Growth

 

Obviously, human beings grow from infancy to adulthood then to becoming senior citizens then death...  but, there is lots of growth that we do in-between.

• birth
• infancy
• adolescence
• teenager
• young adult
• adult
• middle aged adult
• senior citizen
• retired
• death

Our Lives has also been classified this way:

• birth
• unconsciously perfect
• unconsciously imperfect
• consciously imperfect
• consciously perfect
• death

To me, classifications of life do not interest me, what interests me is the evolution of our growth.

As a baby/child, our growth is limited basically learning from our parents or learning from our own actions.

do then feedback

That is to say, we touch the stove and realize it is hot and immediately feel the pain on fingers.

As we get older, we growth from learning by:

• reading
• listening
• watching
• writing
• feeling 
• tasting

But the real growth does not come until we realize that we can TEACH OURSELVES TO GROW.  That growth can take us in a variety of directions depending upon how curious we are.

As we reach a certain age, either a few years before or after retirement, we understand (as we look back) that a substantial part of our growth came from EXPERIENCE.

These experiences can be both good and bad like putting our fingers on the stove when it was hot or experiencing the love of a dog as it licks our face.

It is said or believed that wisdom comes to us as the final stage of our growth when we realize that life was really about how we lived, not what we accomplished or how much money we earned to leave behind or our legacy.

Our growth is learning how to live and how to adapt to the life we are living.  

With wisdom you understand if you lived your life well or did not, depending upon how one defines "well".

If you end up being the wealthiest man in the world and discover (admit to yourself) that you are unhappy, then one might conclude you did not live your life well, despite your accomplishment.

How will your life GROW?