It’s not enough to want to grow.
If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to be able to walk the walk.
Here’s an example: I’m not a patient person, but I’ve always wanted to be one. The second our first daughter was born, I was immediately thrown into a situation where patience is the name of the game.
Since I had to go through and overcome this barrier, I became a more patient person in the process.
This will happen to you, too, if you keep saying you want to grow and actually go work on it. Life will put you in circumstances where you’re forced to be outside of your comfort zone. The real question is whether you’re going to step up to the plate and face your challenges head on, or if you’ll step down and go back to your old ways.
If you can look at life as a series of opportunities for growth, you will go far.
Take the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl was a psychiatrist who was as a prisoner in the camps during the Holocaust. His book chronicles how so many people lost their lives after losing everything they owned, including their identities — but the ones who survived were the ones who kept their hopes on something greater than themselves.
Frankl quotes Nietzsche saying:
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
When you learn to view life as happening for you instead of to you, that’s when you’ll realize the true meaning of growth.
So what’s your why?
