Grow or Evolve?

“I don’t just want to grow – I want to evolve”

When I think of my responses in the past to the common question of “what are your goals?” one answer that would always be on the top of my list (and lots of other people’s lists!), was to grow. Grow in my career, grow as a person, grow in my relationships.

To be honest I don’t know if I always knew exactly what that meant. I suppose for me, it was just another way of saying I wanted to be better than I am now. And to be completely honest, sometimes I was just giving the answer I thought people wanted to hear.

Don’t get me wrong, growth is a positive thing, it’s ambitious, and people should want to grow. At the same time, growth has somewhat of a limitation, an end goal of sorts. Can you really continuously grow, or at some point do we stop growing?

It took me a while to realize that I don’t just want to grow. I want to be stretched, I want to change, I want to develop, I want to adapt. In short – I want to evolve. People can “grow” quickly given what life brings our way. Sometimes it is challenging, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes we are ready for it, and sometimes we really are not!

But Evolving? That takes time no matter what. That’s the real challenge. It’s going to prepare me for whatever comes my way. And until then? I’ll at least have a compelling answer next time someone asks my what my goals are 😊