Taking the Work Out of Personal Growth: Why Perfect is Often Preceded by Sucky

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Jordanna Eyre, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

I returned home this Monday from a perfect weekend in the desert with friends. It was one of those weekends where I allowed myself to put all “work” on personal growth aside, in order to just experience the bliss found in how I’ve already grown; to play full on in the amazing life I’ve created for myself (and yes, been blessed with). And yet, upon my return, I immediately felt sick. I got a sore throat, found myself with an injury in my ankle preventing me from running or walking without a limp, I felt chills, a headache, and was all out exhausted. I had simply played too much, and my body fell down in despair from the overwhelm I had put upon it by lack of sleep and full on do-what-I-wanted playtime for three days straight. And I fell into sadness and despair. I knew I needed to work, to get back into action on offering my gifts to the world, on doing the personal growth work that I rely upon to feel completely whole. And yet, I was down for the count for a full day and a half, complete with rest, recuperation, and absolutely nothing else. It was, in my mind, well, sucky. Yeah, that’s a clinical term, in case you were wondering.

But by allowing myself to sink into that day and a half of emptiness, in order to fill back up – by fully allowing myself to be there, to trust in it, out of the sucky, came the perfect. That’s one of the beauties of personal growth. Just having the intention to be one who’s always growing, you find a way to grow oftentimes without the “push” of working too hard at it. In this case, simply by giving in to the time to recuperate and heal, I was able to come out of it with rejuvenation, motivation, a sense of clarity, inspired action, and a kick-butt-live-the-best-life-ever-ness that allowed me to not only experience perfect, but further create my life as perfect.

As my life coaching clients have heard me say a thousand times before, you have to clean out your closets in order to know what still fits. I actually thank an old energy worker of mine for that quote – for reminding me every time things got sucky, that some imminent personal growth and transformation was on its way. And that’s the truth of sucky. If we open up to its possibilities it will usually be followed up by a bout of perfection; one of those stints in life where everything around you appears to be happening exactly as it should, helping you to see the awesomeness, and experience true happiness in your life and the world around you. Personal growth doesn’t always have to be work at all. Sometimes it’s just a matter of letting go and playing full-on. Can I get a “WHEEEEEEE”!?