Personal Growth: Not Always Easy, But Always Necessary
Hello, my lovely readers!
This week’s blog post is about personal growth, and why we should make it a goal to become better versions of ourselves. Personal growth, also referred to as self-growth or self-improvement, is the process of improving one's self to their full potential. Becoming your best self impacts not only your personal life, but it affects your work and social life, too, so you aren't the only one that can benefit from it. I understand that getting started on this process can be the hardest step, so I've listed 4 ways that you can stimulate your personal growth:
#1: Do some introspection.
Introspection is the act of examining your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This helps you to understand yourself, making it easier to set goals for the life that you want. Introspection requires lots of inner work. You have to be willing to look deep “inside” of yourself and address all parts of you—the good and the bad. You need to be able to look at the things that are stunting your growth, like bad habits or toxic people. Here are examples of the types of questions you should ask yourself as you introspect:
Who am?
What makes me happy?
What are my likes and dislikes?
What is my purpose in life?
What bad habits and behaviors do I need to stop?
Who in my life is bringing me down?
Are there any unresolved issues that I need to fix?
Do I need to work on healing past situations and trauma?
Is my overall health (mental, physical, emotional, etc.) okay?
Are my interpersonal relationships healthy?
What are my plans for the future?
Answering these questions will initiate your introspection process, and regularly evaluating yourself allows the opportunity for personal growth to take place. You can find more self-evaluation questions here.
#2: Identify any changes that you want to make in your life.
We all have things about ourselves that we want to improve. For example, some of us want to be more financially secure, have more patience, or eat healthier. When we evaluate ourselves, we should identify the parts that could use some work —i.e. things that aren’t good for us, or habits and behaviors that we aren’t satisfied with. It’s also wise to identify the patterns that lead to those behaviors or thoughts that you want to change. For instance, if you have a problem with emotional spending, think about what causes you to overspend. Once you’ve identified the cause, make a plan on how you’re going to change/improve the situation.
#3: Prioritize your health.
Taking care of yourself is the best thing that you can do for your overall health. The healthier you are, the more likely you’ll be able to achieve goals for your personal growth. Eat right. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Make self-care a daily or weekly routine instead of just a few days out of the month. Seriously, put yourself first—you’re not selfish for doing so.
#4: Invest in yourself.
Self-growth is a constant process. As long as we are living, we have the opportunity to keep evolving. That said, we should commit to being lifelong learners, meaning, we should always be in the pursuit of knowledge and learning new things that contribute to our development. When we learn a new skill, read a self-help book, receive therapy, or even journal our thoughts regularly, we are investing in our personal growth.
Bottom line:
We should consistently strive to become better versions of ourselves. Because we aren’t perfect creatures, there will always be something that we can improve on. I feel that if I would have known about the importance and benefits of self-growth earlier on in life, I would have been more open to change, and I could have possibly avoided some of the things that affected me negatively due to my stagnant mindset. The truth is, personal growth isn’t always an easy process because changing our ways isn’t easy. It requires will, motivation, and sacrificing our old selves—which is hard for a lot of us to do. However, growth is necessary to become stronger, wiser, and greater as an individual. You owe it to yourself to be the best you that you can be. Start today, it’s not too late!
“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
-Muhammad Ali