3 Keys to Growth

3 KEYS TO GROWTH

1. Want It

You’ve got to want it. I know a lot of people who long for a better life and love the idea of being wealthy, happy or successful but have no intention of creating that life.

The people who make it in this world doggedly pursue their ambitions with reckless abandon, take risks and do let failures stop them. A hallmark of the most successful people is that they are resilient and bounce back from setbacks quickly.

“The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.” – Barbara Corcoran

If you want something bad enough you will do the work and you won’t let failure stop you.

My absolute favorite book of all time by Dr. Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is worth the read. She discusses two types of mindsets, fixed versus growth.

My very condensed definitions of the two terms are below:

A fixed mindset is the belief that you cannot change your inherent qualities such as intelligence, personality, physical traits, creativity, etc.… You are who you are and there is nothing that you can do to change it. “Smart people succeed”

A growth mindset is believing that with work and effort you can improve your perceived weaknesses. “People can get smarter”

When I read this book, it changed my life. I had a die-hard fixed mindset and every achievement or failure in my life had been defined by my mindset. I consciously chose to cultivate a growth mindset after I read the book and you can see the proof in my personal/career progression. Read the book!

I harp on mindset for a reason, because if you want it you need to do the work. Being successful is hard work and nobody will give you a free pass.

Because the work is so tough you need a source of motivation. Your motivation is your source of resilience when times get tough.

Motivation. Fire in your belly. Life purpose. You why. Destiny. Dream. Aspiration.

Whatever word you like best, find yours.

I love the Simon Sinek Start with Why philosophy, that your why is your guiding light, motivation and how you find like-minded people to bring along the journey.

I’ve chosen “inspire and support people to continually pursue personal and career growth” as my why and also as the mantra of the Begin Within brand.

Everyone arrives at their purpose in a different way. I can’t help you find yours, I wish I could.

A quote that has really stuck with me through the years:

“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything” – Malcolm X

Your purpose is a big deal… but guess what? You can change your mind later and it is not set in stone. Come up with something and run with it for now, people change, the world changes and your purpose can change along with it.

Having a purpose will help you see through the fog when times are tough.

2. Be Introspective

My very first Begin Within post was about being introspective because it is a huge part of your growth.

Introspection does not come easily for everyone, especially in today’s fast-paced world when we do not have spare time for pondering.

If nothing else, take the time to understand your sources of joy and any triggers that cause you pain and negativity.

I love the Myers Briggs personality assessment, if you Google search the assessment you can find a ton of free places to take the test online. The test comes up with your personality type based on 60ish questions and for me, it’s eerily accurate when you read the descriptions. Some people toe the line on traits, for example, being 50/50 on introversion versus extraversion. When you have borderline results on the assessment I find that the descriptions are not as accurate. My personality type is INFJ in case you were wondering.

Knowing your traits is extremely helpful for your growth because it can help you understand the reasoning behind some of your strengths and weaknesses. For example, I am very introverted and am not always strong at mingling at events, but it’s a weakness I’m aware of and I focus on improving at events. I used to hate public speaking but very intentionally worked on being articulate in front of a crowd, it’s now public speaking is a strength of mine.

If you never knew your faults you could not work to get better at them. If you are aware of your weaknesses and triggers, you can work on them. Thus, the importance of introspection.

3. Execute

What’s the point of doing any self-work or self-reflection if you never use it in your life?

There are a million reasons why you have not started working on your dream.

• Fear
• Making excuses
• Comparing yourself to other people
• Lying to yourself
• Perfectionism
• Not enough time
• Being concerned with what others think of you
• Have to put family first
• Can’t leave job/location
• Don’t have enough money
• Don’t have the skills/talent
• Not good/pretty enough

The list goes on.

You need to execute.

“Execution is mastery.” – Tony Robbins

Stop waiting for the red carpet to roll out in front of you because it won’t. YOU have to make it happen. Your journey to personal and professional growth is your own and nobody else is going to do the hard work for you.

You have an inner child, a dreamer. Let that child run wild and dream. Think about what you would do if you had all the money and time you could ever need. That dream is what this self-work is all about.

No matter what your dream is, attaining it is always hard work.

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

Execution is the first step.

The only thing stopping you is your excuses.

Original blog post from https://www.beginwithin.life/blog on September 2, 2018, video from on the Begin Within YouTube channel https://youtu.be/EuA64JxMUbI.

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