Ways to Live in Moment: Lessons Learned 2011!- Entry Number 2…

Continuing with the lessons learned during 2011, here is the Entry Number 2…
Lessons 2: Personal Growth

As I continue to reflect on what I have learned this year 2011, I will focus now in my personal growth lessons. I will say that personal growth has been a big part of who I am as a person and professional. But what is personal growth?  There are many definitions, and doing some web searches, here is the one that I like the most: “Personal Growth - is the pursuit of developing, honing and mastering the skills that help us become the best that we can, with all that we have. It is the reaching for, and realizing of, our full potential as human beings”. - Essential Life Skills.net

Here are the top 5 things I captured over the year to increase personal growth and development:

1.       Potential: Reflected on my potential as an individual and professional. Once in a while I reflected about my potential, my talents and the gaps I’m facing to fulfill that potential. Tips that I have used:

·         know and understand myself better

·         live life more consciously and deliberately

·         attain personal satisfaction and fulfillment.

2.       Change: I kept working in making a commitment to change. In fact to make something out of ourselves, we need to be willing to change, for without change, there can be no growth. If we truly want to grow, then commit ourselves to not only accepting change, but seeking it.  Best tips that worked for me to accept change and move on: 

·         Maintaining balance and flexibility in your life

·          Taking care of your physical and mental health; nurturing yourself

·          Learning to deal with problems and stressful situations

·          Maintaining good relationships with loved ones for support and encouragement

3.       Journey: I have learned to enjoy the journey.  Basically if we are going to spend time learning something, then we better learn to like it. Let’s put it this way… If the destination appeals to us, but we cannot enjoy the journey it takes to be there, we would be wise to reexamine our priorities to make sure we have them right.

4.       Perspective: I have increased my awareness of having perspective. Let’s define it first; It is how we perceive things in the context of the whole and how we judge importance of one thing in relation to others. I think that everything that happens in our lives is driven with how we perceive things too. Of course there have been parts of my personal journey that I really do not like at all, however the perspective I have placed into them, make a big difference to me. Even though we cannot help but react emotionally to some difficult situations, if we cannot control or change them, we can decide how we allow them affect us. Going back to my first lesson, here is an additional reflection – “Attitude, which is an aspect of perspective, is a way of thinking or looking at things. We have the ability to choose how we think or our attitudes”. Ultimately life is a subjective experience and it is up to each of us to decide how we choose to view and experience it.

5.       Resilience: if someone asked me to define myself, I will clearly articulate that I have tried to be a resilient individual.  By definition resilience is our ability to regain original form and to thrive and fulfill potential in spite of adversity or difficult circumstances.  Here is a great explanation of how to understand what resilience is, and how to make it a strong quality to grow and develop.

By Essential Life Skills.net:  “When life situations get out of kilter, it is the one quality and skill we need most to get us through the difficult times. To be resilient means we are able to remain stable and function in the face of disruption and chaos. It means we can continue with everyday tasks, remain balanced, and bounce back quickly from hard times. Resilience can be described as an emotional muscle which we all possess to some degree. With determination and practice we can develop and strengthen it even further. Being aware of why we need it and how important it is can encourage us to work on increasing it”.

 Taking action for our new year 2012: The miracle questions…

Where do we stand when it comes to our personal growth for every day? Let’s reflect:

1.       Have I already made the decision to seek and experience improvement daily?

2.       Based on your decision, what is the one action you are going to practice every day in order to be successful?

Adpated from Make Today Count – John C. Maxwell. & By Essential Life Skills.net

Enjoy!