7 Philosophies To Navigate The Personal Development Labyrinth

Zaid K. Dahhaj
4 min readJul 25, 2021

“He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.”

Victor Hugo

Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash

I spend much of my time and energy learning about personal development.

It’s a never-ending process.

There is no one point where you “arrive” in life.

Sure, you’ll have experiences of earned accomplishment, but even then, the victorious feeling passes.

You’ll get to the peak of many mountains, but it’s unreasonable to expect permanant residence there.

You must understand a few crucial truths to navigate the personal development labyrinth successfully.

Expect adversity at every step of the way.

It doesn’t matter if you have several hundred million dollars in the bank; a challenge will manifest.

Certain achievements such as money and health make problems easier to deal with, but adversity is fundamental to life. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a life of ease, even if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

No matter who you are or what you have, life will test your resolve.

Perfection is a false God.

Trying to be flawless is a lost cause; it inevitably fails and leads to a broken relationship with oneself.

There is a caveat:

Aim for perfection, but never expect to attain it.

What’s the point in aiming if I’ll never get it, you ask?

It’s because you must learn to aspire for more.

When reaching for the moon, chances are you might not hit that target. But, by making an effort to go the distance, you end up amongst the stars.

Progress is your best friend.

Zaid K. Dahhaj

Sleep King. Helping family men fix fatigue in less than 42 days without letting loved ones suffer. Founder: The 2AM Podcast.