Most of us answer this one with a plan: a book, a habit, a version of ourselves a few years from now. Then it gets asked again and the answer gets quieter. Some days it points to a discomfort, some days to a moment of relief, and sometimes to nothing you could put a date on.
How do I start growing as a person? What causes growth, and what only looks like it? Why does growth so often arrive as discomfort first? Where was I already growing before I decided to?
Think of anything that has grown in your life. Do you remember the moment it began, or only the moment you noticed? Growth seems to get credited to the day we announced it, long after something else had already moved.
I used to measure it by what I added: titles and things, assets and awards. The whole time, the things that changed me most were the ones I stopped carrying. What if growth starts less like a push and more like a release?
There's the growth that's loud and has an audience, and the kind that happens out of sight, in a conversation you let go of or a belief you stopped defending. Which one is happening in you this week?
The body tends to know before the mind does. A loosening in the chest, a breath that finally goes all the way down, a tension you only notice once it's gone. Where does it show up for you?
Some of the effort to grow comes from the assumption that something is missing. I still catch myself in it, even now. What would it be like to ask this question from the other side of that assumption?
I wrote about how growth looks when you stop counting only what you gain in How do you measure growth?, and about the version of us we keep trying to become in Nothing to become. Just be.
If this one brought something up and you feel comfortable sharing it, I'd like to hear it. Private, under your name, or anonymous, whichever feels right to you.
Drawn from Creative Space prompts and here for you to explore whenever you like. Members have access to the full Seed Bank; guests can access today's seed. To join me live in a Creative Space session, register on Luma.
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