At what age did you stop growing?  Growth is our own initiative to learn something new, to better ourselves for its own sake.  Regrettably, most people stop when they get out of college.  Rarely will you find a person committed to a comprehensive personal growth and development. 

As people we are always influencing others; everyone always has unreached potential waiting to be fulfilled. In all parts of life, how far you go depends on how much you grow. Your development as an individual is in your control; you CAN do something about it. You’ll grow the most when you know the most about how the process of personal development happens.

“Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.” ―John C. Maxwell

There are three basic rules of personal growth:

1) You Must Choose to Grow

In this day and age we do not lack access to information that can help us grow.  We have the internet 24/7, but do we actually apply the resources we have at our disposal?

Knowing isn’t the same as growing. Aging may happen automatically, but growth doesn’t always come with experience. You must decide that you want to grow, it is a conscience choice.

What viewpoints keep us from growing? There are two main ones that get in our way:

a) We believe that failure is terminal therefore we allow fear to keep us stagnant.

Failing doesn’t mean that someone is a failure. Mistakes are an unavoidable part of life, and disappointment often teaches us lessons that we could never learn otherwise. Failures are steppingstones to accomplishment.

b) We believe that we don’t have the extra time to improve ourselves.

Time is the one resource we cannot recapture once it’s lost; there’s no way to make up for months and years of neglecting personal growth.  We always make time for what we think is important.  How much television do you watch a week?  You probably have the time to invest in yourself but choose to do something else instead. 

2) You Must Know Yourself

For personal growth to be advantageous, it must be suited to your unique strengths and learning style: what works for one person may be completely unsuitable for another.  How do you learn?  Some learn by seeing, some learn by hearing, some learn by doing or a combination of these.  Knowing how you learn helps you determine whether a book or a video will be a better resource for your efforts to be beneficial. 

In addition, personal growth requires you to identify your purpose in life. Unless you know what your goals are, you won’t know in what ways you need to grow. Once you have a definite vision or goal in mind, you can begin to develop the specific set of skills you need to accomplish it. 

So you want to write a book but barely passed English in high school so you may need to brush up on your grammar.  Look at joining a local writing group.  Read more so you can see how the stories and writing go together.  Knowing what you want to do helps you formulate the skill set you need to develop to obtain your goal.

3) You Must Be Disciplined

To cultivate the discipline to keep developing, we must continuously remind ourselves why we want to grow. For example, I desire to be physically fit because I want to be healthy so I can have fun with my granddaughter and enjoy life with my family. Remembering my passion and goals allows me to stay disciplined in those activities I do not enjoy like exercising!

One of the best ways to keep you disciplined is to put it on your calendar.  For me if it is on my calendar then it is something I have to do.  Yoga class was on my calendar once a week, then twice a week, then three times a week.  Each time I saw it on my schedule I would prepare to go to yoga class and I was able to make it a habit that I enjoyed. 

To accomplish your goals and to get where you want to go in life, personal growth cannot be ignored, delayed, or taken for granted. Your development requires your intention, your focus and your accountability on a regular basis.

“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.” ―Stephen Covey

Look for Growth Opportunities

As we go through our lives we will notice many opportunities that come our way for us to grow.  Online courses, webinars, video series, classes, workshops and other programs to improve skill sets and personal knowledge come along and many of them are now free online.  But you have to CHOOSE to participate in what is available to you. Will you choose to be stagnate or take the opportunity to invest in yourself and GROW?

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