It is pretty easy to just coast through life never really facing your own issues, problems or personal obstacles. Sure, you will have to deal with external problems as they come at you, but ultimately you can avoid improving yourself and resolving your own issues if you choose to.

Being proactive and making a conscious effort to face your problems, no matter of shallow or deep they run, takes courage and is the cornerstone to personal development. Sometimes facing the past and resolving the consequences it has had on the present is what I consider the biggest challenge in life. But once the process is underway and you can let go of your ego, you can finally pinpoint who you are and who you want to be. The more you are able to raise your awareness, the more able you will be to live more consciously than you ever have before.

Sure, change can be terrifying, and naturally, most of us resist it. It is easy to stick with patterns, regardless of how unhealthy they are. It is the easier thing to do because we don't have to work hard, or work at all, to stick with the way things are, no matter how unhappy the repercussions of it. But with courage and the right tools, it can be accomplished.

A side effect of exaggerating the value of security in your life is that it causes one to live reactively. Playing it safe instead of setting your goals and making the plans to achieve them is a mistake that only hinders you from accomplishing what you can with the time that you have. Whether you remain in an unhappy relationship to avoid the repercussions that would come with a break-up or divorce, or if you remain at a job simply for the security, you are selling yourself short and selling yourself out. First, have the courage to accept your life then do what it takes to make the most of it.

Courage is the first tool that is necessary for personal growth. And courage is not a word that is often applied to people living life. It is normally reserved for soldiers, officers, firefighters and so on. Fortunately, that is just close-minded. To admit where your problems lie takes a tremendous amount of courage and is the first step to personal development.

- Maya S.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."

- Helen Keller