We all need to grow. Growing is as necessary as breathing, it’s part of humankind’s DNA. We’re hard-wired to be curious and to always be hungry for more.

But it isn’t only your aspirations or goals that count. It’s the action of striving to reach them that lies at the heart of the process of growing. This is where the excitement lies – the juice of life. That’s because the action of striving is a creative, challenging activity.

When you’re growing you’re full of energy. Ideas flow effortlessly. You glide effortlessly from one accomplishment to the next, but when you stop growing your life begins to diminish. You become stale and dull. Worse, you begin to lose your courage and fail to see the new possibilities.

How do you know if you’ve stopped growing?

• Are you unable to make allowances for ideas and opinions that are not yours?

• Are you always being judgmental, critical, intolerant and suspicious of others?

• Are you simply going through the motions?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve stopped.

Many of us, at one time or another grapple with issues relating to personal growth. The fact that you’re reading this now suggests that you might be in the midst of a growing period, seeking answers, looking for insight – trying to figure out what to do next.

On the road to change, the real question isn’t what to do next, it’s whom do you want to be – and if you’ve stopped, how to get growing again.