Growth

How do you define Growth? To me, growth simply means increase. Growth can be physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, social, economical, etc. Growth is very important, we can all see the physical growth in us. We grew from new born babies to adult. During these physical changes, we encountered some other form of growth: spiritual growth, emotional growth, mental growth that shape us to what we see ourselves as today. However these growths did not just occur automatically, unlike the physical growth. We went to school, read books to enhance our way of thinking and learning which brings about mental growth, we attended churches and mosques, read Bibles and Quran to improve us spiritually.

Growth can be difficult especially when you have goals to achieve. You have to leave your comfort zone for it to happen. Now there is something called the Growth Trap Gap that many of us including myself are guilty of having. This Growth Trap Gap make it difficult for us, especially in terms of Personal Development. The Growth Trap Gap is divided into different aspects, eight specifically but I will talk about 3 for now.

The first gap is the Assumption Gap: We will automatically grow. This type of growth only occur in physical growth, we were once crawling but now we can walk. If you assume you can grow some muscles without hitting the gym and going through some procedures then you are wrong. There is something called Intentionality, you have to be intentional about your personal development. Bruce Springsteen said something: "A time comes when we need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be." Personal growth does not occur automatically or by accident, you have to be intentional about it, you need to take action.

Another gap is the Timing Gap. Procrastination is a disease that kills time, almost everyone is guilty of this. People who haven't taken action till now feel it is not yet time to begin. Activities meant to be done immediately are pushed for later. When then is the right time, when you are 30? 40? 50? There is a Law of Diminishing Intent that states: "The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it." Very true, ask yourself the question: all the activities I procrastinated, did I eventually do them or did I do them a 100%? Time waits for no one, start now.

Another gap I will talk about and stop for now is the Mistake Gap Most people are scared of making mistakes, if you don't make mistake how will you grow? I will use myself as an example, there was this job I wanted to take. It is a job on one of these LMS platforms but because I was scared of making mistake I rejected it. The thing is that I have not worked on this particular platform before and I was scared I will mess up. A friend of mine took the job and still outsourced it to me, I told him I do not know anything about it and scared I might mess up but he said something that changed my perspective. He told me: "If you want to grow and move from zero to hero, you need to make mistakes, learn from it and grow." That stuck with me and since then it has been somewhat of a motto to me. I take up jobs I sometimes know I am not really good at, make mistakes, correct myself and make sure I try to put out the best. Mistakes are bound to happen in life, the most important thing is for us to learn from it and grow with whatever we have learnt.

I'd stop here for now.

Growth is very important, seize every opportunity to grow. Wake up every morning with the intention to grow and go for it.