What Is Personal Growth And Why You Should Pursue It
This is the essence of personal growth. The continuous desire to improve, to chase greatness in whatever field you work in. Knowing that your ultimate goal is endless, you begin to embrace the journey instead of waiting for results.
The great Kobe Bryant once said the following regarding his famous “Mamba Mentality”
“The mindset isn’t about seeking a result—it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life. I do think that it’s important, in all endeavors, to have that mentality.”
― Kobe Bryant
This post answers the question of What Is Personal Growth?
What Is Personal Growth?
Personal growth or self improvement is the process of pushing one’s self to become the best version of his/herself. It is the pursuit of new skill development, thinking patterns, personal qualities, and mental/physical capabilities.
Personal growth is an infinite journey that has a beginning but no end in sight. At the core of personal growth is the art of becoming better than you were yesterday. Every day should be an opportunity to improve our skills, mentality, relationships and life in general.
The magnitude of your improvements are not significant, instead the consistency of such advancements is the most important aspect. Personal growth is a never ending cycle of mastering every feature(s) of our lives.
Why Is Personal Growth Important?
Personal growth is important because it lays down a strong foundation to build upon. It provides you with the necessary tools and knowledge you’ll need to become the best version of yourself.
Moreover, becoming the best version of yourself is not only for you, it’s for the people that are depending on you (children, family, friends). The fact that you are taking the courage to pursue the uttermost best outcome of yourself separates you from the rest.
One of my most beloved quotes regarding self development goes like this “ the goal is to become uncommon among uncommon people”
In your pursuit of a better self, you immediately showcase high character features, exceptional personal qualities, unmatched drive and most importantly resilience.
You will automatically develop a leader’s mindset, someone people tend to look up to in difficult situations. And quests what, all these features are highly valued in the workplace. It doesn’t matter if you work for a major corporation or have a simple day to day job, anyone with features like these are pursued.
Related Article(s) – The Importance Of Personal Growth.
Examples Of Personal Growth Goals
- Learning to control your anger
- Learning to control you emotions
- Maximizing your physical and mental potential
- Getting rid of an addiction
- Changing how you approach different life situations
- Developing new skills and habits
- Valuing your time and energy
- Improving social skills and relationships
- Improving Time Management Skills
- Pursue new challenges
- Becoming more proactive
- A better work life balance
- Motivate yourself and others
- Finding a purpose in life
- Improving your vocabulary
Types Of Personal Growth
“A sickness had begun to grow within him. It was a sickness of the mind. And where sickness thrives bad things will follow.”
— Bilbo
- Mental – The most important part of this journey is to invest, harness and grow your mind. This could mean changing the way you think and approaching facets of life differently. Studying your thought patterns, removing the negative life hindering ones and improving(while acting) upon the positive ideas.
- Social – The art of improving social/communication skills. A lot of problems can be avoided if people knew how to communicate effectively. Continuously pursuing skills such as becoming an active listener and a good speaker will help you further in your career, relationships and community in general.
- Spiritual – Spiritual growth is the process of understanding and evaluating the needs of the spirit (soul). This process requires you to become aware of the moment, evaluating everyday existence and maintaining inner peace. Additionally observing the truth of the universe and connecting with your inner self on who or what you really are.
- Emotional – Emotional growth is centered around the idea of mastering and controlling your emotions and/or reactions to specific situations. Emotional development is crucial as it will provide you with necessary tools to deal with toxic people and tough situations. Emotional growth also helps you understand and evaluate your feelings based on different scenarios and people.
- Physical – The most basic form of growth, it focuses on taking care of your body and using it to your advantage. A healthy body contributes a lot to the process of self development. Healthy eating habits, good sleeping patterns, exercising regularly and supplying your body with the nutrients it needs to function are the core values of physical improvement.
Related Article(s) – The 5 Areas Of Personal Growth.
How Can I Pursue Personal Growth?
This all sounds great and all but how do you pursue personal growth? The first step in pursuing self development is understanding your strengths and weaknesses. This may seem like a simple step but it’s really not. Most people are afraid of the truth, they’ll do anything to not face it and acknowledge it. People tend to live fake lives, lying to others (and themselves) trying to prove stupid points. Being truthful with yourself is very important because it shows you what areas you are lacking in and what adjustments you need to make.
The second step in your pursuit of a better version of yourself is to become realistic with your goals and ambitions. Knowing that this is a marathon not a sprint is key to achieving your goals.
Always start with small minute steps and work your way from there, embrace change and build on past accomplishments. Use your momentum and build upon it, if you feel overwhelmed at the beginning learn to rest instead of quitting.
There is really no set timetable/deadline to achieve your results in, this fact alone eliminates stress and frustration.
The last step is to know your opposition. This is a journey of you vs you, you are competing against yourself day in and day out. The goal is to improve upon yesterday’s version of yourself.
The beauty in competing against yourself is you get to study yourself more, paying close attention to potential weak areas and trying to continuously develop them. This ensures that you are spending your time and energy on the most important person in your life (yourself).
What Causes Personal Growth
There are many causes for someone to start on this self development journey. It could be life events, struggles and failures. These events are mostly negative but as the saying goes it could either destroy you or you could learn from them. Personal growth could happen randomly by accident and/or by destiny/karma interfering.
The correlation between these causes and personal growth is change. Change could be in the form of new ideas/beliefs, new experiences good or bad, and challenging your ideals. The more you know, the better suited you become to act upon several different life situations out there.
Sometimes in life you have no option other than being strong. Either for yourself and/or the people that are depending on you. Being a better, stronger, more educated and experienced version of yourself influences more people in your life than you may think.
These people may be close to you personally, or colleagues in the workplace and/or just random people in your community. Becoming a beacon of hope to the people dearest to your heart and in your community is such an amazing feeling.
Conclusion
Personal growth is a never ending pursuit of greatness. The goal of this is to become the utmost best version of yourself. For anyone who is hungry for success and the pursuit of a better life, he/she should chase after personal growth improvement.
Summary –
- Personal growth is important because it builds a strong foundation for your future self
- The magnitude of your improvements don’t really matter, what counts is how are you consistently improving
- Being truthful with yourself is crucial
- Being realistic in your goals ensures that you don’t quit if results don’t show up as intended
- Personal growth is caused by change, either change in new ideas/beliefs, people and/or experiences
Have you ever experienced personal growth? What does it feel like to grow and evolve as a person?
This post was all about What Is Personal Growth.
References
- (PDF) what is self-growth? – researchgate. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281973099_What_is_Self-Growth
- American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Apa PsycNet. American Psychological Association. Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1957-02564-000
- Personal growth and personal development: Concepts clarified. Taylor & Francis. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069889908256287