Personal growth - A personal journey

This week, I thought, let me do something different. Here it is, a personal experience penned down by one of our LifeLine councellors and smile-gurus. If you've ever wondered about what it would be like to do the LifeLine Pretoria Personal Growth course, these 527 words were written especially for you.

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"Currently we are halfway through yet another personal growth course. I love facilitating this course for two reasons – firstly because it reminds me that personal growth is an ongoing, never-ending process and, secondly, because it always leaves me inspired to see how brave people are.

I often fondly look back at when I did the course. I arrived that Saturday morning with the (very arrogant) mind-set that I have everything under control and that there are very little areas in my life that needs growth. That same day I was confronted with the truth that I am not even part of my own life. I had to face the fact that I live my life on the surface and that anything deeper than that simply doesn’t exist. During the week that followed I strongly considered withdrawing from the course, but I didn’t want to waste the money I paid for the course (being true to my number-crunching-self). I don’t recall the exact moment of my mind shift, but in that same week I asked myself if it would really be so terrible if I go beneath the surface of my emotions. I decided to go back the next Saturday and give everything in the course, to take the leap of faith and see where I end up. As I’m writing this today, I can honestly say that that was the best decision I could ever make. I don’t want to give away anything, because I want to encourage you to come and experience the course for yourself. However, I can tell you that the course taught me to be emotionally brave and there are very little tools more powerful than emotional bravery. I never want to stop growing and often remind myself that real growth takes place outside my comfort zone.

I am sure that you can relate to being knocked down in life. The men and women who attend the personal growth course relate to it very well. What makes them brave is the fact that each of them are (to some degree) choosing good over bad. You can see the ‘warrior’ in their eyes – refusing to give up on life, especially the good that life has to offer. With every lecture and every exercise I can see how they are gaining emotional ground, I can see the hope flair up in their hearts as they have the one emotional victory after another. I am fascinated to see how the victories differ for each person and it is wonderful to observe (and be reminded) that all people are different, that all people have different processes and different realities.

It was very liberating for me to realise that there will always be something new to learn and to let go of my “I-know-it-all” mind-set. My greatest resource is interacting with other people – it gives me new/different perspectives, it teaches me to be open-minded and it teaches me to be accepting of others and their realities. My wish for you is that you will always choose bravery over fear.

If you want to know more about our personal growth course, give us a call on 012 804 1853."