You’re Either Growing or You’re Dying

What is the one thing you can accomplish today that will do the most good? Every day that you ask this question prompts you to grow beyond yourself and look to the bigger picture. The answer does not have to be haughty or complex either. For example, one Saturday morning I asked myself the aforementioned question and decided that my goal was to make my wife and son laugh. But not just any laugh, one of those belly laughs that exemplifies true joy. That one question is all that stood between growth and death for me on that day. That easy.

You are the product of what you expect. If you expect to have a terrible day, chances are that it will be so. If you expect to be a successful entrepreneur, the chances are exponentially greater that you will achieve this goal. Simply expecting to do great equates to growth. It all stems from the mindset. Conversely, if you expect to amount to nothing, you are dying where you stand and withering on the vine. Why not flip the switch and expect to bear fruit?

Taking things at face value will lead to the path of death and destruction. Moving against the grain, questioning the status quo, and creating positive friction yields to growth. It is through constant change where the greatest growth can be found. It is essential to protect your mind from the constant information that is spoon fed to you on a daily basis. Instead, critically assess the information you encounter and arrive to your own conclusions independent of the masses.

The definition of growth is “development from a simpler to a more complex stage”. Thus, just as a tree grows, so should we. Every day our operating schema should grow and our mental complexities should become more mature. With that, change must be embraced. The vicissitudes of life will transpire without regard to your blessings. Take the changes you experience as an opportunity for growth rather than the death of what you once knew.

You will never recover the minutes you spent reading this article. They are forever gone and cannot be recovered. Therefore, understand how precious every second you have on this Earth truly is and create environments where you can grow yourself and those around you. To help you understand this concept more fully, watch the sun set. I was sitting on the dock of the bay with my son one evening and witnessed the sun receding into the ocean (my wife snapped the picture to the left) and realized that the exact sunset, with the exact colors will never happen again. Moreover, once the sun disappeared altogether, I knew another day would begin and realized I had not lived to my full potential. The finality of the sun disappearing from the horizon has a primal affect on the human soul, you never know when it will be the last one you see.

There are two directions in life: growth and death. Each day you have a choice to move closer to one or the other. What steps will you take today to ensure you are growing yourself and those around you?