Thoughts on Personal Growth

I’m doing something a little different this year. Normally I have taken some time over Christmas break (between semesters) to reflect over the past year and think through goals for the coming year. But I’ve changed the timing of this to reflect the school year, and am trying to go through the process in the summer. This more naturally reflects the ebb and flow of my life these days. At the moment I’m thinking through specific goals over the next year in relation to various areas of my life. But I’m also thinking through where I want to be by the time I’m 40, which will happen in July 2014. I’ve never really considered thinking about goals five years away, but I keep coming back to the saying, “If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time.”

Most people never think of terms of how they want to grow as a person. They have no set plan to help guide them. I have news for you: growth in your life rarely happens automatically. In fact, the normal state of life is to be stagnant. Experience can be greatly overrated. Only evaluated experience means anything. You may hear, “So and so has 20 years experience in their job.” They may have 20 years’ experience, or they may have had 1 years’ worth of experience 20 times. It all depends whether they have grown from what they’ve experienced.

I am really amazed at how many people go through life and make no effort at learning or growing. I take a book with me everywhere I go and often listen to teaching and sermon material while driving or jogging. There is no reason for being stagnant in your mental and spiritual growth even with a busy schedule. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago I went to the DMV to renew the license plate for my truck. You can always count on waiting at least 45 minutes here. I went in, took a number and sat down. There were at least 30 people ahead of me, and as I looked around the room, not one single person was reading a book! They were all sitting there, looking around impatiently, staring at the ceiling or playing with their phone. What a colossal waste of precious time. I was happy to sit there for a little while and get some reading done. You can easily read and learn in those little pockets of time each day.

Personal growth does not happen automatically. Stagnation, however, does. If you want to grow and learn, you have to be intentional about it. We all have 24 hours a day — the question is, what are you doing with those hours?