Three steps to inner growth
Inner growth is defined as many things: life lessons, wisdom, knowledge, and evolution, to name a few.
It is usually acquired as a result of life experiences, and those particular experiences are usually not very pleasant. Humans seem to be hardwired to learn through pain, which I guess makes a lot of sense when you think about it. After all, if everything was great all the time and we felt great in every aspect of our lives, why would we want to risk screwing all of that up just to learn something?
Although inner growth occurs along a path, that path is seldom constant, even, or straight. However, it almost always consists of three main steps:
1. Awareness of the problem. Usually this awareness arises as a result of a discomfort you feel when something is not working for you in your life. Most of the time this is something that causes you emotional rather than physical pain, although it could be both.
2. Collection of information on the subject. So what happened to cause this new awareness? What exactly is not working for you and how is it not working? How can it be corrected? Those are just some of the important questions to ask in this step. As you dig deeper into the topic, more questions will arise, some of which may surprise you.
3. Apply the information to the problem. This is the reward. This is where you can see how well you have learned about the topic you want to experience. This is the feel-good part of inner growth.
Let’s use an example. Say something like you got fired from your job.
1. Awareness. Well that’s pretty obvious. You no longer have a job.
2. Collection of information. Why did you get fired? Was it something you were or weren’t doing? Is it personal or universal? If it’s personal, what do you need to change about how you do your job or how you interact with your co-workers? If it’s universal, like an economic downturn, what do you need to do to make yourself more valuable to an employer? These questions and others like them will give you the information you need to proceed to the next and final step.
3. Application of the information. Make a list of the answers you got in step 2 and use that information to create a to-do list. Perhaps some of the changes you will make are learning better communication skills, changing your work habits, improving your personal hygiene, taking classes to add to your work knowledge.
Of course, this applies to ALL inner growth, from the mundane, like losing your job, to the esoteric, like emotional and spiritual growth.
Breaking the learning experience down into these three steps is like eating a ton of applesauce. It’s much easier and less stressful when you do it little by little.
In addition to the internal growth and valuable insights and information you will gain, another benefit to you is that as you identify where you are in the process, you gain the satisfying knowledge that you are making progress.
What current learning opportunities are you experiencing? What are you learning about it? At what stage are you with your learning on the subject?