I love personal growth. I love learning about myself, setting goals, dreaming about what my life could look like and actually putting in the work to make those things happen. I love looking back at who I was a few years ago and seeing how much my mindset, confidence and life have changed.
But I don't want personal growth to take the fun out of my life.
And lately, I think this is something we need to talk about more.
There is so much content telling women how to improve. How to optimise our mornings, eat better, move more, journal every day, become financially smarter, regulate ourselves, read more, improve our appearance, build our careers and create the perfect evening routine.
Individually, none of those things are bad. I do so many of them myself.
It's when all of them start becoming requirements for being a woman who is "doing well" that I think we've lost something.
Because I don't want to spend my entire life preparing to become a better version of myself.
I want to actually live it.
When did everything become something we needed to improve?
I think social media has made it very easy to look at an ordinary part of life and find a way we could be doing it better.
A walk becomes a step goal. Food becomes something to track. Reading becomes a yearly target. Journalling becomes a streak. Our morning becomes a routine we need to perfect. Even resting can somehow become something we're supposed to do correctly.
And when you're already a working woman, that's a lot.
You have your job. Your relationships. Your home. Your finances. Appointments. Messages you forgot to reply to. Dinner to make. Things you want to achieve. People you want to spend time with.
Then somewhere amongst all of that, you're apparently supposed to find hours every day to work on yourself too.
I don't think that's what a good life is supposed to feel like.
I don't want women leaving work and feeling like they're starting their second shift: the shift where they now have to become healthier, prettier, calmer, more productive and more successful before they're allowed to go to bed.
Personal growth should add something to your life. It shouldn't consume it.
Fun is not distracting you from the woman you're becoming
Some of my favourite parts of my life are incredibly ordinary.
Playing board games with my family. Laughing over something completely stupid with people I'm close to. Cooking because I genuinely enjoy it. Going somewhere and noticing the flowers, the trees or something beautiful around me. Trying something new simply because I thought it sounded fun.
None of those things are going to appear on a habit tracker.
They aren't necessarily making me more productive.
But they make my life feel like mine.
And I think we underestimate how important that is when we talk about becoming better women.
I want to be ambitious. I want to keep learning. I want to take care of myself, build my business, achieve my goals and create a beautiful future.
But I also want to laugh.
I want ridiculous stories.
I want spontaneous plans.
I want hobbies I'm not particularly good at.
I want to change my mind, try things, explore, be curious and have experiences that don't need to contribute to some bigger goal.
That's not time away from growth.
That's a huge part of why I want to grow in the first place.
Maybe this is why small growth works so well for me
I've been intentionally working on myself for years, and I think one of the reasons I've been able to continue is because I never wanted personal growth to become my entire life.
I have systems. I journal. I reflect. I set goals. I think about the woman I want to become and the life I want to create.
But I don't need every evening scheduled around becoming her.
Sometimes I have five minutes for myself. Sometimes ten. Sometimes I have the energy and excitement to spend much longer working on something.
I let it move with my life.
That might mean spending a few minutes looking at my finances. Writing something down that I don't want sitting in my head. Learning something that interests me. Planning the next step towards a goal. Doing a short bit of movement. Or simply checking in with myself and noticing that what I actually need that day is rest.
Those little moments accumulate.
And because I'm not forcing myself through an enormous routine every day, I still have space for everything else that makes me happy.
This is what I mean when I talk about sustainable growth.
Not doing less because we don't believe we're capable of more.
Doing things in a way that allows us to keep going.
I want us to enjoy becoming
I think sometimes we're so focused on the finished version of ourselves that we forget this part is our life too.
The woman you're trying to become isn't waiting somewhere five years from now.
She's being built while you're going to work.
While you're figuring things out.
While you're changing your mind.
While you're saving slowly.
While you're learning.
While you're laughing with your friends.
While you're cooking dinner.
While you're having a terrible week and deciding to begin again.
There is so much life happening between the goals.
I want more women to enjoy that part.
Dream ridiculously big. Make the vision board. Write down what you want. Learn about money. Take care of your body. Work towards the career. Build something of your own. Become emotionally stronger. Invest in yourself.
But please have fun too.
Let your inner child come with you.
Buy the silly little thing sometimes. Play the game. Dance in your kitchen. Try the hobby. Go somewhere because you've never been there before. Spend three hours talking to someone you love and don't feel guilty because you could have been doing something "productive."
You are allowed to build your future and enjoy your present at the same time.
The life is the point
This is a huge part of why I created Wellness Glow Club.
I don't want to create another space where women come and leave with twenty more things they should be doing.
I want us to dream, reflect, learn, take action and keep becoming incredible women. I want us to have systems that help us come back to ourselves and make our goals possible around working life.
But I also want us to actually enjoy being alive while we're doing it.
Because the goal isn't to spend your whole life perfectly preparing for some future version of yourself who finally has everything together.
There will always be something else you could improve.
Another goal.
Another lesson.
Another version of you waiting to be discovered.
That's beautiful.
But so is the life you're living right now.
Maybe sustainable personal growth isn't about becoming more disciplined at everything.
Maybe it's about creating a way of growing that you genuinely enjoy enough to continue for the rest of your life.
That's what I want for myself.
And that's what I want Wellness Glow Club to give more women too.
Keep growing. Keep dreaming. Keep building. But please don't forget to have fun becoming her.
0 comments