All growth is on the other side of incompetence.

This means that the enemy of growth is an unwillingness to embrace incompetence.

In order to do something you can’t currently do – like speak French, bench press 150 pounds, or make it through the day without feeling overwhelmed – you will have to enact behaviors you aren’t currently capable of doing well.

In my experience, the people who do this best are at the early stages of their careers…and at the late stages of their careers.

When people are starting out, they are hungry and recognize they have a lot to learn. They are squarely on offense, excited to grow.

Later, once they’ve developed some competence, they often take on a defensive posture, eschewing growth in favor of proving how smart they already are. Appearing incompetent is dangerous and change is the enemy of the known.

Much later, once they feel they have a lot less to prove, they recognize how little they really know. This makes them hungry again – at a point when they are completely unbothered by embracing incompetence – so they resume an offensive posture of growth.

I call this the Inverted Bell Curve of Personal Growth.

Where do you see yourself on this curve? Where would you like to see yourself?

The great news is that the Inverted Bell Curve of Personal Growth is a trend, not a law.

You can choose to embrace temporary  incompetence and accelerate your growth at any time.

Prioritizing your growth might look like going back to school, or it might look like finding someone on YouTube who is a little further down the road than you. It could look like reading a book, or enrolling in an  online course. It could look like joining a mastermind, or finding a coach.

The biggest prerequisite for growth is not in identifying the most complex and costly option, it is in becoming humble, hungry, and fully willing to not be good at something for a little while.

OPPORTUNITY FOR ACTION: Identify an arena in which you’d like to grow – like time management, delegation, employee management, industry knowledge, etc. – and spend 5 minutes this week researching learning opportunities.  

It’s time to swap stress and overwhelm for calm, focused, and effective days. My signature Mastermind will help you to clarify your goals, identify your priorities, and invest your time, energy, and focus strategically so that you can accomplish more with less effort. Join the wait list today!