Custom Barriers to Personal Growth essay paper sample

Personal growth is believed to the source of personal gratification any human would want to pursue. Some of the things in our daily lives have become a routine, consequently becoming part and parcel of our cherished lives. One can ask you why you wore a particular dress on the day. It’s not easy to answer such a question as we frequently do things such as dressing derived by habits. The famous psychologist William James observed that habits can either work for or against us, thereby giving us a different perspective of our daily routines (Atwater, 1983).

According to William James, people limit their personal growth by burying their brilliance or mask in illusions instead of facing the needed facts as they come. In other words, people should be identifying the idea behind any possible success. Living with sense of purpose and vitality breeds success in terms of human potentiality. An obstacle to personal growth such as lack of motivation can bar an individual from achieving his or her full potential. The lack of believe in oneself can cause an insurmountable barrier to personal growth. The imagination that you are unable to do a particular jobs is enough to bar you from achieving certain goals, hence restricts personal growth.

Another dimension of barrier to personal growth can be seen in the view of dwelling too much on past failures. More often than not, bad past experience or happenings in our past lives can form big barriers to personal growth. In William’s view, any success-oriented person has learnt to put aside his or her bad experiences and move on to the next level. James’ view is observed by many other psychologists such as Maslow, who believe that personal growth is built on the need to pursue self-actualization and curiosity (Atwater, 1983).  These kinds of barriers can be entrenched in an individual to an extent that they fail to realize their full potential.