The other day I read a line in a book that said “personal growth is an organic process”. This really hit me.

I have many goals, probably too many, and when I don’t achieve them quickly I become discouraged. There are things that I want to do that I’m not yet doing and this bothers me. At the beginning of the year I decided that I wanted to include strength training in my workout schedule. I really don’t like it, so January went by and I didn’t hire a personal trainer, and then February still nothing. It makes me feel like I’m failing when I don’t make a change immediately. I think what I need to be aware of is, that if I don’t reach a goal in the time that I had planned I just need to keep trying, I can’t lose sight of it. I can’t give up on it just because it didn’t happen when I thought it would. For this goal I’m happy to report that I have hired a trainer and I started with her yesterday. It was a great session, even though I still don’t like it… and I can’t go from standing to sitting in less than 2 minutes… ouch!

Reading the line that growth is organic was an AHA moment for me. I am making progress on all of my goals but some things are taking longer to change than others. And as my Aunt Janet used to say “And that’s ok”. So I am going to stop being so hard on myself that all of my goals are not achieved, that I don’t get up at 5am every morning, that all of my house renovations aren’t yet complete. I know that I will get there. I know that my goals will be achieved. Maybe I just haven’t grown enough yet to make them happen when I had originally planned.

The funny thing is, I track my accomplishments every week. I write down 5-10 things that I have done that week that I am proud of. Finally hiring the personal trainer, pushing myself to get out of bed this morning to go to the pool – despite the loud voice in my head telling me to turn the alarm off, making the appointment with the kitchen designer. Every week I track the small steps that I take. The intention of this is to see the progress that I’ve made, yet I still give myself a hard time that the change is not happening quickly. But that’s not how it works. This sentence is so true. It is an organic process and the change, the growth, will happen in due time.

Now, here’s the tricky part… the organic process can’t be confused with just sitting around and hoping things will happen one day. It’s not an excuse. I still need to work at achieving my goals, at making changes. The point is, all action is good and while it may not seem as though I am where I think I should be, I am getting there!

Action is the foundational key to all success ~ Pablo Picasso