11 ways to strangle personal growth

Personal growth compounds. It builds over time from an ever increasing base.

Here are 11 things that slows growth or chips away at the base:

  1. Stop being curious.
  2. Stop seeking out mentors and advice.
  3. Drugs, excessive alcohol and other bad habits.
  4. Social media and other distractions.
  5. Netflix and late nights.
  6. Overcommitting time and energy to something that clearly isn’t working.
  7. Stop exercising.
  8. Push away your partners, friends and the people that help keep you accountable.
  9. Think dreams are equal to goals.
  10. Become overconfident or insecure in what you’re doing.
  11. Stop reading.

At Thermopylae in 480 B.C., the Persian king Xerxes, at the head of an army of 2 million men, demanded of the Spartan king Leonidas that he and his 4000 defenders lay down their arms. Leonidas responded in two words: “Molon labe.”

“Come and take them.”

~ Steven Pressfield, The Warrior Ethos