The Evolution of Personal Growth

“If you won’t be better tomorrow than you were today, then what do you need tomorrow for?”

Last week I got a stomach bug and I was out of commission for two days. I couldn’t get off the couch, so I spent the majority of my time watching documentaries on health and fitness and reading. I read through Dr. Mercola’s nutrition plans and learned a ton about clean eating. As a result of what I learned, I’ve started making even more changes to the way I eat.

This is nothing new, I am always learning about new ways to improve my health and fitness. In fact, as I look back over the past 5  years of me making a healthy lifestyle a priority in my life, I can see the evolution of growth in becoming a healthier person. As I was reflecting on this, I started seeing a pattern when it comes to personal growth in my life. If I had to put it in an equation, it would look like this:

The Evolution of Personal Growth: Learn, Experiment, Become, Repeat

Learn – Determine to be a life long learn. Learn as much as you can about the areas of life you want to improve in. Read blogs, magazines, and books. Watch documentaries. Interview experts. Take classes.

Experiment – A head full of knowledge is worthless unless you do something with it. When you learn something new about an area of your life you’d like to grow in, find ways to put it into action immediately. See if it works for you. Some things will stick and become habits, others will fall away. Nevertheless, you should constantly be experimenting trying to find what the best practices are for you to have become a part of your life.

Become – Once you experiment and find the best practices and those practices become habits, you become something you weren’t before. You’ve grown. You’ve gotten better. You’ve grown to another level. Is there anything more exciting in life than becoming more today than you were yesterday?

Repeat – Just because something is working in your life now, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it or that it always will be. Most likely, the best information available to you today, won’t be the best information available to you six months from now. That is why you have to determine to be a lifelong learner. Once you’ve grown in an area, continue to learn and experiment. Always strive to be better tomorrow than you were today.

Area of life you should be striving to grow in:

• Spiritually – Are you growing in your walk with God?
• Relationships – Are you growing in your relationship skills? As a spouse? As a parent?
• Finances – Are you growing in the area of personal finance?
• Health and Fitness – Are you healthier today than you were yesterday?
• Career/Skills – Are you growing into the person you need to be to get to where you want to go?
• Personal Growth – Are you doing everything you can to become everything you can?

Take these areas and learn all you can, experiment all you can, and become all you can. Repeat this process for the rest of your life.

Thoughts?