The 4 Styles of Personal Growth: Progression

Welcome back to my series on the 4 styles of personal growth. For those who have missed part of it, you can find the second part of the series here and the first part here.

Summing Up:

To recap, the progressionist path of personal growth is a very logical, methodical path in which a practicer will set measurable goals (such as a 30-day trial to do X) and then achieve them. A stranger, looking at the practicer's accomplishments, will be able to state with precise certainty if a progressionist has achieved their goal or not. That's how clear and precise their goals are.

I personally am a progressionist, as evident by my 30-day trials. My goals are quite measurable. Other people may have goals like 'Be more loving' 'Help more people' and 'Do better at X'. A progressionist doesn't really get that. If you can't measure your goals, what's the point? Note: there IS a point, in that it gets you moving. Just by examining the other styles, I'm able to see with their eyes.

Growth:

A progressionist's main growth efforts will generally be directed at fields with a lot of numbers. Health, productivity, and finance are examples. It's hard to make an undefinable goal in terms of finances, and very easy to make a strictly measurable one.

The fields they will have the most trouble in are fluid, subjective fields like socialising. How can you measure if you're better at socialising than you were a month ago? It can be done, but it's not easy.

Subtypes:

Progressive / Intuitive (P/I): A P/I is difficult to define: more information can be found here. To sum it up, a P/I will generally use their intuition not for setting goals, but for choosing fields. A P/I might not use their intuition to decide "I want to make $5k a month'. Rather, they would feel like they wanted to be richer, then create an exact goal, and follow through logically.

Progressive / Research (P/R): My personal style, these two go hand in hand. A P/R will take logic to it's extreme, by deciding on a goal, then finding out as much info as possible on the subject, then assimilating that information, picking an exact goal, and moving forward. This is the way a scientist would be likely to approach personal growth.

Progressive / Self-Trust (P/S): Unlike other progressives, a P/S usually doesn't follow their goals in a logical manner: rather, they will pick the goals that feel right, and use their feelings as a barometer. Of course, they'll still make exact goals. P/S's use their gut feelings as radar signals, interpreting them scientifically and adjusting course accordingly.

Shifting:

If you feel that progression isn't going to help you in your next goal, you've plumbed the depths of it, or you simply want a change, this section is for you. Personal growth is malleable, and a good growth expert will be able to call upon all paths in varying degrees of expertise. Here's what you may need to do if:

You're uncertain.

You have a goal, but you're worried about it. You know what you want to do, but you're scared of taking the next step. You want to become a Researcher temporarily. This is an easy shift: your mind should easily play along with getting lots of information. You can then make your decision as to whether to do the goal or not.

You're moving in to an unfamiliar field.

A progressionist trying to do better at socialising won't do too well. It's not measurable, and it's very difficult to know if you've made significant progress. To do well here, you'll need to move into Self-Trust. Focus on the small things in life: even the most anal of progressionists don't plan every little thing. Start moving into not planning larger areas until you're confident taking on projects with just feelings to guide you, then make the shift.

Things are shifting too fast.

You can't keep up with the rapid pace. Goals you make become obsolete in a week, and you can't analyse the changes properly. You need to move into Intuition. Under normal circumstances this shift is hard, but if you have this problem, you're halfway there. As soon as you fully accept you can't control this, and you're just along for the ride, you can let go and let your intuition guide you.

Conclusion

The progression path has it's pros and cons, but is especially strong in the more scientific areas of growth. As long as you have lots of room to grow in formulaic areas, the progressionist path will serve you well. In order to supplement this path, you should learn to trust yourself more so that you can take on less measurable challenges and grow holistically.

Until next time, may you get from A to B within X days following Route Y:)