Inner growth is defined as many things: life lessons, wisdom, knowledge, and evolution, to name a few.
It is usually acquired as a result of life experiences, and those particular experiences are usually not very pleasant. Humans seem to be hardwired to learn through pain, which I guess makes a lot of sense when you think about it. After all, if everything was fine all the time and we felt good about every aspect of our life, why would we want to risk messing it all up just to learn something?
Although inner growth occurs along a path, that path is rarely constant, smooth, or straight. However, it almost always consists of three main steps:
1. Awareness of the problem. Usually this awareness arises as a result of discomfort you feel when something is not working for you in your life. Most of the time, this is something that causes you emotional pain rather than physical pain, although it can be both.
2. Gathering information about the problem. So what happened to cause this new awareness? What exactly is not working for you and how is it not working? How can it be corrected? These are just some of the important questions to ask in this step. As you delve deeper into the topic, more questions will arise, some of which may surprise you.
3. Apply the information to the topic. This is the reward. This is where you can see how well you have learned about the topic you chose to experiment with. This is the wellness part of inner growth.
Let’s use an example. Let’s say, something like you got fired from your job.
1. Consciousness. Well that’s pretty obvious. You no longer have a job.
2. Collection of information. Why did you get fired? Was it something he was or was not doing? Is it personal or universal? If it’s personal, what do you need to change about how you do your job or interact with your coworkers? If it’s universal, like an economic slowdown, what should you do to be more valuable to an employer? These questions and others like them will give you the information you need to continue to the next and final step.
3. Apply the information. Make a list of the answers you came up with in Step 2 and use that information to create a to-do list. Perhaps some of the changes you will make are to learn better communication skills, change your work habits, improve your personal hygiene, take classes to increase your job knowledge.
Of course, this applies to ALL inner growth, from the mundane, such as the example of losing your job, to the esoteric, such as emotional and spiritual growth.
Dividing the learning experience into these three steps is like eating a ton of applesauce. It is much easier and less stressful when you do it little by little.
In addition to internal growth and the valuable insights and information you will gain, another benefit to you is that as you identify where you are in the process, you gain the satisfying knowledge that you are progressing.
What current learning opportunity are you experiencing? What are you learning about it? Where are you in with your learning about the topic?