By now in your journey of self-development, you may have heard of Nature vs Nurture. Let’s get familiar with it because it is my belief that we all can learn a lot from this topic. Do we feel that we are built in a certain way straight out of the gate and that’s it or do we feel that we can influence our own outcomes through trial and error and the process of discovery? Is human behavior determined by environment?
nature: refers to predispositions that are genetic. Our human traits are biological.
nurture: refers to our ability to influence our own outcomes in life. What we put in overtime we get out.
The Nature vs. Nurture theory was developed by a gentleman by the name of Sir Francis Galton. He was the founder of the modern behavioral genetics.
There are many things that fall under the nature category. Physical traits such as our skin tone, hair color, eye color are mostly related to our genes. Our bloodline can give us a clue as to potential medical issues down the line. If your parents and grandparents had glaucoma, we may be more susceptible to it later on down the road.
When we are using this in the context of personal development we need to take a look at our overall family history. There are lots of traits that may not necessarily be passed on to us. It is good to understand the family history so we can pick out certain things that could be potential issues for us later on. Alcoholism and depression are good examples of this. Do we have addictive personalities?
With this information, we can create and hone in habits, routines, and overall ways of living our life. Let’s take as many good pieces of our family history in an effort to be productive in our goal-setting journey. Remember we are not always predisposed to be a certain way of being. And even if we end up a certain way that doesn’t mean it’s truly set in stone.
When it relates to nurture it is how we go about our way of life. We have the ability to do our very best every day to progress in our lives the way we want. We have to nurture things along in the interest of progressing. Be it personal goals, business goals, or whatever. It’s always important for us to recognize that we have the power to do almost anything in life. Pick yourself up when you fall.
Just because we had a rough childhood and we were neglected or not encouraged to do great things in our lives doesn’t mean we can never accomplish things. We must take a look at our present environment and see what we can use from it, like a Swiss Army knife. Pick out that one little tool that will assist us with what we are trying to do.
If we spend our time constantly being down about our present situations or reflecting on our upbringing and all the experiences we had, we may never progress in the way we want. Do take some of those circumstances to give you some motivation and inspiration to get yourself to that next level. Nurture your life, always and adopt the growth mindset.
Let’s try to take the positive out of both nature and nurture for the ultimate package. Here are a couple of things we can take with us and use for the better.
Nature:
-if you know alcoholism is in your family then it’s up to you to not let that get out of control. In fact, we really may be better off to just stay away from it altogether and err on the side of caution.
-if we know that diabetes is in your family then take a look at where you are currently with your health. Get a check-up with your primary care doctor and see where you are. Check your diet and make the necessary changes for the purpose of having a healthy life. Do it anyway because sugar and junk food just make us feel blah all the time. I personally have been on a rollercoaster with the sweets and food thing.
Nurture:
-Learn about yourself and see what your overall outlook is on your immediate life. Where are you at? What goals do you have? Constantly evolve by learning and growing.
-inspire others around you to be better human beings. This one is pretty simple. Your actions speak volumes. So get to it, I’m rooting for you.
Conclusion
Nature vs Nurture can be viewed together as a positive, which traditionally isn’t viewed that way. I like to look at things from all angles for the purpose of being the best I can possibly be. Pick out as many good things from each and apply them!
