Dr. Mardy Grothe, in a weekly email, recently provided some GREAT thoughts from Gail Sheehy on the subject of personal growth.
Gail Sheehy is the author of Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, which was on the New York Times best seller list for three years! The Library of Congress said this is one of the ten most important books in modern times!
Here are some of her thoughts. Every one is inspiring and instructive. I would suggest some reflection on each one.
We are not unlike a particularly hardy crustacean...
With each passage from one stage of human growth to the next
we too, must shed a protective structure.
We are left exposed and vulnerable - but also yeasty and embryonic again,
capable of stretching in ways we hadn't known before.
The delights of self-discovery are always available.
Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.
To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.
Every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.
It is a paradox that as we reach our prime, we also see there is a place where it is finished.
No sooner do we think we have assembled a comfortable life than we find a piece of ourselves that has no place to fit in.
The source of continuing aliveness was to find your passion and pursue it, with whole heart and single mind.
If we don't change, we don't grow.
If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
It may mean a giving up of familiar but limited patterns,
safe, but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in,
relationships that have lost their meaning.
Every one of these thoughts is moving and stirring of thoughts and affections within me. They spur me on to growth, to never ceasing to live and to enjoy every drop of glory God has downloaded in to our wonderful world.
My prayer for you is that the New Year is bursting with growth and life.
My prayer for you is that you will not fear the change, the challenge, the testing, the risks needed for this kind of growth.
My prayer for you is that in 2010 you will more clearly discern your passion, God's calling and then pureue it with great energy.
My prayer is for awakening, expanding, deepening, ripening for our lives.
Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com
