Our Children Are Growing….Are We?
September 2015 Insights
Funny after a certain age, investment in our self-growth seems to taper off. We get so busy with our lives; attending to others, our “jobs”, upkeep of our homes & finances, that we forget that success is really just the byproduct of living our lives to the fullest so that we can continue to expand upon the best we can be!
Take a look around, how many of us are truly participating fully in our lives? Understandably not as many as you might think, as adults we have many responsibilities to attend to and simply just don’t have the luxury we did as when we were young to “try on” different hats so to say to expand upon ourselves. Though validly life will often derail us from expanding upon our self-growth, I ask you this…..is that really a good enough reason to settle for less in our lives and for ourselves?
So let’s take this month’s newsletter and return back to those days when people would ask us “what do you want to be when you grow up?” and metaphorically apply that to our daily living to explore personal development and the importance of taking the time to still consciously invest in it as we did when we were younger.
Though most of our formative self-development experiences happen organically early in our lives within in our schooling and family involvement, it doesn’t end there. The concept behind personal development in and of itself is noted as a lifelong process the dictionary likens to many different definitions all that basically highlight maximizing upon one’s full potential, including but not limited to improving self-awareness, developing one’s interests, talents, and strengths, enhancing health & wellness, fulfilling aspirations, building self-identity and esteem, renewing and expanding our connection to others and breaking through barriers. It’s experiences may cover a great deal of territory but one thing is for sure personal development doesn’t happen by accident and as adults it requires more deliberate attending to. We no longer have the ease of going out to play or the simplicity of riding our bikes or swimming in the pool all day for physical and social advancement. Rather we must consciously set time aside to go to the gym, sign up for tennis lessons and/or plan a hike with our family. Additionally, as adults we no longer have the daily exposure to higher education or availability of supports systems as we did when we were young and attended school, college, camps, and/or clubs.
As adults there are no hard and fast rules towards greater self-development, rather it’s up to us to figure out how to be the best version of ourselves we can be. Let’s face it, life will get in the way, it’s a rare occurrence for things to naturally fall into place. Personal development requires deliberate and conscious attending to. There’s no need for anything extreme or costly, start small, just consider daily how you can you support your self-growth and never cease to ponder and expand upon that question “what do you want to be when you grow up?”.
As Always
Wishing You The Best Of Success
-Holly-