This Changes the Equation for Personal Growth

It hit me like a lightning bolt, leaving an air of electric simplicity around a theory: a powerful shift in perception that reconciles a host of data. There is perhaps one factor that changes the equation of personal growth from a linear accumulation of knowledge and experience to something boundlessly exponential: reflection.

Exponential Growth

Einstein is said to have called compound interest the "most powerful force in the universe," going on to say "He who understands it, earns it... he who doesn't... pays it." (attribution debated, but the premise is not) Compound interest is the finance world's exponential growth equation. Exponential growth is so powerful because as its base grows over time, the entire base plus what was earned from the last stage of growth enters as the new and larger base for the next stage of growth, ad infinitum. Over time the base is orders of magnitude larger than if it had grown linearly at the same rate. It's the pattern for a viral video. It's the pattern for the spread of cancerous cells. And it can be the pattern for our personal growth if we add reflection to the equation. 

exponential growth (green) far surpasses linear (red) and cubic (blue) growth

The Base: Your Full Self

In a recent 360 assessment I discovered something disturbing about myself maybe you can relate to. Lessons that I had learned in one area of life were often not applied to another area of life, making a segmented and disjointed persona quite clear. For me it was clearest in how differently I communicated with others in different contexts, and not in a positive contextualizing-the-message way. I had believed that in everything I was doing, I inevitably brought my full self into it including all of my knowledge and experience (with the exception of when I was physically exhausted or impaired with distractions). But what if we aren't bringing our full selves to the table without even realizing it? 

If you don't bring your full self into a situation, you risk needing to learn the same lesson over and over again. You deny yourself the opportunity to approach things in a different way, observe the outcomes, actually learn something, and either adjust or conclude that approach works. You miss the opportunity to let a conversation at work make you a better friend. You forget that you've made it through a similar crisis before. You are doomed to repeat the past. You're watching your life go by, or worse, you're not even watching. Any growth becomes linear, non-inclusive of your full self.

The Reflection Exponent

Reflection is the intentional practice of slowing down and carefully considering events in the past, meditating on the context and outcomes of your actions. The process of reflection integrates your knowledge and experience into your full self more tightly. Done intentionally and regularly, it is what allows you to move into the next season of growth having actually grown in the previous season. Imagine actually learning your lesson and not making the same mistakes again. Consider the growth that comes from seasons of life where you are forced to slow down and reflect on the past. Now consider how doing this more often from an internal force of will rather than from the force of external events would affect your life and those around you.

For Aristotle, wisdom comes from paring experience with reflection.  Thousands of years later, we still have the daily opportunity to be our full selves and to pause and reflect on our experiences. I hope we can all be present with ourselves and brave enough to reflect, pivot, and grow exponentially.