Purposeful Growth

I’m introducing something new in May, a monthly group coaching meeting on important topics with a new topic each month.

May’s topic is Overcome Fear. Fear plays a dominant role in our lives. Though it does serve to keep us safe, because of the prevalent use of fear in parenting, marketing, religion, employment, and politics, I find that fear limits personal growth and development for many people.

Have you ever been excited about some new opportunity, but failed to follow through on it after someone, maybe even your internal-someone, reminded you that you could fail, you could be rejected, you aren’t qualified, or you’ve failed at other ventures? Most of us have had this experience; fear limited our willingness to extend and grow.

Join us on May 18 at 7 pm ET and learn to distinguish between useful fear and growth-limiting fear. We’ll provide you with some tools and ideas to put fear in its rightful place. Click here for more information and to register.

Purposeful Growth implies personal growth on purpose. Not only with purpose but on purpose; on a foundation of life purpose. Life purpose is not only the foundation for effective personal growth, it is the path and target, too.

Sometimes, when we despair at not knowing life purpose, an effective way to clear the fog is to examine beliefs. Beliefs are those stored ideas about who we are, what life is all about, what is good, what is right, what is bad, and what is wrong. We all have beliefs such as these, though they are so ingrained in whom we are that we seldom recognize we have them.

Beliefs not only help me define who I am, they also define who I allow myself to be. I’ve been writing for several years, but until I declared myself a writer–out loud as well as in writing–I was stuck in early stages of what I would write about, where I would publish, and who I would allow to read my work.

For example, I would tell people that “I write articles,” which is what I was doing, but not who I was being. Now I say “I’m an author and freelance writer.” This subtle difference now allows me to grow purposefully as a writer; that’s who I am (though that’s not all I am).

You’ll be able to identify your limiting beliefs about your profession, or other aspects of your life, by examining how you finish this sentence:

I am…

What you say about yourself is who you are. It is also who you allow yourself to become. To support your growth toward the best that you can be requires beliefs that support you at that level.

Being a writer puts me in the same profession as the very best writers in the world; even though I don’t display that level of performance (yet), I have the headroom to get there. Nothing about the belief that I’m a writer limits my growth as a writer.

Go ahead and finish the “I am” sentence and reflect upon who you say you are (or are not). Reflect upon the inherent support or limitation this belief holds for you.

Now, you might be saying, “Yes, but if it’s true that I’m not very good at something then saying I am good at it won’t change anything. It will be a lie.” The irony of this is that if I believe it then it is true for me. And then I won’t permit myself to take the steps that would allow me to improve to my potential. After all, why take a writing class if I’m not a writer?

What I must do is change my belief to something that gives me room to improve and is believable to me. If I can’t believe I am a world-class writer, perhaps I can believe I am a writer with much more potential than I now show.

This belief gives me room to grow and supports my continuing growth on purpose. What beliefs are holding you back?

Jerry