I’m tired of the productivity pr0n and personal development woo – if you want to do something in the world, let’s talk about what you’re trying to do, why you’re trying to do it, and how we’re going to get it done. Otherwise, sudoku is a lot cheaper and less guiltifying.
Shaving an hour off your work day is easy; figuring out meaningful things to do with that time is hard. Writing a high-minded mission statement is easy; actually manifesting your mission day-to-day is hard. Personal development is sophia; productivity is phronesis. Marry the two and you get flourishing. Keep them separate, and you get the see-saw that way too many of us are familiar with.
I’ll wrap this up by saying this: if your journey towards becoming more productive and/or “developed” is leading you away from flourishing, you aren’t becoming either more productive or more developed. The end of both productivity and personal development is flourishing, so use that as a guide.
(This discussion should clear up the lingering question some of you may have regarding the less-than-cool domain name of this blog.)
” . . . if you want to do something in the world, let’s talk about what you’re doing trying to do, why you’re trying to do it, and how we’re going to get it done.”
Thanks for this wise and practical post, Charlie. It’s clear to me that in order to flourish, we need the practical application of wisdom to guide our creations to fruition.
Hiro
Great thoughts, Charlie. This is a great statement of why I got into productivity: “Personal development without action is just daydreaming.”
I would add that much of the personal development literature is too superficially focused to be rightly called sophia or wisdom. On the other hand, academic philosophy was too dry and removed from anything relevant to be included either.
This has been part of my frustration, and the motivation to dig deeper roots for the very real, and very practical business of living a flourishing, authentic life.
Really great stuff here. I really think we need a balance of thinking and doing and I don’t think one should take precedent over the other.
Positively Presents last blog post..the ABC’s of loving yourself
“Productivity without perspective and intention is just wheel-spinning. Personal development without action is just daydreaming.”
Charlie, Productive Flourishing
Added to my quotes list
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Absolutely beautiful, Charlie. I really like “the productivity pr0n and personal development woo” – it captures how empty each branch is without the other!
Catherine Cantieri, Sorteds last blog post..Amazing Web Productivity Tools: LinkedIn
I like when you wax philosophical 🙂
Eloquently expressed, and I completely agree.
Zoes last blog post..How to Make Your Own Creative Mini-Retreat: Journaling and Visioning
This reminds me of the interplay of yin and yang – it’s the dance that danced the Universe into existence. There is always the tension between the two – between doing and being, between inner and outer. And there is always some of one in the other – in doing, one must have a center that is connected to the purpose of the doing, or it is empty and burns itself out. In being, one must push that being out into action or it stagnates and becomes self-absorbed.
I also make a distinction between personal and spiritual growth and “self-improvement”. The latter is much more yang and about being “a better person” – whereas spiritual growth to me is more about acceptance of the moment, of all the faults we have, and bringing them to the spiritual path and doing our thing to contribute anyway. It’s a sense of going into what is, rather than trying to change it. And paradoxically, this leads to real transformation, rather than surface changes.
I’ve been playing with productivity for the past year or so, and it is a journey of its own. You start with trying on other peoples’ tools and trying to “improve” – and you gradually encounter and accept and work with more of your individual unique self. I think the productivity journey *is* personal growth, if you approach it as such. (Of course I tend to approach everything as such LOL).
PS I don’t think your name is uncool at all. =)
Emma McCrearys last blog post..Does God matter? How to listen to the subtle harmony of life.
Inspiring post! I have always wondered the difference between productivity and personal development. Now, things are way clearer. Thanks for sharing this. I also love the fact that you explained things here using Philosophy. 🙂