PurpAnd

The other day I introduced you to the start of a series of posts discussing my core values. The series continues with my #4 - Personal Growth.

You’ve seen my posts relating to this topic if you’ve been a regular reader. I am at a point in my life where I am taking inventory of myself and making changes where I see fit. I can’t say whether I will always be in this mood, but for now it’s a pretty high priority.

When I wrote about Financial Security, I explained how it gives me comfort. This is similar in the sense that each little thing that I learn or improve about myself gives me more self confidence and contentedness with who I am. I’ve enjoyed ‘meeting’ myself again as I have uncovered things that I had forgotten. I picked up the guitar a week ago for the first time in a year and a half. I can’t say that I play as well as I used to, (ya, way rusty) but I had a blast and a couple nights over the past week I’ve played for over an hour straight. My fingertips can prove it. I’m also reading a lot more than I had been. Work had been getting in my way and I would just come home and watch TV to decompress, but I’ve found reading decompresses me much better. These things I’ve found again through getting in touch with what brings me joy and if I hadn’t opened up to figure that out, I’d still be stuck.

Personal Growth is sometimes a tricky thing to talk with people about. Some see it as self-help stuff in disguise. Some see it as something that is needed by only those who can’t deal with stuff on their own. I disagree. Personal growth, to me, is about balance, being open to the world and its people and ideas, and most importantly, recognizing weaknesses and embracing them instead of hiding behind them.

I believe that there is always room to improve (show me someone who is perfect, I challenege you) and it’s those who take the opportunities to improve who become extraordinary individuals. I want to be one of these people. I’d be ok without being extraordinary per se, but I would like to be an ordinary person who is always looking to better himself. With Personal Growth as one of my core values, I can use it as a cross-check in decision making. i.e. Will this lead to something that will make me a better person? Or maybe more importantly, will this lead to something that will prevent me from becoming a better person?

Keeping this in mind all the time is tough, I don’t expect to (cuz sometimes the most fun is had when you’re doing something that makes you a pretty uninspiring individual), but for some of the more important decisions I think it can certainly play a part. I like writing for this blog, in fact, my sharing stuff on here has, at times, opened my eyes to things that I may not have seen otherwise. I choose to continue writing because I feel like it makes me a better person.

I think people reach a point in their lives, and its different for everyone, when they embrace this feeling that I am talking about. The feeling where you want to get things right, figure out what life is about, what is most important, and be surrounded by positives. For me that is happening now and I’ve been told that I may be hitting it rather early in life, but I have friends who I think reached it in high school and I know others who may be on the cusp of it now. The cool thing is that personal growth is and means different things to different people and there is no single path that works for everyone.