What is this work of personal growth?
Is it about rejecting parts of ourselves?
Is it about forcing ourselves into being something different than we are?
Is it about being who others want us to be?
Is it about trying to become a different personality?
Sometimes we can think it is surely better to be like that person over there….than to be me. From our vantage point, it sometimes looks better. More cool. More fun. Right?
But even if we try to morph our core-self, our natural tendencies and proclivities are quite innate and unlikely to change in any true and lasting way. We might be able to act like a different self, but only for a while. And that acted-out self can in no way be as beautiful as your own genuine self.
Sometimes I truly wish I was like my friend who is super outgoing and adventurous. Sometimes I wish I was like my other friend who is fabulously academic and articulate. To me, they are quite appealing attributes. Well, I can adopt pieces of these qualities that my dear friends have hard-wired in their personalities. But I cannot do it their way because it is at their core, and it is not at my core. So I can only do it my way. I can only do it to the degree that fits my own personality. It will look different. I can only add in the Tina-version of adventurousness and boldness. My adventures and bravery will look quite different if I am loyal to being my truest self. I can add in the education that is my own as well. Kind of in a cherry-on-top kind of way, rather than it being the entire ice-cream sundae. But it must fit my interest and style, not theirs. I must do it my way rather than follow in their exact footsteps.
Changing our natural proclivities would be to squelch the greatest natural parts of ourselves that bring goodness to the world in a way no other can, in the way that only we were born into this world to do.
So if personal growth is not about changing the things that are hard-wired in us, what exactly is this thing we call personal growth?
Personal growth is about taking our existing personality and potentiating it.
It is about desiring to grow into the person we actually are to the fullest capacity.
So truly. It is never that we are not enough.
It is never that we need to be someone else.
It is never that we need to be someone else.
It is always that we desire to be the fullest version of ourselves.
This is why we are intentional about investing in our personal growth.
This is why I will always have a coach….
and this is why I am a coach to others.
I believe in the lifelong journey of becoming our best, amazing, unique and empowered selves.
~Tina