GROWTH ENVIRONMENT MASTERY
To create your own growth, you must master your environment first.
Internal Growth Environment
Your internal growth environment is how you think, reason, and view yourself and the world around you. This includes your self-talk which is influenced by your external environment.
We explored your external growth environment first because of its impact on your internal growth environment. Your internal growth environment is strongly influenced by your external surroundings—what you've heard, seen, and experienced until now.
It is essential to recognize that if your external growth environment isn't conducive to growth, you can leverage your internal growth environment to counterbalance that, preventing complacency or stagnation in your overall development.
You should have already completed 24 of the core durable skills courses, including the foundational aspects of self-awareness, self-appreciation, and self-acceptance. So we’ll take this lesson to highlight some key concepts that will continue to improve your internal growth environment.
We can either see ourselves through other people's eyes or through our own. We can allow the world to shape our view of ourselves, or we can actively shape how we see ourselves. What are you doing?
In either case, the choice is ours: a lens that may be distorted by external influences or one that we consciously work on defining and refining.
For a positive internal growth environment, it's crucial to be able to separate who we are from the negative influences or circumstances surrounding us.
Two lenses, one you.
Building foundational traits.
As mentioned, your journey to self-growth and improvement starts with self-awareness. Without this first trait, it will be nearly impossible to see a need to improve. You need to take a good, honest look at yourself. To do this, it's helpful to engage in self-reflection and observation.
Next, self-appreciation allows you to see all the good that you are and do. It enables you to feel good about yourself and your potential.
Finally, self-acceptance allows you to admit to yourself that, along with all your strengths, you also have weaknesses or areas where you can improve. Combined, these three traits give you the confidence to work on your weaknesses or areas of improvement.
Do you have a balanced view of yourself? If not, how can you improve?
What you tell yourself: Self-talk and tail-enders.
When you talk to yourself, does your language mirror the mindset and attitude of the people and situations around you? If you are in a negative situation with critical people, do you find yourself thinking the same negative thoughts about yourself? If so, your external environment could be poisoning your internal growth environment. You may need to revisit and work on the three foundational durable skills.
If it's not immediately clear, you can often determine if you have positive or negative self-talk by paying attention to your 'tail-enders.' Tail-enders are the thoughts that follow statements made about you.
Below are several statements: three are negative, and four are positive. Pay attention to what you tell yourself mentally after reading each statement. Can you readily agree, or does your mind put up a fight?
You can either accept and reflect others' opinions about you or create your own perspective, or lens, seeing in yourself all that you are and can become. Here is the difference:
Reflection: What occurs.
An individual in a social situation imagines how they appear to others.
That individual imagines or hears others' judgments of that appearance.
The individual develops feelings about and responds to those perceived judgments, accepting that those perceived judgments are true and begins to reflect them.
Lens: What occurs.
An individual in a social situation is self-confident and doesn't worry about how they appear to others.
With healthy self-esteem, that individual does not imagine or look for judgment from others.
Even if there is judgment or criticism, that individual does not develop feelings about or respond to those perceived judgments. They see themselves as they are with strengths and weaknesses and accept them both.
Looking at yourself as if through a magnifying glass may seem negative. However when it comes to self-perception, it's beneficial. Using metacognition is similar to using a looking glass to view yourself. Metacognition allows you to see every detail of who you are, both positive and negative, strengths and weaknesses. This up-close view helps you understand your true potential more realistically.
Looking Glass or Mirror
Self-perception: See potential.
Take a moment to review how you view yourself, and how you feel about yourself. Try the following exercises:
1) Write a paragraph as if you were describing yourself to someone you've never met, or describe yourself as if you were introducing a character in a book. Ask a friend or relative to read your description and see if they agree.
2) Choose three famous people who you identify with or feel you are similar to.
Metacognitive Goal
For this lesson and the next few days, we want you to become very aware of your resilience when facing setbacks or obstacles. Recall and write about times you bounced back after a difficult situation or scenario.
Can you stay positive and push forward even when faced with adversity? Write about your most significant failure or mistake and how you handled it.
“Life is very interesting…in the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.”
- Drew Barrymore