As I sit and reflect on today I can’t help but think about how grateful I am for having the opportunity, ability and capacity to learn and grow. I am aware that not everyone has had the same opportunities as me, I am very fortunate and privileged to have the upbringing, friends, family, education, and experiences that I have had over my life. These have helped shape me, form my values and philosophy on life, and provided me the skills to continue to learn and grow. These are things that I know can be taken for granted.
The ability to read.
I am grateful for the ability to read and comprehend information. As I reflect over my life this ability has been fundamental in me being able grow and develop in my skills, knowledge, understanding, and practise. I am currently reading two books, both on different aspects of development and growth with one being on Grit while the other on working with boys in their teenaged years and helping support them to grow into good men through rites of passage. If I couldn’t read, I would not be able to integrate this practise into my day and would therefore my growth would be inhibited. I would not be the only person who lost in this situation as whatever I read I try to reflect and practise until a habit is formed in my life – those in my spheres of influence who I interact with everyday would therefore also be inhibited in their growth as I wouldn’t have as much to offer.
People and mentors.
The interaction with significant other people in my has directly influenced my ability to learn and grow. I believe that the saying the a man is not meant to be an island is completely true – we learn and are influenced by the people that we associate and live life with: “”as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. It is important to note that this can be either positive or negative depending on who the people are which is why surrounding yourself with people who will lift you up, challenge you to be all you can be, celebrating the good times, calling out poor behaviours, and supporting in the heartaches of life is so important. It also means to be careful about who you allow to speak into your life and have those places of importance – not everyone’s opinion or feedback actually matters, there is a responsibility to “guard your heart for it is the well-spring of life”. I am thankful for the people who do this for me in my life, it isn’t something that I have said to them often enough but definitely an area I have been working improving indecent times.
Education.
My love for learning and wanting to grow has been born out of the education experiences I was provided as child. I went to a good school, had great teachers (I didn’t agree with all of them), was connected to good friends and had a family that set high expectations of excellence in terms of being the best that you can be which is different to needing to be the best. I believe that these set me up to be a lover of learning and has helped motivate me to continue to grow.
