Conscious Effort
Hay Daizee Loves,
Have you noticed that you once thought or see that a lot of people still think that growing just naturally happens. Okay, yeah physically you do just grow. However, maturing and developing mentally and emotionally… does not just happen. It does not work like that. You do not wake up one day instantly mature. Growing is a CHOICE and it requires a CONSCIOUS EFFORT.
Let’s break it down.
Conscious (adjective): AWARE of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.; AWARE of what one is doing; deliberate; intentional
Aware (adjective): having knowledge; informed; ALERT
Effort (noun): exertion of PHYSICAL or MENTAL effort
It requires a conscious effort to come into the realization that you should be growing
We won’t grow if we are not AWARE of the fact that we need to. To come into this realization, we must take the time to do some self-reflecting. Self-reflection is the meditation or serious thoughts about one’s character, actions, and motives. I can’t speak for y’ all but this is not always the most pleasant experience. Being honest with myself is not always easy. Who wants to admit that that they have character flaws they need to work on? Who wants to admit that they are the reason certain things did not work out? Who wants to admit that their actions are childish, evil, or purposeless? Here is a KICKER. Who wants to admit that they have unhealthy or superficial motives or motives that stem from hatred or jealously? It may be tough, but we need to be fully AWARE of ourselves and what we have going on inside of us. We need to know where our existence starts and where our foundational values come from. We need to be fully AWARE of our thoughts, attitudes, and behavior and how they are positively or negatively affecting our lives.
It requires a conscious effort to be in places and around people that are conducive to your growth.
If it is not helping us grow, it is holding us back. Taking the time to evaluate our surroundings and being willing to make the necessary changes requires a conscious effort. This is a major key. Just think about it. If I were physically planting a daisy, I would not put it just anywhere. I would place it in an area where the conditions were conducive to its growth. I would not plant it in the middle of nutrient sucking weeds and if some weeds tried to thrive beside it… I would remove them. The same thing applies here. We must be aware of our surroundings. We need be knowledgeable of the things we need to help facilitate growth and the things that hinder it. Once we know the difference between the two, we must remove everything and everyone that is not helping or inspiring us to grow. We have to continuously place ourselves in positions and around people that will help us grow.
It requires a conscious effort to not just go through your experiences but to GROW through them.
Learning is one thing but making the conscious effort to apply what you have learned is another. We have to make the conscious effort to GROW through our experiences, not simply go through them. I have realized that you can go through all kinds of things and still have the exact same mindset you had before you went through it. We need to be aware of what happened, how it happened, why it happened and the part we played in it. We have to figure out what thinking process and attitudes led us to that experience. We need to take all that we learn from our experiences (good & bad) and then make the conscious effort to APPLY the new knowledge we gained during the experience.
It requires a conscious effort to learn from the experiences of others’
I can’t stress enough how important it is for us to be aware of our surroundings. Pay attention! We can miss out on a lot of learning opportunities simply by not paying attention. For example, I have always been the type to learn from other people’s experiences. When I witness someone go through something that I would rather not have to deal with, I have to make a conscious effort to avoid it. I am fully AWARE of my thoughts towards their situation. I know that I have to think different and move in a different way than them. I need to be AWARE of the actions and decisions that got them in that predicament. I need be AWARE of that individual’s thought process and attitudes. I have to make a conscious effort to not do what they were doing, and vice versa. If I see someone experience something that I want to experience, I still need to pay attention to their mindset and attitudes. In that case, they have inspired me, and I need to adopt some of their ways. You get what I am saying?
It all comes down to awareness and effort. I could write an entire blog post about each of these separately and I probably will, but I wanted to keep this one short.
These are just things I am learning myself and trying to apply in my life. I love y’ all and promise to keep sharing!
Love ALWAYS, Megan