Personal Growth Requires Discipline & Sacrifice

Personal Growth Requires Discipline & Sacrifice

Reflecting back on a conversation I had as a young girl with my father who rightly argued that change was innevitable, I began to realise how a father’s wisdom is essential for a growing impressionable young girl.

Our conversation at the time was about accepting change. He urged, “You need to welcome change. Making change requires letting go of the old to take hold of the new.”  With that talk, I understood how sacrifices have to be made in order to experience change and growth.

Driving Change With Discipline

The immeasurable added benefit of making changes and sacrifices with discipline in our lives, is witnessing the positive effects personal growth has on our relationships, how we see God, how we see the world and how we see others and on how we interact with people.

The significant transformations I’ve had in my life didn’t just appear out of the blue. I had to be proactively seeking change and trust God for those times requiring a leap of faith, despite my tears and fears. Failure also had to be accepted as part of the learning experience.

Focus – There’s truth in that our mind travels in the direction we focus on. My mind gravitates to the things I’m passionate about. That’s where I find my genius. That’s where I have to focus on ‘Attention Management’ as Paul Scanlon calls it. Managing what we give our attention to is crucial if we don’t want to be wasting valuable time on things of lesser importance. Putting aside those things that don’t add value to our lives also takes discipline.

Doing what we’re good at and passionate about allows us to become more creative, enabling us to experience joy and fulfilment in life. That’s the way we’re hardwired. But being creative can become boring if we stop learning.

Do something new – Personal Growth can happen when we take on a new hobby, start a new career, reading a book, making changes to the way we normally do things and by letting go of our old habits.

Courage – There’s a level of courage to take hold of during the painful pruning process as we are probably facing being stretched beyond our perceived limitations to face personal fears. We need to step out of our comfort zones to meet these challenges head on. It takes grit, trust, being honest with ourselves and willingness to live in the present. We also need to be brave enough to make personal sacrifices.

For our spiritual walk we are required to take off the old to put on the new. Ephesians 4:22-24

Trust (faith) – is an essential ingredient required to bring about a change of heart. Transformation from ignorance to knowlege takes place when we take onboard new truths. The bible says to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12:2

Adapting To Change

Adapting change requires that we connect and communicate with others, maintain a positive atttude, be creative, learn new skills, recognise that change is constant and innevitable, ask questions and that we self reflect regularly.

An example from a senior citizen – After retirement, my father learned the fine art of making earrings. He’s really passionate about it. The sight of a now 83 year old man with his hands under a lamp or magnifying glass twisting and turning a pair of pointy nosed pliers, beads and findings, is truly inspirational. He’s totally committed and has effectively created for himself a social outlet to beat his own retirement boredom by producing batches of handmade earrings to sell at local markets.

Sandra Ciminelli
Dip.Couns.(Christian)

Sources

Paul Scanlon – Communication Masterclass
Bible Hub
BIble Gateway

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