I have been really challenged over the past couple of years in finding my true path in what I am meant to be doing on this Earth. It was always to care for others, women particularly, and this has evolved over the decades as my role of Midwife changed. I began to realise that to fully serve women holistically, I would need to step out of a role that although is rightly regulated, held too many restrictions for what I wanted to give in terms of my time, support and approach.
I enjoy adapting to change. I value growth and development as I strive to become a better person on all levels to make my life and relationships more productive, fulfilling and meaningful. I hope that it will make me more developed, successful and happy.
You may already be doing things to grow and develop on a personal level even if you don’t intentionally set aside time for it. Taking your experiences and learning from them is part of growing as a person. Perhaps you went through a bad breakup, but you reflected on the relationship and realised you had room for improvement. Maybe you faced a financial or health crisis but came back stronger from the situation.
Personal growth and development is different for everyone. Your experiences aren’t the same as anyone else’s. Your current state is unique to you. Your goals and ambitions in life are different than your friends’ dreams.
It is important to keep growing as whilst staying the same is comfortable, it doesn’t help you achieve new goals or improve yourself in any way. Everyone has room for growth. Personal improvement helps you uncover a better version of yourself. You don’t have to completely reinvent yourself, but making improvements throughout your life helps you achieve more, whether that’s excelling at your job or being a kinder person who makes a more positive impact on the world.
Personal growth and development helps you get excited about life. It becomes a challenge or an incentive to see just how far you can go. You may find yourself more excited about life in general when you focus on your growth. It’s exciting to learn new things and uncover new talents you didn’t realise you had. You become more aware of how many opportunities there are in life.
Working on yourself can also improve your interactions with others. Your growth may help you become less self-centred and more focused on other people. As you grow emotionally and spiritually, you treat people in a more mature way.
To achieve growth you could start by figuring out how you want to improve yourself. Perhaps you want to be more patient, organised, assertive or compassionate. Look at your strengths and weaknesses to help you identify the areas where you want to focus your attention.
Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day, and there are things we wish we could forget. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?
So how can you go about this? Once you know what you want to do, you need a plan for getting there. Essentially, you’re going to break down the overall goal for growth into actionable steps that you can do. For example, you may want to set up a cake making business from home, so could begin by finding out what regulations the food standards agency require for you to operate.
Being open to new experiences can be a major stepping stone to personal growth and development. Those experiences give you new knowledge and may change your perspective. You may also discover new interests and develop a stronger sense of self-awareness simply by being open to the opportunities that present themselves to you.
I love lists and enjoy brain dumping all content down so I can analyse it more clearly. Planning your overall goals, to ensure you have a good balance in all elements of you life is a good way to see where your energies are going, and if you need to prioritise the important ones.
I have a list of 10 pockets but you can plan for any number. The goal here is prioritise the important “life pockets” for you. Here’s an example of some of my life pockets:
- Work/ Career
- Personal Development
- Marriage
- Home Environment
- Health and Wellness
- Contribution/ Giving
- Finances
- Family / Friends
- Fun and Recreation
- Spirituality
From there, I write down a goal for each one of these life pockets. It’s important to note that you want these goals to be SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound). Your goals should be tied to a desired outcome. Here’s an example: Personal Development – Read more health related educational books to inform my knowledge.
Being open to new experiences can be a major stepping stone to personal growth and development. Those experiences give you new knowledge and may change your perspective. You may also discover new interests and develop a stronger sense of self-awareness simply by being open to the opportunities that present themselves to you. Love Nina x