Here's My 2020 Brief
words Revathie Dhanabalan
Simply stated, growth is a desire to become a better version of oneself every day. That sounds simple enough (right?) but I needed to figure out how I would define growth. See, here’s the thing, everyone sees growth differently. So, I thought I would start with the obvious, things that growth is not (plus it’s universal, maybe?):
It isn’t about heading to a destination.
It isn’t a perfect journey.
It doesn’t mean that you are better than everyone else.
It definitely doesn’t just involve you.
With all that out of the way, here’s what I have managed to figure out (disclaimer, still in pursuit of knowledge in this area). Growth isn’t just about recognising the weak areas and fixing it but it is also about recognising your strength and appreciating it. It doesn’t necessarily mean changing certain weaknesses and things you don’t like about yourself. It can sometimes be about changing how you see those things about yourself.
Is it not just self-actualisation coupled with constant learning?
In this academic journal titled “What is Self Growth?”, the author stated that
“It is critical to one’s life journey and self-growth to take time to step back from “doing” to understand why and how we are doing what we are doing, and what we want to do for the rest of our lives.”
2020 certainly has truly been a year of growth (bad and good) for everyone. We had to learn rather quickly to adapt, accept and acquire a new set of skills and knowledge. I think I might be right to say this, for everyone, but this year has been just been a series of challenges (so many ups and downs!) and building resilience for many.
Truth be told, my 2020 has been less than bearable but I did come to a conclusion, I can only measure myself against myself. I decided to take 2020 as an opportunity rather than a challenge - an opportunity to (finally) have some time to build on the causes that I love, to help the people around me and figure out this 30-year-old me.
Does that mean it is up to you to make it as good or bad as it gets?
That is also part of growth, isn’t it? But personally, I think that is the hardest part of the whole process. It is easy to see something that went wrong just as a mistake but to change your perspective and see it as an opportunity does take skills. Skills to be honest, that I have yet to truly possess (which I hope builds as I truly get into my thirties).
It’s not easy to grow. At the end of the year, at this moment, it feels like an uphill battle (did 2020 even happen?) Maybe it all just means that I got the chance to better myself each day regardless of whether or not I am in crisis mode (maybe with some therapy on the side).
Here’s another kicker but bear with me a while here - aren’t our choices aligned with our growth? With every choice that we make, we should either be drawing ourselves closer to the person we intend to be or further away. If your brain isn’t hurting yet (like mine is at the moment), let’s get through another question that I had.
How do you figure out growth?
That’s a tad harder to do (and I might be running out of words at this point). But I’ve gotten this far with my thought process and there’s definitely more work to be done.
So, what I have decided to do is take down everything I appreciate (even the horrid ones). Maybe in that way, I see myself making some measurable progress in learning to accept myself (plus the choices of course). This statement (most obviously) is a way for me to hold myself accountable.
I believe that growth has to be purposeful and is intended to keep you thriving. We continue to grow when we start to determine But never forget, growth does mean different things to different people. Here’s my question for you, what do you see as growth?
If you've managed to get through my thought process (maybe existential life crisis) of a blog post, thank you for that. Let me just end it off here. I started off by figuring out what growth isn’t, here’s what I intend my growth to be (at least for the next year I hope):
To find inspiration in the slow moments.
Create my own sense of ownership.
Unlearn what I have been taught and redesign my life.
Balance my life to start living at a sustainable pace.
And my final question for you.