José Briceño: «It is necessary to be honest to accept our weaknesses»

Personal development is often talked about as if it were a process that occurs spontaneously in people, as if the simple passage of time gave rise to this type of knowledge and management skills emotional. However, this is not so.

Promoting our personal growth implies adopting an active attitude towards this project, given that if we limit ourselves to live day to day without thinking about it too much, we do not have to retain significant learning from our experience.

That is why there are currently support programs for personal development that, from the knowledge of positive psychology, are designed to offer support to those who want to mature emotionally. We will talk about this in this interview with José Briceño, part of the happiens team.

• Related article: "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection"

Interview with José Briceño (happiens): What are the benefits of training in personal growth?

José Briceño Núñez is Director of happiens, a non-profit entity promoted by the Humanism and Science Foundation and that offers a series of online courses based on positive psychology. In this interview, he talks about the importance of getting involved in learning projects to promote personal development.

What is meant by personal growth in the field of Psychology?

From our point of view, personal growth encompasses a kind of people-centered work that they want to improve their lives and evolve, without necessarily having a serious problem or pathology that disturb.

These are situations in which people feel that they could be happier by making some change and working on some aspect of their life and, not being able to do it on their own, they turn to some professional or to materials and courses created with this target.

From the point of view of the team of happiens, what are the main skills and abilities that allow us to progress in personal growth?

First of all would be honesty and modesty. It is necessary to be honest, sincere and humble to accept our weaknesses, find possible ways to improve and recognize that, in order to advance and grow, we may need external support.

Secondly, courage, since the processes of personal growth can generate certain discomforts and internal and external dissonances (with work, family or friends), by making us see things in a different way different.

Therefore, if we want to change and evolve, we must be brave to take action and launch ourselves into the next step, which will always have a certain degree of uncertainty. We can make mistakes, but we will learn from mistakes and try new formulas.

In this sense, another fundamental skill is persistence. This is not something that is achieved overnight, nor is it usually successful the first time; personal growth is a long and constructive process, but also liberating and stimulating.

Can the world of work be included in a personal development project, beyond its economic incentives?

Of course, the world of work is not isolated from the rest of the elements of a person's life and it is something that must be taken into account within a personal development project.

We spend a lot of time working and, beyond the economic plane, the feelings and interactions that are generated in the workplace influence the rest of the vital spheres, such as family, friends or free time. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate work with the rest of the fundamental aspects of a person: their values, their goals, their priorities, their strengths, their weaknesses, your vital moment… So you can know if you are in the job you really want or need, or get involved proactively in the change that suits you best perform.

What are the most important stages of a personal growth training process?

In the first place, we would like to comment that from happiens we do not see it so much as a process of formation, but rather as a process of learning, discovery and growth, as its own name indicates. Training refers us more to technical and academic aspects, and this is not about getting a title or a diploma, but to improve our emotional and psychological life to make decisions that lead us to be more happy.

As for the stages, it is difficult to establish general ones for everyone, but perhaps at a structural level it is possible to speak of four: self-knowledge, planning, action and evaluation.

What are the aspects of personal growth that have to be lived and that cannot be learned simply by reading?

Everyone. Reading can serve as a starting point, as an initial stimulus that awakens our curiosity for some topics or to help us realize something. But if we don't take action and get directly involved in our growth, living new experiences, making decisions, changing behaviors, making mistakes and retesting or modifying the way we manage something important, there will not be many results and, the few that there are, will end up being diluted, since it will be difficult for the let's internalize

And what are the main benefits of having been trained in personal growth in relation to the management of emotions (of oneself or of others)?

This is also somewhat complicated to generalize, since each person is a world and their starting situation and personal objectives will condition the benefits that they can obtain. Having said this, perhaps the most general and outstanding would be a greater self-knowledge and an improvement in the empathy and of relationships.

Understanding our emotions and how they affect us is the first step to doing the same with those of others and thus connect with them more closely and sincerely. On the other hand, we can probably be more mindful and proactive in our decisions and actions, rather than automatically reacting to an emotion. Feel the emotions and learn from their messages, to be able to manage them and help us in the decision making and problem solving is essential to leading a full and fulfilling life. satisfactory.