When I’m coaching people who launch and lead organizations, we work in three broad areas: Grow Your Self. Grow Your Leadership. Grow Your Business.

So what is that first one, grow your self? That phrase might sound vague or cliché. Here’s what I think personal growth really is.

Real life continuosly confronts us with circumstances and people that we must respond to. Loss. Opportunity. Risk. Intimacy. Hostility. Freedom. Authority. Failure. Success. Change. Personal growth is an increase in our ability to respond effectively to what real life dishes out.

This means increases in both intellectual and emotional ability. It’s change in our brains that affects how we feel, how we think, how we relate to others, and how we make decisions.

It’s increase in our awareness of fear, and a change from automatically reacting to situations the way we always have, to choosing our responses based on our values and goals.

None of us are exempt from real life’s demands. I think life gives all of us a daily dose of good reasons to be interested in personal growth.