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When we say the word growth, what we usually mean is business or professional growth, growth of wealth or status growth. When we say he/she has grown so much, we normally say this only about his/her financial growth. We normally consider financial growth and personal growth as one and same and are oblivious of the fact that growing as a person is different but equally important as financial growth. Actually personal growth can lead you to a life of financial abundance with fulfillment.

When the stories we have don’t match with the way we live, we frustrate ourselves and exhaust ourselves. When we start our carrier or working life, our purpose is to earn money, to buy home, to buy car, to create wealth and get rich. But if we don’t revisit/change our purpose even after creating enough wealth and achieving most of our goals we feel empty in life.

It is said that whatever we focus on grows. In the rush and race to create wealth, we forget to focus on our personal growth along with financial growth. As a result we fail to grow as a person. And because we cannot grow, we have to find substitute growth. We cannot grow but our bank account grows, that’s substitute. Our bank balance grows and we start thinking that we are growing. We become more respectable, our name and fame go on growing and we think “I AM GROWING”. We are simply deceiving ourselves. Our name and fame is not us. Our bank balance is not us. Now we have an additional responsibility to protect our name, fame and bank balance. We start pretending what actually we are not. This takes away lot of our time and energy which otherwise can be used for our personal growth. At least one person knows the difference between your name fame and real you. THAT’S YOU. It makes you shake and you turn blind eye to it and start focusing on growth of your name fame and wealth.

Personal growth can transform you and your life. Otherwise you will be the same person, living the same old life. Only numbers will change. In the past you were struggling for Rs.1 Lakh then for Rs.1 Crore and now for Rs.5 Crores. The numbers are changed but struggle is the same. The cause of the struggle has now shifted from need to want. It’s like struggling every step of the way to stop struggling. Naturally it doesn’t work.

Both personal and professional growths are equally important. If we focus equally on both, our account as well as our life too will be richer. Success without fulfillment is ultimate failure. Our wealth should enrich our life because personal fulfillment is at the heart of happy and successful life.

MONEY IS IMPORTANT

This doesn’t mean that money is evil or it is not important. It is must to have enough money to live the life you love. Money buys you freedom in the material world. It enables you to live a life of dignity and independence. Money solves lot of external problems. Making money removes a set of things that could get in the way of your wellbeing and happiness. But money can’t be a goal. Life becomes terrible when it becomes a goal. Accumulating wealth for its own sake is a disaster for personal life. Instead of using the freedom made available by money if you keep chasing the money, it won’t make you happy.

People live and work as if they are needed for bank balance and not the other way round. We are so engulfed in what we ‘do for living’ that we forget to live the life we love. Instead we only keep doing what we ‘do for living’ repeatedly as if we are born for that.

WORK IS A MUST

One must work to fulfill his/her responsibilities. But don’t let ONLY work become your life. Work, work, work, but just to have the opportunity to play and enjoy your life. Don’t let life be reduced to just a working routine. Some people are so engrossed in their working routine that they go blank if we ask them what they love to do other than their business/profession or what they would like to do if they are not needed to work for money anymore. This is sign of an empty and mechanical life. To avoid such mechanical life, do things for their own sake. As many more things you do for their own sake, you will be more alive.

Just as there are alcoholics, there are workaholics. They keep themselves continuously involved in some work. It gives them a sense of being an important person. Being busy is a badge of honor for some people. Such people feel worthless if they are not doing anything and feel guilty if they are doing something for fun n enjoyment. They feel as if they have wasted that time. Remember that ‘time you have enjoyed wasting is not wasted time’.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Take a bird’s eye view of your life and ask yourself “What changes could make life better?”

Have a personal development plan like you have business development plan and keep reviewing your plan regularly.

What is personal development?

Personal development is about making most of everything that you are and everything you want while finding balance and staying close to reality. It needs challenging yourself for a better you. It is the key to long term and sustainable happiness. It’s a long term commitment you make to yourself for yourself.

Personal development consists of mental, social, spiritual, emotional and physical development. It includes but not limited to deciding your own values and living by them, interpersonal skills, work life balance, exercise and meditation (health & peace of mind), learning new skills, developing and pursuing new hobbies and passions.

Personal growth requires understanding that the world doesn’t owe you anything and that you are responsible for your mistakes, success, failures, happiness and peace of mind.

Some points to ponder:

    1) You are never too old to grow up a bit more.

    2) Finding who we are and what makes us happy is the first step on the road towards personal fulfillment and life     enrichment.

    3) A calm mind and a fit body can’t be bought. They must be earned.

    4)If you keep on boasting about the money you have or the brands you own, its indication of an empty life. You     lack inner peace and the only identity you have is your money and your possessions.

    5)Everything has a price, but not all prices appear on labels. The price of anything is the amount of life you     exchange for it.

    6)Next time you say to yourself ‘I don’t have time’, just replace with ‘It’s not priority for me’ and see how that feels.

    7)Where you end up isn’t more important thing. It’s the road you take to get there. The road you take is what you     will look back and call your life. - Tim Wiley