You Have To Change To Grow

“Change Your thoughts and you change your world.” Norman Vincent Peale

If you are learning new things then you ought to be changing. If you are not changing in the way you react to things, then you haven’t really learned anything and will never grow in that area. One area of your life that you are not changing it will hold back all other areas of your life from growing.

Education is not about going to school and getting a certificate but to learn how to learn and change. The most educated person, therefore, is the one who changes the most. Change is the end result of learning and the beginning of growth.

Gail Sheehy said, “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” If you have not changed the way you behave, you really haven’t changed and will not grow. Most people think that because they are acquiring new knowledge that means they are growing. It's not so.

It’s good to acquire knowledge. But knowledge on its own will only make you proud. If you are not becoming humbler, then you are not growing. Growing involves change. You have to give up who you are to become all that you can still become. Who you are right now is the enemy of who you can be.

A seed must change to a tree to fulfill its potential. A caterpillar must change to a butterfly to unleash its potential. Another word for growth is change. If you are still the same angry and proud person you are, you haven’t grown a bit. Growth means a change in your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. If you still believe many things that you believe years back, you haven’t really changed or grown.

We want to grow, but we don’t really want to change. We want to change the world and others, but we don’t want to change ourselves, yet because we read a certain book, we think we have grown and others are not. The difference between where you are now and where your growth should take you is your willingness to make changes in your life.

Growth unleashes your potential but not changing imprison your potential. You can do a lot of things because you have skills for them but you will never be able to. When you change and grow, you will see people and the world differently as Wayne Dyer said, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” 

Signs That You Have Changed

You Become Like God

When a seed grows, it becomes a tree that bears fruit after its kind. This means that when you grow, you are to bear fruit after your kind. Your kind is God. If you are not changing from behaving like a human to acting like God, who you were created in the image and likeness of, you haven’t changed and will not grow. You should be acting more like God than human and making things better everywhere that you go.

You Give Even When You Won’t Receive

The normal thing to do is to give as you receive or give because you are promised a reward, but it’s abnormal to give even when you don’t expect anything in return. Yet that is what grown people do. If you don’t change to giving unconditionally, you have really not grown.

You Forgive Easily & Quickly

I know people who will tell you that they have grown but are still holding grudges against others. People who grow holding nothing against anyone. They forgive easily and quickly.

You are More Focused on Others Than Yourself

People who grow change from focusing on themselves to focusing on others. They stop worrying about their own needs and focus on meeting the needs of others. That's growth. If you claim you have grown but care more about what you want than what others want, then you haven’t changed: as such you haven’t grown.

You Reduce Association with People Like You

People who are changing first change the people they are associating with. If you are still associating with the same people you have been associating with and are comfortable with that, then you haven’t really grown. People who are growing associate more with people who challenge them and push them to change and become more.

You Are Less Emotional & More Decisive

When you grow, you become more decisive than emotional. Your decisions are based on facts and not just on how you feel. You respond to issues and not react to them. If I continually react to things as I have always done, then I haven’t grown in that area. Growing people respond to situations and not react.

Behave More Maturely Than Childishly

When you were a child you behaved like a child, but now that you have grown, you ought to have dropped your childish behavior. People who show childish tendencies have not really grown because they haven’t changed. Our behaviors have to change to reveal that we have grown.

Dimeji is the CEO of 1st Millionaire Maker Nig Ltd.