Positive change in life starts with the willingness to change and a desire to do so. After you feel the urgency to improve your life, you start looking for ways to grow. However, it’s not enough to only seek opportunities for growth. If you grow a watermelon in a small cube-shaped container, the watermelon’s growth is stunted and only expands to the walls of the container. To expand your life without the same limitations, you must first establish a healthy growth environment. You must break free from the confines that have developed over time.
Examine your current setting.
Take a close look at the following aspects of your life as it is:
- People who you surround yourself with
- Activities you find yourself doing
- Your daily mindset
- Your habits and routines
- Your vision for the future
- How much you exercise your control
After you’ve taken a look at these factors, you may recognize that some of them are restricting you more than you thought. Now you can work on getting rid of what’s standing between you and your healthy growth environment.
Break out of the box.
The confines you’ve found yourself in have many different “walls.” But just like with the watermelon stuck in a container, if you have too many walls, there’s nowhere for you to go when you need to grow.
To start, take a look at the “wall” of people you surround yourself with. Suppose the people you associate with are generally good influences. They encourage you. They support you. They’re ambitious in their own endeavors. They inspire you and challenge you to become better. Those people are less of a “wall” and more of an open door. They aren’t holding you back in any way.
However, if you have people in your life who are negative, unmotivated, and poor influences, they are a wall. And you need to knock that wall out of your life. Check out our blog about how to evaluate the relationships in your life!
Study the rest of the list in the section above to truly determine what walls you need to bring down, and what “doors” you can leave open. Ensure that your regular activities are healthy and productive. Maintain a positive mindset. Replace negative routines and habits with ones that make you healthier, happier, and more active. Define a vision for the future. Then, exercise the control you have over your life (you’re in control of more than you realize).
Failure isn’t the end.
In a healthy growth environment, you view failure as neutrally as possible. You may even view it as a necessary step on the path to success. Remember that failure doesn’t mean you’ll never succeed. It means you need to take your time, start over, and come back better before your next attempt. Find people who have failed and succeeded at what you’re trying to do. Ask those people for guidance and trust that they know what works best and what doesn’t. You’ll succeed in no time and come out of the process having grown a lot!
Say “goodbye” to comfort.
If you really want to expand, then you should know this tip. And you’re probably not going to be excited to hear it … your comfort zone is limiting you. That’s right. A healthy growth environment allows for little to no time sitting in the comfort zone. Comfort holds you back and doesn’t challenge you. So, step out of your comfort zone and do what makes you uncomfortable. Talk to strangers, share your story, stand up for your beliefs and values, and do the stuff that you’re not good at. Do this regularly and you will grow in so many ways.
Think positive.
You’ve heard it before and you’re going to hear it again because it’s true: Change your thoughts to change your life. A big part of a healthy growth environment is being able to control your thoughts. Thinking positively or optimistically even in unfortunate circumstances is important. Remember, you decide how to act and react. If you react negatively to negative situations, it’s not going to make anything better. You might not be able to change the situation with a positive outlook, but you can certainly change other people’s outlook on the situation.
Never stop learning!
Of course, if you’re not learning, you’re probably not growing, right? So, to provide yourself with a healthy growth environment unlike any other, you must ensure that you’re always learning. This means becoming a great listener, observer, and reader. Then, put everything you learn to the test. There’s a reason that learning is #1 on the list of this Indeed™ article about strategies for personal growth.
Never give up.
Be relentless in your pursuit of growth and positive change. Don’t let anyone (especially yourself) or anything stand between you and your ambitions. We are all capable of greatness. But achieving greatness requires great action! With that being said, step into action and start creating the healthy growth environment that you need to blossom!
Taking action is scary at first. Read our blog to start amplifying your courage.
