“One of the best ways to grow is to find and commit to an authentic expressive outlet.
Writing, podcasting, content creation, etc.
You compound the value if you do it publicly, too.
Nothing drives awareness and the introspective process like putting yourself out there.”
-Ray Zingler on X
“Personal Growth”.
“Personal Development”.
10 years ago (when these were hot buzzwords) I used to sit in a coffeeshop in downtown Woodstock, Georgia several hours before dawn and read, daily, endless articles on personal growth and development.
I’d sip the Copper Coin (RIP) coffee and scour endless articles from Inc, Entrepreneur, Forbes and other media outlets.
Was it the most effective use of my time? Maybe not.
But I didn’t have kids and I was up 4 hours before the world was, so it didn’t cost me too much.
The main gist I learned during my “personal development” time was very simple.
“Build quality habits. Repeat quality habits.”
I could have saved myself 100s of hours reading articles like, “The Morning Routine of These 10 Billionaires” and “Top 5 Sales Secrets” if I’d just listen to the wisdom of my dad, but when you’re in your early 20s, working 80 hours a week on entrepreneurship (solopreneuership) there aint a damn person on earth, especially one close to you that can “tell you how it is”. Life lessons, right?
As much as I’d read the latest articles on personal growth and development, I didn’t start personally growing and developing until I, you know, actually started doing it.
I and I think many people had/have an infatuation with reading (consuming), but if I’ve learned anything it’s not how many books or articles you can read, it’s what you do with the knowledge gained that yields the value. Novel concept, huh!?
This is when my writing journey began.
I’d always loved writing as a kid (thanks, English teacher mom) but I’d never put any real time into it outside of “what I had to do for school.”
But I decided that I was going to use writing as my expressive outlet.
This was going to be my tangible means of personal growth.
Rip it. Put myself out there, unapologetically. Learn who I am and who I want to be. Introspectively assess myself. Improve. Repeat forever.
Is that the best formula? Hell I don’t know, but I’ve grown exponentially in all phases of my life once I started doing it.
Find your outlet. Put yourself out there, fearlessly. You’ll get better.
Most importantly, you’ll grow in the process.
