GROWING INTENTIONALLY (PART TWO)

The sooner you make a transition to becoming intentional about your personal growth, the better it will be for you, because growth compounds and accelerates if you remain intentional about it. Let me give you some tips on how you can make the change.

1    

               ASK THE BIG QUESTION

Intentional personal growth is a lifetime process. So, the questions you should be asking yourself right now is:

Where do I want to go in life?

What’s my purpose in life?

What direction do I want to go to achieve my purpose in Life?

What potentials do I have?

What’s the farthest I can imagine going?

How do I go about it?

If you can answer those questions with no doubt in your mind, trust me, you are on the right track to growing intentionally. The best you can hope to do in life is to make the most out of whatever you’ve been given. You do that by investing in yourself, making yourself the best you can be. The more you’ve got to work with, the greater your potential and the farther you should try to go. As my dad used to say to me repeatedly when I was a kid, “To whoever much is given, much is expected”. Give growing your best so you can become your best.

2      DO IT NOW

The phrase “Do it Now” gives a tremendous sense of urgency. The greatest danger you face in this moment is the idea that you will make intentional growth a priority later. Don’t fall into that trap! Recently I read an article by Jenifer Reed in SUCCESS. She wrote,

“Can there be a more insidious word? Later, as in “I’ll do it later.”. Or, “Later, I’ll have time to write that book that’s been on my mind for the past few years.”Or, “I know I need to straighten out my finances…. I’ll do it later.”

“Later” is one of those dream-killers, one of the countless obstacles we put to derail our chances of success. The diet starts “tomorrow”, the job hunt that happens “eventually”. The pursuit of the life dream that begins “someday” combine with otherself-imposed roadblocks and lock us on autopilot.

Why do we do this to ourselves, anyway? Why don’t we take action now? Lets face it: The familiar is easy; the uncharted path is lines with uncertainties. Pick a resource that helps you grow and begin learning from it today. Do it Now!

3    FACE THE FEAR FACTOR

There are five major factors that keeps from being successful.

Fear of failure

Fear of Trading Security for the Unknown

Fear of Being Overextended Financially

Fear of What Others will Say or Think

Fear that Success Will Alienate Peers

Which of those fears most impacts you? For me it was the last one: alienating my peers. By nature I’m a people pleaser, and I wanted everyone to like me. But it doesn’t really matter which fear affects you the most. We all have fears. But here’s the good news. We also all have faith. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Which emotion will I allow to be stronger?” Your answer is important, because the stronger emotion wins. I want to encourage you to feed your faith and starve your fear.

According to Eleanor Roosevelt, “One’s Philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”

In Conclusion, If you want to reach your potential and become the person you were created to be, you must do much more than just experience life and hope that you learn what you need along the way. You must go out of your way to seize growth opportunities as if your future depended on it. Why? Because it does. Growth doesn’t just happen, not for me, not for you, not for anybody. You have to go after it.