Are you Growing as a Person?

No, I don’t mean are you getting taller? Or wider for that matter? I’m talking about your personal growth. I’m talking about whether you are growing as a person.

Do you strive to improve yourself or are you stuck stagnating in one spot?

As I have often mentioned, one of the best things I have done for myself was invest in personal coaching. Coaching triggered a new era of self-awareness and growth within myself. That experience more than anything else has improved my life both mentally and emotionally.

Related content on growing as a person – 

• 10 Powerful Ways to Improve Your Self-Worth and Self-Esteem
• 10 Behaviors that Stop You Growing as a Person
• 20 Ways to Stop Caring What People Think of You
• How to Break the Habit of Self-Doubt and Build Real Confidence Course Review.

Let’s dive into some questions to see if you are growing as a person.

Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Do you take the time to look inwards?

I once had a friend tell me that he never let himself think about his feelings or personal growth. He did however constantly think about his career and obsess about how to make money.

Personally, I think he was afraid he might not like what he uncovered if he went digging through his thoughts and feelings.

This head-in-the-sand approach might work for a while. It also might not. You may wake up one day and realize you need to take a long hard look at your life and yourself.

Do you know your strengths and weaknesses?

Are you aware of your strengths and weaknesses?

We all have strengths and weaknesses. By understanding and accepting both sides of yourself, there is an incredible potential for growth.  Sit down and write a list.  Weaknesses on one side, strengths on the other. Which side of your list is easier to write?

What areas do you need to work on?

Are you repeating the same mistakes?

Consider this quote by Albert Einstein.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We all make mistakes.  Mistakes can help us grow.  Many can also have HUGE ramifications on our lives.  The key is to learn from our mistakes and hopefully not continue to make the same ones.  What happens however when you keep making the same mistakes over and over again?

Often we can repeat bad habits without realizing our harmful behavior.  Think about what you want most, think about what’s important to you.  Is your current behavior bringing you closer to that priority or driving you further away from what you truly want?

Say for instance your deep desire is to get married and have children. Yet in reality, you are having casual relationships with partners who are completely inappropriate and unwilling to commit. Deep down you know they can’t give you want you want and yet you repeat your destructive pattern of behavior.

Look at your behavior and lifestyle. What habits can you change to get closer to what you desire?

Related post – Are You Repeating the Same Mistakes?

Are you blaming someone else for your situation?

When things don’t go our way, it can be all too easy to blame someone else.  Anyone else for that matter.

My boss holds me back

My parents don’t support me. 

My partner does not understand.

Eventually, we need to take ownership of the course of our own lives.  Blaming someone else does not help us move forward.

Take responsibility for yourself.

Do you have goals and dreams?

Do you have goals that you want to achieve or are you just coasting, taken along by the tide of circumstance?  Set clear goals and work your way towards achieving them.

Dare to dream a little. Actually, dare to dream a lot!!!

Work out a step-by-step plan to get you on the path to that dream.

Are you living your life or someone else’s?

Sometimes we make decisions based on what everyone else is doing or what is expected of us by our family, friends or work colleagues. Don’t be hoodwinked into believing you have to do certain things by a certain age, just because that is what other people are doing. It is your life (not theirs).

You need to be true to yourself and not simply follow the crowd.

Do you have a job you love or are you simply in a particular career because it is expected? Do you feel pressured to have children because that is what your friends and family are doing?

As regular readers know, I’m a traveler. I also tend to travel alone. Understandably my Mum worries about me when I go overseas. When I bought my apartment, Mum was thrilled. One because I had my own home but secondly because she thought that was the end of my traveling adventures.

She assumed owning a home would stop me from going overseas. In her eyes buying a home meant that I would finally ‘settle down’ (I can’t tell you how much I personally dislike that expression).

I was quick to let her know buying a property was not going to stop me from traveling. I made it clear that traveling is part of who I am and that wasn’t going to change. I also promised to send lots of emails to let her know I was safe when I was off on my next adventure.

Related post – How to Believe in Yourself When People Don’t Support You

Do you enjoy your own company?

Introverts generally enjoy their own company more than extroverts. Regardless of which camp you fall into ultimately, there will be times when you will be alone.

Just to be clear here, there is a big difference between being alone and being lonely. It’s important to understand the difference.

Does spending time alone leave you breaking into a sweat or do you enjoy having time out to reflect and enjoy your own company?

If you chose the first option, perhaps I could suggest a simple exercise. Pick something each week, even for a short period of time to do on your own. Perhaps take a journal with you and record your thoughts. Spend some time getting to know yourself better.

Are you happy?

Do you know the answer to this question? More to the point, do you ever ask yourself this question or do you prefer to not give it too much thought?

If you are not happy, the chief question would be why not?

Sit down and think carefully about what makes you happy. Do some soul-searching. The answer might not be what you were expecting.

Related post – 20 Inspiring Happiness Quotes

Do you love yourself? For that matter do you even like yourself?

When I was younger, I had some disastrous relationships with men. Back then, when my partner was treating me inappropriately, I would ask myself, “Why does he treat me like this?’ Now that I am older (and hopefully wiser), I know the answer. Because ‘I let him’.

Back when I was in these bad relationships, I had low self-esteem. Now that I love myself, I don’t allow people to treat me badly.

Loving yourself has nothing to do with perfection or looking a certain way. Far from it actually. Loving yourself is about accepting yourself for who you are right now. It’s about knowing your own worth.

Be proactive about growing as a person. Be brave and ask yourself the important questions, then look deep inside yourself to unravel the answers.

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Read Next – 10 Inspiring Ways to Do More of What Makes You Happy