Let’s talk more about values! This week, I want to focus on growth. Growth is currently my second core value and if you want to learn more about my first, check out last week’s post.
I value growth because despite it being uncomfortable at times it is truly what transforms me from the person I am today, into the person I aspire to be. I have always been someone who likes to plan for the future and I have found, that once I am in any new job, I am constantly thinking about what’s going to get me to my next position. This mentality has its’ pros and cons – pros being I am very driven and goal-oriented and cons being I find myself overwhelmed, not present, and exhausted a lot of the time.
Growing up, I swam competitively from 5th grade until my senior year of college (go purple knights!) and I think that that had a huge impact on my relationship with growth. Swimming is technically a team sport but, at the end of the day when it comes down to it, it is very much an individual sport, and for about twelve years of my life – I was competing against myself.
At practice, I was always working hard to kick stronger, flip quicker, go longer underwater, and ultimately end up with a faster time than my previous race. The only way to get better in swimming like all sports is to practice but when I was practicing to be better than myself vs another team I found it mentally challenging. I was never okay with how I was in the present moment.
During my twelve years of swimming, I was always putting tons of pressure on myself and by the end of each day, I would be anxious and overwhelmed when I didn’t improve or meet my standards. The biggest issue was that my standards had become unachievable due to the expectations that I had created for myself. I still find myself doing this today in the corporate workplace setting. I set my personal standards too high and put an immense amount of pressure on myself to be the best and mentally it is draining and also exhausting.
To help with this I have been trying to take time in my day to reflect on where I am at in the present moment and how much progress I have made in the past few days/weeks/months. I am constantly thinking about big dreams and goals that I have about my future and because of that I frequently find myself not present and unappreciative of the growth I HAVE made vs being overwhelmed about the progress I haven’t made.
For example, last week I was having a terrible week and was completely beating myself up over silly little work things so I reached out to two of my “board members” for some help to get back on track. In both conversations, the progress I have recently made was brought up and it caught me off guard. Lately, I have been so wrapped up in my future goals that I have not spent any time thinking about the progress I have made. So after both of these conversations, I went for a walk to my favorite happy place (the beach) and I made a list of things I have recently learned and have implemented into my life.
Here’s My List
1. If the idea of a conversation you want to have with someone makes you anxious or uncomfortable, I can guarantee it’s probably a conversation worth having and chances are you will feel much better after having it
2. Self-care isn’t selfish
3. Rest is required and you shouldn’t judge yourself for taking rest (for this one I have shifted my mindset to think of rest = thirst or hunger – I never judge myself when I am hungry or thirsty – I just eat something or drink water but when it comes to rest, I usually find myself judging my decision to listen to my body for needing a break)
4. Don’t take life too seriously – we are all humans living on this giant floating rock that is moving through space at the end of the day.
My challenge for you would be to reflect and write your own list. I am 100% sure you have learned something or grown in some way over the last few months or even the past year and it is important to give yourself credit for that growth. We can spend all day worrying about what’s next for us but if we don’t ever reflect we will constantly feel like we are on a hamster wheel that’s never a good feeling (trust me – been there done that – not fun).
Anyways, hope this is helpful and empowers you to reflect on your personal growth because like I have recently accepted – at the end of the day we are all humans just floating through space on a giant rock so we can’t take life so seriously BUT we can take care of ourselves and self-reflection is a great way to do so! ☺
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