Public Safety Insights Newsletter: 3 Techniques for Enabling Personal and Professional Growth

3 Techniques for Enabling Personal and Professional Growth
Public Safety Insight:	De-cluttering your life creates the space necessary for personal and professional growth.

Personal and professional growth requires us to go outside our comfort zones. Yet many people can’t begin to test their boundaries because their lives are filled with time-consuming "stuff." Here are three techniques that can help create the space necessary for your growth by de-cluttering your life.

Technique #1: Reflect on this statement: "Sometimes we need to let go of the good things in life to make room for the great things."
     
Though I don’t know who originally made this statement, a colleague shared it with me years ago when I was considering a career change. Hesitant to move forward into the uncertainty of starting my own business, I was clinging to the security of my tenured university professor position because I truly enjoyed teaching, even though I knew it was time for me to move on. This advice helped me to make that transition, and since then, to make positive changes in other aspects of my life.

Try it: Imagine what great things might be in store for you once you make the space for them! Even when you’re not sure what they are, release one "good thing" and see what happens.

Technique #2: Ask yourself this question: "Does this [person, belief, activity, assumption, thing] still serve me well?" If the answer is "No," release it.
     
Consciously or not, most human beings are collectors – of people, beliefs, assumptions, material goods. We tend to accumulate more and more "stuff" without periodically questioning whether we still want or need it. Our lives become unnecessarily cluttered. No wonder we feel overburdened!

Try it: Ask yourself the above question, inserting one word or name at a time. Answer truthfully. Repeat often. When the answer is "No," release whatever or whomever no longer serves you well.

Technique #3: Ask yourself this question: "Am I the only person in the world who can do this [task at hand]?" If the answer is "No," delegate it!
     
There are many reasons why we tend to do things ourselves rather than delegate them. Sometimes it’s force of habit, or a means of procrastination. Sometimes we believe (falsely) that no one could do the task better or faster than we can. The list of excuses stretches on while we wonder why we don’t have any time to do the things we care about.

Try it: If you have trouble delegating tasks, change your mindset. Think of delegating as an opportunity to let others shine. For every task you don’t like, or aren’t that good at, or aren’t interested in, there are people who would jump at the chance to do it. Why not let them engage their interests, skills, talents, or abilities? You would be doing yourself and them a huge favor.

When we choose to stick with what we know, take on more than is necessary, and/or hold onto people or things that no longer serve us well, our growth is stunted and our quality of life suffers. Try any one of these three techniques today. You will discover that de-cluttering your life enhances its quality tremendously by enabling your personal and professional growth.

Best wishes for a year filled with great things!

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To find other articles and resources that may be of value to you, I invite you to visit my web site at www.PublicSafetyInsights.net.

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©2015 Pat Lynch | Public Safety Insights