There’s this saying in business:

“If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.”

It’s something I’ve always been conscious about but have also learned relates to so much more than just business.

It is an essential element of achieving pretty much anything we aspire to.

We are taught to go to school Monday through Friday for our entire childhood and teen years.  Once we’ve chosen our career we’re to go to school some more.  A few more months or years of the learning process. We are essentially, year after year, forced to grow.

We are challenged mentally, emotionally and even physically (late nights studying, early mornings at a part time job to pay off the full time education).

And then it stops. No more school. We are finally ready to adult!

We start working in our career with the illusion that we’ve learned it all.

Depending on your chosen career you may literally have learned it all but for most I’d say there is always something else to learn.

It’s different now though.  You’re adulting. You’re responsible for your committment, for holding yourself accountable.  There is no Teacher, no one to hold your hand and force you to sit for 6 hours a day until you get it. 

Your advancement, or lack there of, is entirely within your control. An idea so exhillirating you can’t wait to make it happen! Adulting for the win!  

You know what you have to learn.  You know how to do it, you’ve seen it done, and lots of others around you have accomplished it so there’s no way you won’t get it!

And yet, no matter how hard you try, you are unable to make progress.  You try and try and still no progress. Frustration is rampant, lack of confidence is finding its way into your mind and what once seemed so easy is now close to impossible.

Remember the saying? “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.”

I’ve definitely experienced this myself. I’ve also seen it happen to Stylists at countless stages in the learning process and unfortunatley, sometimes the hurdle proves too difficult to overcome.

We all get caught up on the skill itself, not paying attention to what we are thinking or saying to ourselves about our progress.  We fail to recognize things that have become habits, even ones that may be working against our efforts.

Growing is about more than the skills. 

People stop growing, or fail to progress because the pain of not having ‘X’ (insert whatever you really want here) just isn’t great enough.

Relax – its not my intent to offend – its just the honest truth. I’ve personally experienced it many times. When you desperately want something how much are you willing to change to get it?

Enough to get completely out of your comfort zone and change your habits? Enough to grow your mindset by working through some incredibly tough limiting beliefs?  Enough to ask for help? How far out of your comfort zone are you really willing to get?

Just like in business, if you aren’t growing by working on your mindset and beliefs, there is no progression.

In my very small corner of the world I’ve actually never seen someone acheive what they so desperatley wanted, without having to do the inner work first. As soon as the inner work happens, things magically change.

Great leaders and visionairies, the people we look up to that can seem to do no wrong.  Those that come by their skills naturally and climb both professional and social ladders with ease? These people work twice as hard on their mindset and habits as they do on the skills in their career.

They are badasses at personal growth.

They push out of their comfort zones and recognize quickly and easily when they are holding themselves back.

The most interesting thing about this is that people who are stuck, coming up against the same obstacle time and time again, aren’t even aware of needing to invest in their personal growth.  What they do know is that life is hard and no matter how much they try, they just aren’t making the progress they desire.  It is always because an entire list of excuses for why what they did didn’t work.

We don’t know, what we don’t know.

The change of habits and pursuit of personal growth can be modeled.  It can be discussed, suggested, even taught, but until the pain of a situation is too great to bare, nothing will happen.

Sometimes people choose not to grow personally.  The choice is to take the easy route, bypass personal growth and simply pick up the same cycle in a new place, with new people and expect a different end result. It becomes an everlasting pursuit to find where it will get easier.

Stop searching. Start looking inside.

You have the ability to do whatever you dream of.  I know its not easy, but it will be the biggest gift you ever give yourself.

Just look inside.

Thanks for listening,

Carrie

www.cihairstudio.ca