The delusion of inner peace, the illusion of growth.
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The delusion of inner peace, the illusion of growth.
And the common ground between them.
Growth and inner peace.
Personal development and personal contentment.
A better tomorrow and a perfect today.
These things seem at odds with each other.
One is forward looking; one is rooted in the here and now.
One is the persistent itch of not enough; one is the calm of just enough.
One is where to; one is right here.
But they only seem at odds with each other because we have delusions about what inner peace is, and we have illusions about how personal growth happens.
When we are unhappy with our life for any reason, there is no inner peace to be found. Instead there’s anchors from our past, with our thoughts and beliefs always looking backward, thinking the anchor might come loose if we just stare hard enough.
The delusion of inner peace is that if we just change something, or if we could just fix something from the past, or if this one thing could just come true….then we’d have inner peace.
But that belief in and of itself is antithetical to the reality of inner peace. Inner peace, by its very nature, cannot be attached to some external event. Hence the inner component. It’s an inside job.
Inner peace is the ability to:
Accept our past as-is, full-stop
Look for the good nested within the bad
Welcome the highs and lows of life knowing the latter is what opens up space for the former
Scale your gratitude from the big stuff down to the minutiae
It’s the ability to take anything from our past, present, or imagined future and respond with Yes, and I choose to be happy right now amidst that.
Which brings us to the illusion of personal growth.
Personal growth is an illusion because to the naked eye it seems utterly oriented toward the aforementioned imagined future. And how can we be at peace with the now if our attention is oriented toward the future?
The reality that lies behind the illusion of personal growth is that this growth happens in the here and now.
It might spend a little time thinking about the future, ensuring that it’s compelling enough to work hard toward. But it doesn’t stay there long. Because The Work to be done happens in the present. Personal growth is:
Being accountable for the past
Taking responsibility for the here and now
Making our next best action toward the future
Growth and inner peace seem at odds with each other because we have false perceptions about what they are and how they happen.
But when we look close enough, we will see that they both share the same space.
This moment.
✌️ and ❤️,
Adam Griffin
Certified High Performance Coach™
👉 Forward Coaching