{"id":38266,"date":"2017-10-24T04:45:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T09:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=38266"},"modified":"2017-10-24T04:45:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T09:45:44","slug":"shakespeare-on-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/shakespeare-on-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare\u2019s Plan for Personal Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

In deference to easily scandalized students, Cambridge University has begun adding trigger warnings<\/a> to English classes that teach some of Shakespeare\u2019s plays. That\u2019s a shame if it deters participation. Students\u2014and the rest of us\u2014could all benefit from what the Bard can teach us about personal growth.<\/p>\n

Declan Fitzsimons, Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD business school, points to Shakespeare\u2019s plays<\/a> as a source for insight about self-development. Whereas most characters of the time plod through their plots with little sense of development, Shakespeare\u2019s creations are different. His characters \u201cdevelop rather than unfold,\u201d as Yale professor Harold Bloom says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hamlet, Macbeth, and others are all capable of surprising themselves. They express self-doubt, question their own motives, and make conscious decisions. In a monologue, or by conversing with others, they come to self-realization and change their minds and directions. And we the audience are lucky enough to observe the entire process. \u201cShakespeare shows us … what that development sounds like, looks like, and feels like,\u201d says Fitzsimons.<\/p>\n

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Much of the growth Shakespeare's work inspires lies in this discovery: at any given moment we don\u2019t know the whole story. So we must be open to new information about ourselves<\/a> or the world. (That's the danger in potentially deterring such discovery with trigger warnings. The more insulated we are the less likely we are to grow.)<\/p>\n

But the Bard can take us even further. It\u2019s more than his plays that teach us about personal growth. Shakespeare\u2019s own career as a poet and playwright instructs us as well, particularly by showing us a primary driver of personal growth: our peers.<\/p>\n\t\t