Be SMART about Your Own Personal Growth

BLOG POST #150

“Personal development” includes your physical, financial, relational, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual development.

Personal development is a vital part of your own personal growth and progression.

“Personal growth” is defined as “an ongoing process of understanding and personally developing oneself in order to achieve one’s fullest potential.” 

Personal growth creates new environments, experiences and new relationships for you.  New environments, experiences and relationships you have not experienced before.

Personal growth occurs at “edges” in your life.  

An “edge” is place of contrast, a place of energetic chaos, where new boundaries are encountered. 

Change events can be unwanted or intentionally initiated into your life.

When you face unwanted change at a current edge in your life such as a breakup, betrayal by a significant other, divorce, death, loss of a job, loss of living situation, etc., it is an opportunity for you to expand and personally grow into new relationships, experiences, skills and opportunities.

You can either embrace or resist personal growth based on unwanted change.

You may be resistant to wanting to experience or embrace any personal growth because it is being forced upon you by unwanted change.

However, the more you resist personal growth and reject unwanted change, the more stressful it will be and the harder it will be for you to effectively deal with the unwanted change.

There is an old saying, “what you resist, persists.”

PODCAST: EPISODE 150 -BE SMART ABOUT PERSONAL GROWTH

How can you create, accelerate and supercharge your own positive personal growth?

Create a new mindset, adopt a new framework and take deliberate new actions.

1. Personal growth requires a new mindset.    Personal growth requires the correct attitude.  Your current attitude defines who you are as a person and your current mindset, your current state of your mind.  Your attitude and mindset determines how much personal growth you will experience.  If your current attitude is based on positive emotions such as courage, happiness, joy, love, peace, etc. it leaves you in a state that allows for createin a nurturing environment for, experiencing substantial personal growth.  However, if your current attitude and mindset is based on negative emotions such as fear, guilt, shame, anger, grief, etc., it leaves you in a state that typically prohibits you or limits you from experiencing and relevant personal growth.
2. Personal growth requires a new framework.  A “framework” is “a structure intended to serve as a support or guide for creating personal growth in your life. ” One framework you can use for personal growth is a framework based on the SMART acronym, created by George Doran and others.  A framework for personal growth based on SMART acronym framework includes creating personal growth actions that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

• Specific – define a desired area for personal growth for you.
• Measurable – define measurements and indicators of your progress.
• Attainable – select actions and an end goal that is realistically achievable for you.
• Relevant – define what results can realistically be achieved, given your available resources.
• Time-bound – specify a time and date, a time limit when your results can be achieved.

3. Personal growth requires a new action plan.  Personal growth requires deliberate actions you take to make positive changes in the physical, financial, relational, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual components in your life. Use the SMART acronym framework to create a plan of action that focuses on taking SMART-based action steps towards the end goal of changing your current behavior patterns in a positive, solution-oriented manner that allows you to experience substantial personal growth.  Such an action plan will result in you achieving significant personal growth and living in an active, empowered state in which you are truly living the life you desire, even in the environment of the chaos of change.

Making a commitment to positive personal growth allows you to make a positive impact in your own life and in the world.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

Copyright © 2023 by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved.

Certified solution-focused life coach and experienced business coach.