The "growing pains" that come with personal growth

As we get older, we will reach different milestones in our lives. These milestones can be brought on by a multitude of different things. In my experience, there was never a specific moment where a light bulb went off in my head. It was gradual over time. A gradual feeling of unhappiness which was no one's fault but my own. For most of my college life, I had kept doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. There came a point last February where I decided that I wanted more out of life. Over time, I began to drop a few bad habits (the excessive drinking, the late nights, etc.) and started focusing on different aspects of my life that brought me joy (my family, my relationship with Christ, etc.) Ultimately, this led to a completely different side of myself coming to the surface that even I had never experienced before. Hell, that I didn't even know I existed.

Everyone's journey of personal growth is different. In my case, it has taken me about a year (from when I fully decided to turn my life around) now to get to where I am currently: happy. There was a lot of situations I came across on the way that I took valuables lessons from.

I tried my best to summarize the three major things that I have learned on this journey, below. :)

You’ll be pushed out of your comfort zone

As I mentioned before, your priorities will begin to change as you grow up. When your priorities are changing, you will have an urge to go places and do things that you have never had before. This is a good thing. Not only be open to it, but embrace it. Too often in life, we reject change. The thought of the unknown terrifies us. It shouldn’t. Learn, grow, evolve, but whatever you do, do not repeat.

You’ll lose some people along the way

The important thing to remember is that this was never a loss. When you progress in your personal growth, you will outgrow some people and relationships. And that is OK. Too often in our society, we feel pressured to stay because it is what we are used to or we owe it to that person to be there for them. You do not owe anyone a friendship; you do not owe anyone a relationship. The only person that you owe, is yourself. You owe yourself the respect of walking away from someone or something that no longer gels with your growth.

You’ll “know too much”

Once you hit a certain stage of growth, you’ll tap into this knowledge about the world that you have never felt before. You’ll begin to view every situation in a different light. I’m sure we have all heard the phrase “ignorance is bliss.” In one way, I wholeheartedly agree with this. The more you know, the more you think, and the more you think, the more opportunities you give yourself to let negativity in. You must learn to use this new outlook for good. Find the positive in the negatives that you can now see. There is always at least one positive to be taken out of every negative.

Sincerely,

KU